What did you do rocket wise today?

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Added fillets to fins of the Critical Mass and updated the albums of my rockets on GitHub.
 
We just got home from the second day of Maker Faire Orlando at the Orlando Science Center. Whew, though it was a fun and interesting weekend, we are exhausted. We set up a display of rockets along with a TV playing some short rocketry videos. We told people about our local clubs and answered questions about rocketry. We handed out 300 Estes catalogs and hundreds of "OrlandoRocketry.com" business cards. A lot of people came up and said "I used to build and fly rockets when I was a kid." I hope we helped convince them that it's okay to build and fly rockets as an adult! Several teachers and scout leaders asked us about group launches. And, we saw a few people we had already met or know from NARCON and local rocket launches.






Chris Michielssen of Odd'l Rockets and David Ribakoff, a retired rocket scientist (for real!) and local rocketry friend, stopped by today. Chris brought a Little Green Man and Pigasus to show off. Chris and Dave manned the exhibit allowing Bracha and I to explore the museum and other Maker exhibits for a while.

The NASA exhibit near us had some astronaut gloves to try on. They were ones actually used by Brian Duffy on STS-72. On Saturday, kids were lined up the try them on and I, being not a kid, felt a little bashful about joining them. But, on Sunday morning, I decided that I wasn't going to let a little embarrassment stop me. Unfortunately, the gloves weren't there today! Bummer ...

-- Roger
 
Worked on this Star Trooper. No time right now for an ambitious build, just a little something to scratch the itch. 1410757041121.jpg
 
The rocket that's being built around a SEMROC 5055 transition and a BNC50X is coming along. The BT50 upper tube is 3.75" long and the BT55 section is 5.25". Overall ends up 13.25". The BT20 motor mount tube has 1 centering ring. The transition came drilled and I checked and found it was BT20 size so it functions as the front centering ring. I braided up 3 strands of Kevlar thread I got for a parachute mount. The thread is more like dental floss and I don't know the break strength so I braid 3 strands to make sure. The BNC50X is a long elliptical cone so I went looking for fin patterns to match the cone. I finally found something that might work and struggled to find a place to alter it so I tried Paint. Failed. That's when I noticed one of the tools in Paint was an ellipse tool... I spent the next half hour happily drawing and printing ellipse patterns. I've had other designs that would have benefited from this tool, too bad I was too dumb to know it :p

I ordered 200 feet of 100 pound test braided Kevlar. I think it's actually a fairly small diameter and more than strong enough to handle the rockets I build.
 
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I've been lurking on here far to long, so its time to jump in and post. Today I installed the motor mount and sanded the fins on my Wildman Sport. Hopefully tomorrow I will be able to install them.
Welcome, don't be afraid to show off that WM Sport a bit! Hometown of John Mellencamp - ever meet him?
 
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Yesterday I:

Got the first coat of primer on my BatRock. Will have a bit of sanding to do on that one.

Decided I was making this 2 piece mylar parachute construction idea too complicated, so I simplified things with a cardstock stencil and a mega-sharpie. Of course the chute I cut seems a bit small after all that, so I'm going to make a second larger one.

Got the shock cord repaired on my crayon bank in preparation for next week's launch.

Bought extra bottles of glue for the cub scout build session I'm running tomorrow. Hopefully the rockets show up today. (That'll teach me to skimp on shipping... ) :facepalm:
 
No actual hands on rocketry work for me for a while...I am on a two week stint in South Africa, working at the Africa Aerospace and Defense 2014 expo near Pretoria for another week. If I see any interesting missiles or rocketry related stuff, I will take some pictures.

https://www.aadexpo.co.za/

Have been doing a little planning and design work in the evenings on some upcoming RC rocket gliders and that is about it for me.

If any SA rocket folks happen to read this and are going to the airshow on the public days on Sept 20 and 21, I will be in Hangar 3, booth 3B9 most of each public day. Come by and say hello to the big balding guy with glasses......:)
 
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Star Trooper's lookin' good!
It's a great little Bird for sure.

Thanks! Followed your cue and papered the fins. Only regret is that motor overhang is longer than I'd like...but then I plan to fly it with tracking powder up front so that should keep the CG where it belongs.
 
Finishing up the General Lee. Just need to get the "01" decal on and some stars and bars. :) Now to get my launch controller to play the Dixie song... :)IMG_3473.jpg
 

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Thanks! Followed your cue and papered the fins. Only regret is that motor overhang is longer than I'd like...but then I plan to fly it with tracking powder up front so that should keep the CG where it belongs.

Mine seems to have the Motor sticking out more than it should too, but flies just fine. I went and took a Pic'.

STARTROOPERMOTOR 012.jpg
 
I'm in the process of finishing a Leviathan and a Ventris that I bought a few days ago while the Estees sale was on... Also bought one each for two of my grandsons... We made great progress on this one today... Another grandson starts his second project with me romorrow... You can see the top of the Ested Leviathon that I'm about 90% finished with... I'm new to this forum, still trying to find my way around.... Dave

DOUG 09-`05-2014.jpg
 
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I watched some youtube videos this morning on my "smart tv".

