What did you do rocket wise today?

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Today I took my 5 yro daughter to her 3rd and final Rocket Camp Launch of the summer. There's a local school that has Rocket Camp for 1 week, and for 3 weeks in a row this year. She was in all 3!

On Mon, they started by sketching their full-size designs on 8.5x11 paper (usually 3 or 4 sheets of paper taped together) and picking their body tubes (13mm - BT80s!). They also make their motor mounts from the Estes universal motor mount kits. All with white glue.

On Tues, the install the motor mount and cut their fin designs on blank balsawood, make the door-frame alignment marks, and glue them on - including fillets. For her 3rd week and 3rd design, I taught her how to cut with the grain on the leading edge so it stays strong - the previous two were cut with wood grain parallel to the rocket - and were extremely flimsy.

On Wed, they do the shock cord and pick their parachute sizes or streams according to estimated weight. If the parachute is too big during "drop off the side porch" tests, they cut a hole in it to speed up the decent.

On Thursday, they finish the parachute and paint it wild colors.

On Friday, they "Kiss their rocket goodbye" and launch.


This being the 3rd week, there has been some pretty wild designs - and as you can imagine, completely unstable designs. There was a 4 stager this year that got through 1,2, 3 stages perfectly - but on the 3 stage pop, it cocked the rocket 180 degrees and it ignited the C motor to become a lawn dart at full speed.

They also lost about 6 rockets from flying too high and through the overcast clouds! "Mr X told me not to put two C motors in. I guess I should have used two As."

We are no longer using the Estes kits and instead designing them from scratch at home. She's working on one now that is exactly her height with BT60 tubes and couplers. It's going to be a two-staged D motor with an Eggtimer GPS recovery in the payload bay. :)


Today I asked her why does she want to fly it so high. Her answer, "The temperture is colder the higher you go, right?" "Yes", I said. She said, "I want to know how cold. Can we use this?" And she picked up one of the cheap breakout boards I have for my Raspberry Pi that says, "TEMP."

Now you know what I am doing this weekend... Looking at Adafruit's Trinkets and Feathers to hook it up to, and datalog the temp. :)

Note: we've already built 4 rockets before this camp. These camps only served to hone her skills with Xacto hobby knives and gluing and all!
 
came home to a package waiting for me after a two day ordeal with FedEx trying to deliver to the wrong houses...

Got my L2 motor in! The two H motors will go up in my Ventris and PSII Nike, hopefully next month.
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My case collection keeps growing! I picked up the Rouse Tech 54-1280 last week from the yard sale, and the 54-1706 came in with my order today.

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Prep for AF continues, man the rocket community is filled with some wonderful people. rfjustin is hiking me up with a tower and Gary Kawa rockdoc has offered the use of his RF tracker for AF, just amazing - thank you both!

MAC Performance Firestick XL , fin repaired, painted and fully prepped and ready to go

Mac Performance VTS-6 (4" QCC Explorer for me) - paint repaired, change screw switch over to Mike's Push Button switch, fully prepped and ready to go. However I'm still motorless for this flight - hoping to find something at AF - would love a CTI 54-6 gr of some sort

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Ultimate QCC, AV bay and charges complete almost as ready for transport

Estes QCC Explorer - completed paint

Left to do - Glue up motor, build transport rack for rockets, pack.
Finish Estes QCC Explorer-
 
Prep for AF continues, man the rocket community is filled with some wonderful people. rfjustin is hiking me up with a tower and Gary Kawa rockdoc has offered the use of his RF tracker for AF, just amazing - thank you both!

Mac Performance VTS-6 (4" QCC Explorer for me) - paint repaired, change screw switch over to Mike's Push Button switch, fully prepped and ready to go. However I'm still motorless for this flight - hoping to find something at AF - would love a CTI 54-6 gr of some sort

Left to do - Glue up motor, build transport rack for rockets, pack.
Finish Estes QCC Explorer-

Just checked stock with Wildman, AMW and Chris' Rocket supplies. They all have the CTI 6 grain K711 White and the K820 Blue streak. AMW has the best selection, with both of those and the K660 classic and K675 Skidmark. They will all be at Airfest, and all[FONT=&amp] of them are reliable vendors. I would give someone a call and reserve one, big CTI reloads are rare.

Anyone who flies at Airfest should have a tracker:
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Yes, there is a portion of my L3 rocket in that shot.

Flying with a tracker will almost always guarantee that your rocket will land beside the road.
 
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Considered ambushing the Estes truck on Tuesday when I came across it after work. (late upload)
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Took off the tape from my Golden Mammoth fins and nosecone. Think I'll try clear coat to see if it'll bring out the shine better.
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Does that red chair have a name? I would say it deserves one.

My truck has a name, never considered naming furniture.

