What did you do rocket wise today?

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Flew at WOOSh rocketry today. Got some woosh stickers, woosh sauce, and some liquid refreshment from Aeppeltreow.

Here's my vindicator sport on a G64W:

[video=youtube;BAoIeEQgw-E]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BAoIeEQgw-E[/video]
 
Flew at WOOSh rocketry today. Got some woosh stickers, woosh sauce, and some liquid refreshment from Aeppeltreow.

Here's my vindicator sport on a G64W:

[video=youtube;BAoIeEQgw-E]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BAoIeEQgw-E[/video]

novvs.jpg
 
Back in the saddle again....

Work on the sustainer fins went much faster after the acquisition of a new tool. The Master Airscrew Razor Plane makes balsa removal a snap, its not much good for basswood but thats ok. The razor plane I picked up at HobbyTown USA.

Left: All twelve fins are profiled

Center: another view of the main sustainer fins after profiles have been planed and finish sanded.

Right: Main sustainer fins with cardstock skins on rear of fins (1 each side). Also in the photo are the tools used to do the majority of the profiling, the blue tool is the razor plane. The razor plane while made of plastic worked very well after giving it the standard woodworkers tune-up of flattening the sole.

Next step will be fiber-glassing the transition that covers the timer av-bay and making the access covers for the timer bay.
 
This weekends efforts...

An Estes Mini HoJo. I tried to get a scale airfoil on the fins. I've got some repair work to do on a couple of them. I'm thinking some epoxy putty might be the right material to use.
ImageUploadedByRocketry Forum1498416345.335985.jpgImageUploadedByRocketry Forum1498416357.526598.jpg

And an Estes Sky Warrior. I built one of these about 7 months ago, but lost it to a tree monster on the first flight.
ImageUploadedByRocketry Forum1498416458.802635.jpg

And a Custom Rockets Equinox. I made it to separate in the middle rather than the upper quarter, making it easier to transport.
ImageUploadedByRocketry Forum1498416575.392410.jpg

And yesterday I received a shipment of pieces/parts from ASP for scratch building.
ImageUploadedByRocketry Forum1498416637.147474.jpg
 
Pulled the masking off my Mini Tomach this morning and weighed it for an accurate Rocksim estimation. Looking forward to flying this guy hopefully next month!

IMG_5301.jpg IMG_5305.jpg
 
Went to the Woosh launch and pushed buttons for 3 hours (and made bad jokes on the microphone). Brought some stuff to fly, but never got around to flying it.
 
@TangoJuliet

I would use Elmer's wood filler as it sands at about the same consistency as balsa. To get the edges sharp and even, paper the fins and saturate in thin CA after getting the desired airfoil shape.

Do you have a small and light (easily controlled) sanding block? If not, sandpaper glued to a popsicle stick or paint stir stick has worked for me.

It looks like the edges are sanded sharp but the bevel doesn't extend to the center. If you color the edges (and a little on the surface to either side) with marker, it'll be easier to avoid sanding onto them.
 
Sanded, shaped, papered and glued the fins on the Baby Bertha. Its on the fin alignment jig for the night. Wet sanded the Alpha and got it ready for another coat but the rain clouds have moved in.
 
Got back from Southern Thunder '17.

It was a pretty good weekend.
-Didn't get stuck in mud
-No water damage to rockets
-All rockets retrieved (including OpTom hung up on the sod irrigator)
IMG_20170625_115244637.jpg
-My original Estes Patriot (SAM) survived another flight
-The Great Big Inductor mk. 18 behaved itself in front of a crowd ("How in the world did that tube just fly!?") That makes 8 flights total.
-The Greystar Voyager survived its D12. I'm going to consider composite E's for it now.
IMG_20170624_114831539.jpg
-Vertigo II deployed its main chute perfectly!
-Flew the L1 rocket (Big SAM) again with its reduced lead noseweight and raised its record to ~1600' according to the stratologger which went along for data collection.


One downside is that Big SAM suffered a small piece of corner chipped off, so its time to go learn how to fix plywood fins.
 
I fabricated parts for six small Guillotine Fin Jigs and two Body Tube Slotting Fixtures. My son's cat slept through the entire procedure and now I need a nap.

Does this count?
 
Received a JLCR protective pouch from DinoChutes, (properly packaged) and an smashed Estes Alpha kit that was mailed in a padded mailer.
 
Finally tossed my 4 year old Porsche DX3 in the trash can today. That was my first high power rocket and my level 1 cert rocket. It's been damaged and repaired multiple times, but after getting zippered again yesterday I decided its time had finally come.
pdx3a.jpg
 
Edited 102 of 142 clips (totalling just under 2 hours) I have from a recent rocket launch.
 
Finally did something rocketry - signed up for my first Airfest trip. Can't wait to fly at the rocket pasture.
 
You can't see it that great in the video, and I edited out Dave's comments afterward for brevity, but according to him the booster section landed on the payload section right after the payload section hit the ground. What's also sad in the full video, is you can see the smoke from the main charge going off, and the nose cone staying firmly in place.
 
Last time I uploaded a long video to Youtube, it took all night. Apparently this hotel has a bit faster internet, so my latest video of the Tri-Cities Rocketeers June Swoosh video is up. 113 clips including 2 drag races for a total of 115 rockets caught on camera, all sizes from 1/2A through J powered. I had a ton of fun at this event and am happy to put in the hours to share the footage of the flying.

[video=youtube;VAooNzMRO_w]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAooNzMRO_w[/video]
 
What's also sad in the full video, is you can see the smoke from the main charge going off, and the nose cone staying firmly in place.

Oh well. That will have to be one of those mysteries! I ground tested with three sheer pins, and flew with only two, so there is no reason it shouldn't have worked. I guess we will never know!
 
Last time I uploaded a long video to Youtube, it took all night. Apparently this hotel has a bit faster internet, so my latest video of the Tri-Cities Rocketeers June Swoosh video is up. 113 clips including 2 drag races for a total of 115 rockets caught on camera, all sizes from 1/2A through J powered. I had a ton of fun at this event and am happy to put in the hours to share the footage of the flying.

[video=youtube;VAooNzMRO_w]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAooNzMRO_w[/video]

Nice... That launch of yours at the end looked great! :)
 
Oh well. That will have to be one of those mysteries! I ground tested with three sheer pins, and flew with only two, so there is no reason it shouldn't have worked. I guess we will never know!

Tested with three and flew with two?

If you drilled three holes, equally spaced about the circumference, but then put pins in two so that they were not equally spaced, there's a chance that the nosecone cocked sideways, rather than pushing straight out. Such cocking could prevent deployment.
Testing in one configuration and then flying in another defeats the point of testing.


Steve Shannon
 
Finished up my AMW FiberMax with the Stickershock decals. First flight should be next Saturday. Looks great and I can't wait. Thanks for the great decals as always Mark!
 
Finished up my AMW FiberMax with the Stickershock decals. First flight should be next Saturday. Looks great and I can't wait. Thanks for the great decals as always Mark!

Forgot to add pics!
ImageUploadedByRocketry Forum1498778175.903766.jpgImageUploadedByRocketry Forum1498778185.444862.jpg
And here's the whole family!
ImageUploadedByRocketry Forum1498778210.092342.jpg
 
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