Do a youtube search on "LUNAR Snow Ranch" if you want to get in on the fun: Videos by myself, qquake2k, timro, rbelknap, robbdm, dadmanwalking, and others.

Puts a smile on my face every time I watch them.
 
I'm in the process of finishing a Leviathan and a Ventris that I bought a few days ago while the Estees sale was on... Also bought one each for two of my grandsons... We made great progress on this one today... Another grandson starts his second project with me romorrow View attachment 184481

"IronKnees"? Sounds like you've gone the 6 Million Dollar Man route. Welcome to TRF, home of the rocket geezers. LOL!
 
Welcome, don't be afraid to show off that WM Sport a bit! Hometown of John Mellencamp - ever meet him?

Never met him but been to a few of his concerts! :p

I will definitely post some picture of the Sport one of these days...
 
Finally got Spirals hidden well enought to be acceptable and got some more Primer on this thing. We're running out of Days where the Weather will be warm enough to do any Paint, so I'm anxious to get atleast a few more Rockets completed this year.

STARTROOPERMOTOR 007.jpg
 
Getting ready to get my scratch build into color. Long way off lots of elbow grease to get it to look like the one next to it. Any Richard Petty fans out there? Well I'm going with his car color on this one. The Blue and red is a good combo. Going to get some stickers to top it off.

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Well that's good to know. The motor sticks out so far it looks like it's wearing the rocket as a hat :)

Yeah. I followed the Instructions to the Letter and somehow ended up like this.:confused:
If I build another Star Trooper, I'll use an actual Motor to set the Thrust Ring Position instead of using the Yellow thing and following the Instructions.
That said, the biggest Motor I've flown in it to Date is a 1/2A. I'm going to see how it goes on an A10 sometime this Week.
 
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Rebuilt the N/C lights in Warp Core Breach. The 600 L.E.D. strip lights were overwhelming the Diab-glo L.E.D's, so I added another Wolfstar product to kick it up a notch. Not sure how much current everything is drawing so I put two 9v batteries in parallel in the coupler. This rocket has gained a pound since I made it two years ago. The J520 will only take it to 2500 ft. now. Plenty high enough for a night launch.
Bring your sun glasses for Octoberfest, might even be able to see it from the strip in L.V.
:cool:
 
Rebuilt the N/C lights in Warp Core Breach. The 600 L.E.D. strip lights were overwhelming the Diab-glo L.E.D's, so I added another Wolfstar product to kick it up a notch. Not sure how much current everything is drawing so I put two 9v batteries in parallel in the coupler. This rocket has gained a pound since I made it two years ago. The J520 will only take it to 2500 ft. now. Plenty high enough for a night launch.
Bring your sun glasses for Octoberfest, might even be able to see it from the strip in L.V.
:cool:

Is there a thread on this rocket, it sounds awesome!
 
Rebuilt the N/C lights in Warp Core Breach. The 600 L.E.D. strip lights were overwhelming the Diab-glo L.E.D's, so I added another Wolfstar product to kick it up a notch. Not sure how much current everything is drawing so I put two 9v batteries in parallel in the coupler. This rocket has gained a pound since I made it two years ago. The J520 will only take it to 2500 ft. now. Plenty high enough for a night launch.
Bring your sun glasses for Octoberfest, might even be able to see it from the strip in L.V.
:cool:

It was sure a crowd favorite at ROCstock ! Cant wait to see the new and improved BREACH.

We are heading to Vegas after LASTER Blaster.

Kenny
 
Made my first saucer rocket. This one is for an upcoming science demo I'm doing at my son's school. I plan to let the teacher keep the rocket afterwards. These are really fun to make, and only took an hour from print to rocket.

This is an Art Applewhite 13mm Cinco, and is available free on his website along with several other free on his website.

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Painted my L2 rocket. Had a good time painting this one. Brought out my inner vandalist. Flying saturday.

Alex
 
Is there a thread on this rocket, it sounds awesome!
Here is a link to the original thread, but much like the Enterprise, this rocket continues to morph over time.

https://www.rocketryforum.com/showthread.php?56562-Warp-Core-Breach

I added a big fruity chute and a Para-light to light it up after Desert Heat earlier this year, and with this latest upgrade, I'm out of room in the payload.
It's a real crowd pleaser, and I plan to fly it both nights at Octoberfest and again at GHS on Red dry lake North of Kingman the next weekend. If it survives that, I have one more J520 for ROCstock.
 
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Mine seems to have the Motor sticking out more than it should too, but flies just fine. I went and took a Pic'.

View attachment 184479

Add a little nose weight and fit a D12-0 over your 18mm motor and bango--- CHAD staging :)



I wanted to add, I do this with an old Estes Maniac, the one with the 4 fin plastic fincan. It had a 24mm mount that I used an adapter for 18mm use. I knew about CHAD staging and this looked to be the perfect chance. I had some B14-7 I used with the D12-0. It flew so great you'd think it was a combo ment to be. I'd suggest starting low, like C11-0 to A8-5 and work your way up. Two staging that rocket could result in mass altitude :)


edit again :p I didn't notice that the rocket was 13mm motored but the same applies, you can fit a booster 18mm motor over the 13mm motor. That makes for real CHeap And Dirty staging :D
 
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