It's been collecting working titles though.
-Impulse buy/feet saver (Forgot to bring my lawn chair to watch the Blue Angels. Not bad for 4$ at Wmart)
-The hotseat (ejection test setup "surface" for old IREC team) [In fact, now that I think about it, that's where that taped V came from lol]
-Time out chair
-Display stand (vv see sig)
-Paint drying rack (pretty much any build thread I do)
 
Just checked stock with Wildman, AMW and Chris' Rocket supplies. They all have the CTI 6 grain K711 White and the K820 Blue streak. AMW has the best selection, with both of those and the K660 classic and K675 Skidmark. They will all be at Airfest, and all[FONT=&amp] of them are reliable vendors. I would give someone a call and reserve one, big CTI reloads are rare.

Anyone who flies at Airfest should have a tracker:
[/FONT]
IMG_3804.jpg
[FONT=&amp]
[/FONT]

Yes, there is a portion of my L3 rocket in that shot.

Flying with a tracker will almost always guarantee that your rocket will land beside the road.

Thanks Wayne , glad to hear they have 820 and 711 which are the loads I were simming, I'll contact them - Wildman already has a 675 SK for me but I do need another .
 
Thanks Wayne , glad to hear they have 820 and 711 which are the loads I were simming, I'll contact them - Wildman already has a 675 SK for me but I do need another .
I should have a bunch more in stock for airfest, if I can get the pallet in before I leave. It has a pile of 54mm motors listed on the invoice, so come check with me when you are there.

Sent from my Pixel XL using Rocketry Forum mobile app
 
I should have a bunch more in stock for airfest, if I can get the pallet in before I leave. It has a pile of 54mm motors listed on the invoice, so come check with me when you are there.

Sent from my Pixel XL using Rocketry Forum mobile app

Well. Considering how well the rule about not allowing Sharon in your trailer without me being present worked, (not at all) maybe I should just remind her that our trailer is already OVER it's max gross weight rating.....
"Like a kid in a candy store". Wait, would that be her or me?
By any chance have you replaced that N2200 Dark Matter Glen bought? I'm burning my last 98mm motor on Saturday.....

Oh, and on that note, I built the N2000 today, and have started on the Eggfinder for the Ultimate DS.
O.R. sims and Thrustcurve both say 13,500 to 13,700 for that 62 lb. rocket.
I'm REALLY getting excited about this launch!
 
Casting tools for 54 and 75mm. Research motors. Assorted mandrels drilled and tapped for a stepped core 2550 EX Orange Sunset. 93.6% volume loading. Comes out to a 17% L-543. Can't wait for Airfest!!

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flew my competitor3 on an I211 to a recorded height of 1189'(and got it back :))
Rex
 
also the video from the onboard camera is nice, just need to edit it somewhat, trim out the 10 plus minutes of sitting on the pad beeping...the actual flight was about 43 seconds :).
Rex
 
Finally put the finishing touches on the Binder Design Bat that my wife wanted me to build. I made her do the majority of the work, so if she decides she likes this hobby of ours, she can use it to cert L1. She picked out the paint, and I must say, the shimmer paint looks great on top of the black base coat! I will be flying it in the short configuration on a H178 at Tri Cities next month, hopefully. Then if I have time, I'll throw a I245 in the long version with dual deploy.

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BDB (L2 cert flight. I stopped by MDRA with my kids on our way to SC to see the eclipse. It was a great flight and a great way to celebrate my birthday. )


Congratulations on your L2 and happy birthday.
 
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Applying decals on an Estes QCC EXPLORER prepping for Argonia flight on an E9?! Uh maybe not, perhaps just for display.

On non rocket note - took my family to Lake Barkley KY on our boat to witness the total eclipse. It was by far the coolest natural event that ever witnessed when we took the glasses off for a little over 2 minutes - truly amazing.
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Travel down there was a breeze as I'm very familiar with the area and know the back ways in and out - travel back was another matter as there is really only 2 ways across the Ohio river - so the trip back was pretty bad.

The event - we started on the water about 10:30am it seamed not a sole on the lake - sun was bright and hot, then at about 3/4 coverage we noticed we weren't squinting any more and notice that the screen started to turn slightly peach colored tint. We headed north on the lake towards Eddyville to try and be as close to the middle of totality as we could be. Now there were boats everywhere.
It was interesting how light it still was until only a sliver of the sun remained - then the whole lakes calmed as everyone stopped for 30 minutes or so and as the last of the sun disappeared the whole placed dimmed to twilight in about 5 minutes . As the sun was covered and we took off the glasses - as the lake erupted in cheers and horns then all went silent for about 2 minutes as we all stood there in awe of the view. My phone camera couldn't show the total coverage but it was spectacular to actually look directly at it. That 2 minutes made the entire trip worth it.

This is not my photo but can't talk about the eclipse and not have a photo
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Back on to rockets, the local makerspace has asked to display the Ultimate QCC during the maker fair in Bloomington IN this weekend - which I'm cool with and think it would be neat - so removing the ejection charges ...

Alright back to Argonia prep.
 

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Got a new JLCR ordered. Maybe I'll get the other one back some day and can see if it's serviceable.
 
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