What did you do rocket wise today?

Went to my Tripoli club launch today

I was photographed holding my 4" upscale Patrol Cruiser Excalibur - without my Chicken mask.... Bah!!!



Here it is leaving the pad on a CTI J357 -



And on the way up -



And coming back down again -



Perfectly straight boost to 3611' Dual deploy using an RRC 2 and a cable cutter.

Photos of all the other launches of the day can be found here - https://www.flickr.com/photos/oflittleinterest/sets/72157654863713321

Krusty

Awesome rocket, Krusty!

krusty said:

I was photographed holding my 4" upscale Patrol Cruiser Excalibur - without my Chicken mask.... Bah!!!


Krusty

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Very nice work...

dave carver said:

I've launched my Bullpup more than any other rocket I have. Tough little bugger and fast turnaround with great flights. I don't keep records but it has to be close to 50 or more flights.

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Mines not got that many flights, but the club president and I have a soft spot for the Bullpup 12D, he has the Estes, 2", 4" and a 7", I am looking to build a 2" soon.

rharshberger said:

Mines not got that many flights, but the club president and I have a soft spot for the Bullpup 12D, he has the Estes, 2", 4" and a 7", I am looking to build a 2" soon.

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I'm planning a BT80 sized version. I have a real pretty SEMROC cone saved just for that purpose. 29mm motor mount for Hobbyline motors, should be a good flyer

rstaff3 said:

Awesome rocket, Krusty!

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les said:

Very nice work...

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Thanks !!

Krusty

Well I am new here and the hobby as well. (My kids and I are hooked I think ) Anyhow we spent Father's Day having fun in the park with a Patriot rocket.

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Little more work on some RC rocket gliders today. Finished up the RC install on the profile X-15 and framed up a new original design, a profile XF-108 Rapier.

Thread over in the rocket gliders section.

debaser said:

Well I am new here and the hobby as well. (My kids and I are hooked I think ) Anyhow we spent Father's Day having fun in the park with a Patriot rocket.

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Fantastic!!

Krusty

I worked on my Madcow BOMARC. Once complete I will add a build thread with all the photos. Today I did some fine sanding and hit it with a coat of primer. Now I can see all the additional finish work I need to do. More filler and sanding.

I've been struggling with waning rocketry desire recently, but going to a launch always makes that go away for awhile. I had not touched a rocket in weeks, but managed to prep my Madcow ToMach last week for the June Tripoli Vegas launch, and just had the best rocket day EVER. I launched the ToMach on it's maiden voyage on an Aerotech K805G to 14247' AGL and 1707 fps (according to the RRC3), and it landed 300 yards away! So, with a renewed rocketry surge of energy, I plan to post my work progress on this thread to help keep it alive. Peer pressure to do so appreciated and encouraged!

Over a year ago, I carefully built a scratch 4" rocket with 4x29mm MMTs. On the maiden voyage, the sole altimeter lost power and the result was catastrophic. I was really disappointed! I've been slowly working on the rebuild, but today got the av-bay about 80% done. The marsa54L and SL100 CF are mounted, wired for power, batteries (one 9V, one Lipo) are mounted, the av-bay lids done, Doghouse rocketry charge holders (the new ones with ematch connection points topside) mounted, and just need to carefully chose where the switches will go once I've put the whole assembly together and judged the best location.

I have NEVER done twist and tape for a switch, but I am tempted to for one of the altimeters just for simplicity sake. I have a Featherweight switch for the other one.

One of my other hobbies is homebrewing. So, as I sit here I raise a glass of Belgian Tripel to you all in the name of renewed rocketry build energy!

Great photo of the rocket just leaving launch. I love the quaint park setting with the beautiful homes in the background. Reminds me of the 1970's when I grew up in Yorba Linda Ca. and we would fly rockets at the Glen Knoll elementary school field. That was before it was developed and not that many people. You had the field all to your self.

debaser said:

Well I am new here and the hobby as well. (My kids and I are hooked I think ) Anyhow we spent Father's Day having fun in the park with a Patriot rocket.

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I have a LOC 4' x 4" version that flies on a G80 and will again on the 4th of July Years ago I was flying in a park near where they were going to shoot the community fireworks display...I let 2 Sheriff's shut me down. With the internet I researched the laws here statewide and locally. The State adopted the NFPA 1123 Code for Low Power Rockets. Local law is flights under 700', easily attained by using motors with only a 4 second delay or less. The LOC Patriot meets that with G80-4. I have motors in the stash from 1/4A3-2 on up. Any attempt by the Lawmen to close me down this year will be met with a person who KNOWS the law...:cyclops:

Estes V-2 is about ready for paint!




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Wow! Great looking rocket!

