What did you do rocket wise today?

o1d_dude said:

Washed motor hardware, stashed the gear in the rocketry work bench, updated my flight logs on RocketReviews.com, and pondered my upcoming L2 flight hopefully in May at Dairy Aire. Praying for no rain during the week before hand.

Bought some Simple Green to clean the forward seal disk but it turned out that the Breakfree CLP soak over night did a pretty good job of disolving the the crud. I'd like to try an I 435T next time. Blue Thunder motors have a lot of get up and go.

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That's good to know!! I've got a couple casings with stubborn crud, and I was hoping to see what worked for your seal disc.

HaackIt said:

Nice - what are you building / planning to fly those on? I did something similar on a 4" Nike Smoke to Mach 1.3 (for a VERY short period of time).

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I wanted to try making fins like this for a while. A friend is sitting on an AT I65 that he is letting me use. So, I wanted to build something fairly light, cheap as in what I had laying around, and that will work well with the i65. So, the rocket will be made of Giant Leap 54 mm phenolic, standard dual deploy, likely a Missileworks rrc2+ or rrc3, 1/8" tubular Kevlar, and likely a 30 or 36" top flight chute. Nosecone will be either a RW cloth cone I have, or possibly a GLR Pinnacle. Four fins, and a hair under four feet in length. I had some 5.7 ounce plain carbon, Balsa, and Aeropoxy around.

Fins are single layer of carbon on each side of the balsa. Really very stiff. Will attach to airframe with Aeropoxy mixed with Kevlar pulp. May do a tip to tip, but not positive on the yet.

First fin is trimmed now, and weighs 12 grams.

Bought 4" Patriot on Madcow Rocketry for my 19 year old son that hasn't shown much interest until this past weekend at Battlepark! Totally Awesome!

Ordered two StratoLogger CF Altimeters, some lipo batteries, 2 Additive Aerospace SMART sleds and 2 Mobius Video Camera Shrouds.

markkoelsch said:

A friend is sitting on an AT I65 that he is letting me use. So, I wanted to build something fairly light, cheap as in what I had laying around, and that will work well with the i65.

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Nice - I did a 4" Nike Smoke on a K2045.

I was up late researching various rocketry related subjects, and so I could not sleep last night, and instead tossed and turned while designing rocket components in my head.
I think I've come up with some workable/worth trying build methods.

Just barely finished my Fins for my Star Trooper rebuild.

Now I just need to get those fins on, add some microbutton like screws, and make a new streamer.



And made this little assembly stand for the BT-5 stuff:



View attachment FG STAR TROOPER.ork

Got the CR notches and fin notches filed down for a snug fit on the Nike Smoke and the eye bolt for the recovery harness is in.

Placed an order with BMS.

Hope they are enjoying their vacation!

Today I used Bristol Board for the first time to make a Fin jig.
I was surprised that it did not react to stimuli like 110# Walmart Cardstock.
This example of it is my first, so I need to try some more brands, and just figure out which one works for me.
I can use this one for lots of things, but it just works for different things.:wink:
I have more dollar store foamboard than I'll ever use, so I tied making this lightweight jig from the Bristol Board, which sucked as a jig, but when I CA'd another sheet of Walmart Cardstock to it, it made a great template.
It needs a quick polish with the emery board, but I have not remembered to buy those for months, so I've been gluing scrap balsa and basswood to sandpaper, and getting by pretty well.

Yeah, I really do just make a swirly-doo with the ultra-thin, then cut it by eye. JK! :wink:
I sanded the first piece to final dimensions with measurement aids and double sided tape that was really thin for positioning things for tacking....
That said, it is a pretty neat technique if I do say so myself. I don't claim to have invented it, but perhaps I am re-discovering it????:wink:

Lovin' the paper!!!




I tuned the edges up on the jig with sand paper and it fits exactly right now, so I used it to hold the fins while I traced the position in pencil.
I'll mask off the surrounding areas so I don't screw them up while preparing the surface for bonding by making tiny crosshatch patterns with a brand new #11 blade in my X-acto.

I got these books in the mail, and I already have one of them, the encyclopedia.
Amazon did not show a picture of the cover, and it was described as a "Rourke Guide", whatever that is, so I ordered it, and now I'm bummed.



I was hoping the package contained my scale space modelling or Brassey's Artillery book.

Oh well, these were each .01 + 3.99 S&H, so it's not a big deal. I can give the Illustrated Encyclopedia of the Worlds Rockets & Missiles away or include it in a trade.

Got the MMT and fins for the Nike Smoke on last night. Hopefully I'll get to do the internal fillets, aft rail button, aft CR and motor retainer tonight.

