What did you do rocket wise today?

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Finally Open Rocketed my US Rockets Supersonic so I could get a feel for where the CP is and what nose weight I'll be needing to balance for a motor I want to fly later this month.

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Used a hot air gun to soften the shoulder on Fat Daddy's nose cone. Got it in the tube, hopefully it will maintain its shape when it cools. I plan to add a wrap of fiberglass tape to the ID, and possibly the OD of the shoulder just the same.
 
Today we flew 25 flights at our after school rocket club.

We did two flights on my son's Super Big Bertha on D12-3 motors. The Estes altimeter said 183' and 189'. I love that rocket...
 
Nose cone retained the corrected shape after it cooled, so I fitted a new piece of all thread and dowels. Made up 70 grams of epoxy and filled the end of nose, to a level above the dowels, locking the all thread in place.
 
Did a little work on my Apogee "Slo-Mo" and Semroc "Hawk" . Also received my order from FlisKits for a "Spitfire' and a "Morning Star". Reassured wife the Spitfire does fly.
 
Dang. I took my 3D printer apart last week and have been in the process of putting it back together with upgrades. I had to cut openings in the new case and my Craftsman scroll saw broke. Stupid on/off/speed knob broke off right at the shaft. Gonna be a hack fixing that and time spent that was supposed to go to the printer.

In the meantime, I've been putting some of my older stuff up on Thingiverse. A couple of types of fin cans and a BT101 NC. They're all in my model rocket collection at: https://www.thingiverse.com/garyacrowellsr/collections/model-rockets

FinCanTrap.jpgFinCanElliptical.jpgBT101.jpg
 
Yesterday I actually got to my first launch of the year with Radical Rocketeers at Godlewski Farm. And I flew some actual rockets (including 3 maiden flights). I brought all my scratch builds with me, somehow I was feeling very ambitious.

The wind was very light but blowing in a bad direction, which had me feeling a bit stressed for a while. Nonetheless I got 10 flights in on 9 different rockets and all were recovered without damage. A very good day indeed.
 
repaired my Nike-Cajun two stager in preparation for its second flight next weekend (maybe F35W to C6-7). The shock cord for the upper stage was 70lb kevlar and burned through enough on the first ejection charge to snap. Luckily all parts were recovered including my JL3, now everything will be tethered together, that way if the payload bay nose cone pops off the JL3 doesnt fall out again.:facepalm:

Decided to start a new build with my daughter, this was one of Tim Dixon's for the kids freebies, a Semroc KA-13 Yung Un's Nuke. Its a funky little gooney with 6 fins and a ring fin, and a questionable nose cone...we will be building it stock
 
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Working on my Fire In The Sky 2018 launch compilation video. Have edited 100 launches so far and I'm not even halfway through my footage. I'm probably going to have to make this one a two-parter.
 
Flew with Tripoli Colorado for the first time and made two attempts at the G record. Thanks a ton for the amazing hospitality. It was great to meet a bunch of new rocket friends. I’ll be back!
 
I made 2 custom tubes for 13 mm rockets. One I painted with diluted epoxy and the other with wood glue. Diluted epoxy with Acetone. Also, painted an 18 mm tube with wood glue. I used an old greeting card for the 13 mm tubes and coated the inside with CA. Pretty stiff but the wood glue was as good and easier to work with.
 
Gave last minute instructions to my rocketry class for Saturday's launch. Finished up two rockets for demo flights for Saturday's launch. Looked into level 1 certification.
 
Uploaded part 1 of my Fire In The Sky 2018 footage. Too much for one video, so part 1 has the first 125 launches I filmed.

[video=youtube;rfTCdRFPPYI]
 
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Sharon and I cast 10,000 grams of our "Not your Wimpy Red" propellant this morning. Got up early for the cooler weather, but it was 85* at 7:15 am when we finished. I checked the temp. about half way through and the mix was at 93*. Cast five sticks of 75mm and 5 sticks of 54mm. It was getting thick as we finished, but still pretty easy to work with. Biggest batch we have made so far.
I still think you should call it 'Wayco Red' ..

Kenny
 
Today we launched about twenty rockets at our after school rocket club. There were a few As, mostly Cs, and three D motors burned. We will have our last launch on Thursday and then HPR season starts for me.
 
Finished 99.5% of the machine work for fab of an ISC for the Super-Arliss this morning. Parts are fabbed, awaiting assembly. Gotta love it when a plan comes together, and the parts fit.

A little epoxy, a touch of sandpaper, and this pup will be ready to make its contribution to a six digit flight at Aeronaut in August.
 
I took a break from the big winter projects (that haven't flown yet) and built an Estes Fletcher. Nice little one day build.

And then I learned how to add motor files to OpenRocket so I could sim a Quest D16 in a Fletcher built as min. dia.
 
I'm too busy lately moving houses to launch or build anything on my own. But today I had the chance to help a First Lego League team launch some rockets. That's way more gratifying than working on my own projects.

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Uploaded part 2 of the Fire In The Sky 2018 launch compilation.

[video=youtube;-zeYvbq8_RA]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zeYvbq8_RA[/video]
 
Today I finally started laying external fillets on my BlackFly. Using BS 30 minute with micro balloons for the job. Figured BS was okay outside since I used Aeropoxy for all the internals.

One fin down, four to go.
 
Put together an Alpha III with a Centuri ST-7 motor tube so I can fly it on Quest Q-jets on hand. Also put together a Guardian to use as an example at a school rocketry club meeting I am going to on Thursday afternoon.
 
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