- Continuing some finish work on the upscale Astron Midget. This was my first time papering fins & so far I'm really liking the results

- Excitedly unpacked my Leviathan I bought 1/2 off during the father's day sale and was disappointed to find some pretty badly warped fins. Sent an email to Estes about it (maybe they'll send me another set of fins). Not sure how much luck I'll have flattening these out between a stack of books...

whiskeyBear326 said:

- Continuing some finish work on the upscale Astron Midget. This was my first time papering fins & so far I'm really liking the results

- Excitedly unpacked my Leviathan I bought 1/2 off during the father's day sale and was disappointed to find some pretty badly warped fins. Sent an email to Estes about it (maybe they'll send me another set of fins). Not sure how much luck I'll have flattening these out between a stack of books...

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The Astron Midget looks great

From what I hear, Estes are pretty good with that sort of thing

I've attempted to flatten ply fins in the past with some success. I soaked them in boiling water for a little while before to soften the wood. I dried them off with some paper towel and then put them between two large floor tiles with a large drum of sand on top. Let it sit in a warm environment for a couple of weeks. The fins were still a little warped, but nowhere near as bad as when I started.

Krusty

Started building the avbay for my Ultimate Darkstar:




You cold hold a hoe down in this avbay!

krusty said:

The Astron Midget looks great

From what I hear, Estes are pretty good with that sort of thing

I've attempted to flatten ply fins in the past with some success. I soaked them in boiling water for a little while before to soften the wood. I dried them off with some paper towel and then put them between two large floor tiles with a large drum of sand on top. Let it sit in a warm environment for a couple of weeks. The fins were still a little warped, but nowhere near as bad as when I started.

Krusty

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Glad you like the midget! When I got into rocketry in high school I had a mentor who had a thing for the midget, he's built 'em in just about every size https://www.doug79.com/midgets/

Thanks for the advice on flattening out the fins, I'll give soaking them a try. Maybe if I'm lucky they'll send me a whole extra kit and I'll just have some wonky fins on this one

whiskeyBear326 said:

Glad you like the midget! When I got into rocketry in high school I had a mentor who had a thing for the midget, he's built 'em in just about every size https://www.doug79.com/midgets/

Thanks for the advice on flattening out the fins, I'll give soaking them a try. Maybe if I'm lucky they'll send me a whole extra kit and I'll just have some wonky fins on this one

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Yes, Doug has a thing for the Midgets.

I've always liked them...might have to actually build one.

whiskeyBear326 said:

Glad you like the midget! When I got into rocketry in high school I had a mentor who had a thing for the midget, he's built 'em in just about every size https://www.doug79.com/midgets/

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Ha! Fantastic Doug's site is one I've visited a number of times since I got into rocketry - he's got a great fleet!

Keep us up to date on where you're at with Estes

Krusty

Over the weekend, I got several rockets in primer, so last night was the routine of sanding and blending to get the fuzzies off and things smoothed out. Then on to painting initial coats.

Firecat & Black Brant III:


Big Der V-3:


Also not shown - I started putting a coat of white on a rocket I call Prometheus, which I started a couple months ago, put aside, and dug back out again with hopes of having it fly at LDRS. More on that later.

krusty said:

Ha! Fantastic Doug's site is one I've visited a number of times since I got into rocketry - he's got a great fleet!

Keep us up to date on where you're at with Estes

Krusty

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Talked with Estes customer service today & had a wonderfully pleasant experience. The Leviathan is now out of stock & they don't have any fins to send at the moment, so they are sending me another PSII rocket of my choice (Partizon). Oh...and also, I get to keep the Leviathan and when they get them back in stock they'll send me a new fin set for it

Good work Estes, your customer service does not go unnoticed!

whiskeyBear326 said:

Talked with Estes customer service today & had a wonderfully pleasant experience. The Leviathan is now out of stock & they don't have any fins to send at the moment, so they are sending me another PSII rocket of my choice (Partizon). Oh...and also, I get to keep the Leviathan and when they get them back in stock they'll send me a new fin set for it

Good work Estes, your customer service does not go unnoticed!

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Fantastic news!! And the Partizon's a nice looking rocket

Krusty

Shot a second coat of fijish primer on my Garage Sale rocket nose cone

Kenny

Decided I like my still-under-construction Estes D-Region Tomahawk that I found a good deal on eBay and ordered a second one as a backup.

Loaded up the Nissan and pointed it in the direction of Potter, NY.

LDRS OR BUST

Drove and arrived safely with this guy to Geneva, NY for LDRS34!

Host hotel is fine, right on the lake and quite picturesque. See you on the field tomorrow.

Hosted a rocket building party last night with all the Estes Pro Series Kits that came in. 6 new shiny Pro-Series rockets completed and waiting for paint.