What did you do rocket wise today?

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spent the afternoon on lawn tractor converting 87 octane gas to Skyangle chute $ spent this week in yard sale section , reloaded ready for more
 
Are you vacuum bagging the layup?

I got lazy and decided to just weight these. The last pic shows a gallon ziploc with about 12 lbs of lead shot in it. I had already cut everything for bagging, so I just used those materials.

The third side layup is on now. Should be able to brush on a thin layer for sanding this evening.

Also, got some magnetic switches and another RRC3 ordered for this rocket. I'm getting optimistic on having it ready for Airfest. Flight will be on the highest Ns load Scott has at the field for the 38-1200 if I can get it ready.
 
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Started soldering another Wifi switch for my Ultimate darkstar. Won't be taking a ladder to Airfest, everything over 6 ft. up will be turned on with my iPhone.
Built a 3 grain 54mm EX motor with Sharon, our first in several months.
Emailed Cerving about using Lipo's for altimeters that are limited to 5 amps. He suggested I use a 1 ohm 10 watt current limiting resistor. Has anyone else done this?
 
Hosted two Cub Scout packs and families at our monthly club launch. 124 flights in about three hours and lots of smiles. I accounted for one of those 124 flights - an Alpha in this 50th year of the Alpha.
 
Still trying for my first successful gap staging. Everything went perfect today until the sustainer motor CATO'd. The rocket gods just were not with me today :mad:
 
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Maiden flight tests for my JLCR in my Estes V2 - decided to use the extra room in the 66mm tube to get my workflow sorted.

Two launches - first one the JLCR was set for 90m but the flight just only made it to 99m so it was hard to see the JLCR in full action.

ImageUploadedByRocketry Forum1502715823.779489.jpg

Second flight, I totally forgot to hit record on the altimeter3 (I was running out of daylight) but had the JLCR set to open at 30m.

As far as I can tell without altimeter data, and from the look of the high speed video filmed by my 7yo, it operated perfectly!
 
Gave away RTF launch sets to two families with 10-year-old daughters. (Hey! Ya want women in the hobby? Ya gotta grow 'em from girls.)
 
Sanded down the t2t (after a brush coat of laminating epoxy), then brushed on a super thin gloss coat. This will spend tomorrow in the back of my car in the TX sun which should cure it to the point it can be wet sanded with 1000 grit tomorrow night. After that, a layer of clear coat and polishing will be all the finish needed.

The electronics bay, nosecone bay, and altimeter sled are all done, so the only thing structural left to do is drill and tap the shear pin holes. Ground testing needs to be done too.

Today's major sanding (2 hours worth) was the last of the big hurdles, so I'm pretty confident about my Airfest goal now, well, getting it ready to fly anyway.

Tonight after epoxy coat.

[
 
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Sanded down the t2t (after a brush coat of laminating epoxy), then brushed on a super thin gloss coat. This will spend tomorrow in the back of my car in the TX sun which should cure it to the point it can be wet sanded with 1000 grit tomorrow night. After that, a layer of clear coat and polishing will be all the finish needed.

The electronics bay, nosecone bay, and altimeter sled are all done, so the only thing structural left to do is drill and tap the shear pin holes. Ground testing needs to be done too.

Today's major sanding (2 hours worth) was the last of the big hurdles, so I'm pretty confident about my Airfest goal now, well, getting it ready to fly anyway.

Tonight after epoxy coat.

[

Looks awesome Chris
 
Among other things tonight, I have built and printed some custom decals, including the one for my Two Stage, now named "Blu Fyr", a custom one for my Odd'l Rockets "Break Away Clone" (complete with attribution!) and a custom unicorn for my 7yo step daughter's scratch built 18mm MD (she painted it baby pink and metallic baby blue)...

Decal sheets are expensive, so no space to be wasted, I sourced a bunch of super car badges and logos for our three boys... (6, 8 and 12yo)

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Finish off the 1/4 scale PML Patriot, half-way through a Prowler for my 7 year old daughter. That is definitely a PINK rocket. My workshop area practically glows.
 
Changed over a Formula 75 from motor deploy to dual deploy with a cable cutter and a Quantum. Added a pocket for the drogue, which is a 70" Topflight streamer, and a short shock cord for the cable cutter/burrito. Did some ejection charge tests using my iPhone and the Quantum, couldn't get any easier than that.
Yesterday I built two Eggtimer Wifi switches and installed them in the avbay of my Ultimate Darkstar. I really hate using ladders to arm altimeters, so this modification is a real treat. Today I finished wiring them to an RRC3 and an SLCF. Took me a bit to figure out the continuity circuits that let you check e-matches, but it's a great feature to have on your phone.
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I ordered a couple Formula 38s for my twins' first kid-power rockets. If all goes well, they'll have them built & flown before their 6th birthday.
 
Finished my 50th anniversary Alpha. My hope was to take it to a special event at the Museum of Flight and get it signed by the designer, but it now looks like I'll be working that weekend. Bummer.

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Ohmed out eight e-matches and soldered two each of them in series for ejection charges in my Ultimate Darkstar. I'm taking the easy way to reduce the chance of melting an altimeter with my 800 mAh, 2s, 20c Lipo's. Re-checked resistance and came up with just over 2 ohms. Hooked them up to the TB's and cycled the altimeters and got three beeps on both systems. The Wifi switches showed good volts and continuity on all circuits too. Unplugged the Lipo's and reinstalled the avbay into the payload tube, then repacked the new Skyangle XL I got from Justin into a 24" nomex pad. I like the black and orange colors, goes well with my black and red rocket.

Wow that looks cool Wayco.

Post some video of that Ultimate flight !

Kenny

I will if someone gets a good one that I can copy, otherwise, I will be busy tracking it to 13,000 ft. and back
 
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Lots of rocket activity today prepping for Airfest ( lot of fun)

- checked my sons Madcow mini AGM-33 he will fly on a G80

- signed him up to TRA he wants to be in the mentor program

- final prepped the 54MD

ImageUploadedByRocketry Forum1503001782.197967.jpg

- started on repair of the MAC Firestick XL, spent a winter in a tree after a Mach flight and lots of road rash. With just 4 flights its had a hard life. Sanded down the fillets as they didn't bond well to the plastic tail cone. Then decided to sand the whole thing down and start over on the paint job.

ImageUploadedByRocketry Forum1503001811.972452.jpg

- charged all my Lipos for 4 rockets and RTX unit

- ordered a personal alarm pull pin type for the flights

More tomorrow
 
Interesting information - I did a test with a 2S 7.2v 300 mah battery on the missleworks RTX sled , turned it on and keep on lock for 1.5hrs.
Below are the results

ImageUploadedByRocketry Forum1503010889.282439.jpg

Shows 258 mah back into the battery.
So now on the search for alittle more capacity - 400-500 mah hour range
 
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