Over the past couple of days, I renewed my NAR and CAR memberships. Got the 3fer now.

Worked on "Plan B", my Madcow Lil Goblin 38mm. Surprisingly, the geometry of the kits (29mm vs 38mm) is slightly different. Apparently my 29mm from a Black Friday Sale a few years ago had the fins set back 1/2" closer to the aft end of the body tube than 38mm version. I called Mike at Madcow and he ran up the sim and pronounced the difference in Center of Pressure to still be within the acceptable range.

Might have to be certain the CG is a full caliber in front of the CP.

Early this morning, I finished editing my GRITS launch video.

[video=youtube;1n0W8h-mWAI]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1n0W8h-mWAI[/video]

I just went to gritslaunch.com to post a link to it and discovered that the person who maintains the site had already found it.

- - Roger

Finished Charge Testing for my L3 today... All set. Now I just need a motor!
[video=youtube;enT2kMsQ6Rc]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=enT2kMsQ6Rc[/video]
[video=youtube;Yr49tdsgkh8]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yr49tdsgkh8[/video]

Went to the TriCities Rocketeers April launch and flew my 5.5" Cherokee-D (primer version) for its maiden flight and pre-cert check flight, it was a beautiful flight. As for the club, we managed to fly every impulse level from A-L with only about 15 fliers, the flight statistics will be posted in the appropriate thread when I get the chance.

Today I flew rockets and met a bunch of local rocketeers. I got to do some show-and-tell with our upscale Dragonfly. We ate barbecue and talked rockets. With the exception of the terrible visibility it was really great!

I also got to witness a very cool sort-of CATO. A club member had loaded an F15 BP motor in a saucer and on ignition the burning fuel grain shot out the top of the cardboard casing. The undamaged saucer flew maybe twenty feet while the motor casing shot downwards and the grain flew a good hundred feet or more. The grain was a glowing orange cylinder streaking into the foggy sky - super cool.

rharshberger said:

Went to the TriCities Rocketeers April launch and flew my 5.5" Cherokee-D (primer version) for its maiden flight and pre-cert check flight, it was a beautiful flight. As for the club, we managed to fly every impulse level from A-L with only about 15 fliers, the flight statistics will be posted in the appropriate thread when I get the chance.

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We need a like button here. I'm glad to hear the maiden flight went well. Now look forward to hearing about the successful L3 flight!!

Attended my local club launch and got a couple flights in on my new JL Chute Release. One of the flights was on the maiden of my BT-60 upscale Ninja. Good day today!

Put a light coat of epoxy on the aft CR of the Nike Smoke and reinforced the tube edges with CA. Also sealed the Kevlar knot ends with shrink tubing. Now I'll I can do is wait for my order of Rocketpoxy to arrive from Wildman before I can do the external fillets and put her in the queue for painting. I think I have at least five rockets waiting on priming or paint. May have to fly a couple naked next week if the weather cooperates for the club launch. Actually warmed up a tad this afternoon and I got another coat of primer on the MDRM.

I looked at my list of unbuilt kits.

I think I'm beginning to have my doubts about getting to them all.

Painted my Leviathan with Rusto deep blue today, will be unwrapping soon.

(Please ignore the sideways image, I have tried rotating in microsoft pictures, uploading in Flickr and imugr, and it stays the same.)

Turned my first MMX nose cone, made good progress on what should end up being a BT-5 cone, and installed a power strip for my workbench. I also fixed the ceiling light in my living room, so now I have both my portable lamp assemblies on the workbench, plus a working ceiling light.
Life will be much easier now, as lighting is critical to doing good precision cuts on paper parts.

MaxQ said:

I looked at my list of unbuilt kits.

I think I'm beginning to have my doubts about getting to them all.

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Unless my build rate increases once I retire or live to well past 100 I won't get through all of mine....

Finished my Madcow 2.6" FG BBII by putting decals on. That is one sweet rocket...

noffie79 said:

Finished my Madcow 2.6" FG BBII by putting decals on. That is one sweet rocket...View attachment 287869View attachment 287870

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Very sweet indeed!!!:clap:

She's gorgeous!

Flew rockets including the maiden flight of my Black Brant on a L1720. Videos uploading now

I've built 3 little ones over the last weeks, need filler and finished. I've been looking at the Flis Decim8 but I just don't have the tools to do what I want for now. I figure it will take more than glue, sandpaper and a knife...

Cleaning the shop up.

A 2.6" Estes "Mega" and a sweet Polecat 5.5" dia. Both at the fin tack stage and working on fillets tomorrow.