What did you do rocket wise today?

I mixed up a batch of ProLine 4500 epoxy and West Systems 406 silica in order to replace (again) the tip of the nose cone on my Formula 75.

morlock said:

Watched October Sky

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Now that's a good movie!

Nate

I started working on this to help me track my rockets.

Got up early and prepped for my L1/L2 today.

Alex

Good luck Alex!

I've got a launch tomorrow - in fact, it will be my first launch where I'm actually flying in a year!

It's a small launch site and there's a few trees...



So the rule of the day is low flights and disposable rockets

Each launch has a theme. Past themes have included smallest rocket and rockets made with candy packaging.

The theme for this launch is toilet paper tubes.

I've built two rockets - one is your run-of-the-mill tube fin job



And the other is an x-wing!





Yeah, I'm too lazy tonight to photograph them properly... I'll post photos after the launch

Krusty

Finished rebuilding the Estes D-Region Tomahawk. Couple of fins had popped off due to a snapped stock rubber shock cord and subsequent hard landing. Pulled remaining fins off along with lugs and trim piece, cleaned out the remnants of the airplane glue I initially used (I know, what was I thinking!?) Rebuilt using Loctite 5-min epoxy. Used a length of sewing elastic (left over from my Partizon build) for the new cord. Very solid now.

Just got an order from apogee in the mail with little odds and ends I've been meaning to buy for a while. Finally got VIR status!

Find a shock cord, I just need to build a rocket to fit it

Attended my first local rocketry group meeting.

Applied some Fillets to my 29mm Crossfire.

Went to the local club launch and got rained out.

Been working on the 7, now 9, rockets in the build que at various stages, most are at the filler/sanding stage. A usual bottleneck. This is about the best weather for painting so finishing up all but the last two I've been working on. The last two I have to wait on, I ran out of balsa. I have some 1/16th" basswood and I might just go with that but the idea is to have two comparative rockets. The started with a pair of SEMROC 2050 transitions. Next, into the nosecone drawer for a BNC20 G5 and a BNC50 G5. The rockets are designed along the lines of FSI Sprint and Nova rockets. They are built to 18mm motor size with a mount in the BT50 Nova-ish rocket. I'm drilling a hole through the transitions. I use a brad-point drill and hold the transition in a gloved hand, I use my welder's gloves. Drill from the small end to larger one for best control over the drill and I've never had a problem.....yet They should really go, the G5 cones are long and really slick. I'm thinking A8-5, B6-6, C6-7 upper stage motors and chrome mylar streamers so I can at least follow them down

I had to cut the upper tube off at the transition on the BT60 to BT55 rocket I've been working on. I was adding filets to the fins when I noticed the upper tube was cranked to the lower Cleaned up rather well and my cut was small so it didn't bleed too much(yeah, I made a tiny 1/8th" cut on a finger tip) Think I'll take my own advice and put the top back on with Gorilla Glue, it doesn't grab.

Picked up some adhesives; Epoxy, weld, CA. Thought about giving a bt55 booster it's own airframe.

- Cut fins slots for TTW mounting on the booster of the Critical Mass
- Sanded the edges of the fins of booster
- Will glue them tonight

Starting to look like the completed rocket

Launched a bunch of rockets in high winds... Mostly successful. Link to the YouTube playlist is below.
There was one video of a Lil' Nuke going horizontal on an F22 that is fun to watch but has a few, shall we say, rare words that I chose not to post. Luckily recovered with only nosecone damage! Bought a new NC from Wildman right away, so all is good. Speaking of the Wildman, his steak sandwiches were fantastic, and the new 29mm CTI shardware starter kit will be fun for years to come. Also, TONS of thanks to Rex for all the help learning how to put together an Aerotech F reload. MUCH appreciated!
Thanks to the guys of WHOOSH for making it all happen. And djs, the streak of bad luck losing rockets is bound to break any day now...
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLx7yWAPgkjQOlxxu6iovRYupsCqLMm_wd

looks like you shrank . and you're welcome. am reasonably sure that you'll catch on to all the subtle nuances fairly quickly.
Rex

Sorry about that misfire on your Lil' Nuke..

CzTeacherMan said:

And djs, the streak of bad luck losing rockets is bound to break any day now...

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it better! I'm assembling my LOC- Weasel in my basement and don't particularly want to lose it!

Worked on my new launch pad, did more work on my Ascender, and more work on mega mosquito.


Launching rockets (or missiles in my case) is so easy a chimp could do it. Read a step, do a step, eat a banana.

Sent from my iPad Air using Rocketry Forum.

chadrog said:

Sorry about that misfire on your Lil' Nuke..

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No problem... Luckily, I hit record as you were pushing the button... Unluckily, I should've given a little more kick. Next time, I think the G53 will solve that problem.

Checked my mailbox for the latest edition of Sport Rocketry.

CzTeacherMan said:

No problem... Luckily, I hit record as you were pushing the button... Unluckily, I should've given a little more kick. Next time, I think the G53 will solve that problem.

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An F52 would work too, if you want to keep it a bit lower. Those F22's can't loft much, but I'm still surprised your Lil' Nuke did what it did - wind was maybe a bit of a factor.

chadrog said:

An F52 would work too, if you want to keep it a bit lower. Those F22's can't loft much, but I'm still surprised your Lil' Nuke did what it did - wind was maybe a bit of a factor.

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I was going for lots of smoke... The F52 worked well on the Sport, though. Would've gone with the G53, but didn't want to chase the wind...
Thanks again, great launch!

Had a good day launching at Moffett Field.
and my first time with a camera on a rocket, its a Lil Goblin
first launch is a f52 second is a f42
[youtube]m4WC-hMnpCI&feature=youtu.be[/youtube]
[youtube]HOan83JeySE&feature=youtu.be[/youtube]
we had Golden Eagles observing us from above and a couple of delay because of Osprey flying in and out.

Last night I decided to fly my Mean Green at the LUNAR launch today. I knew I needed to swap in a chute and as I was giving the rocket a once-over, I discovered not one, but two partially separated fins. I was looking more closely at the motor hook since it seemed a bit bent out and I wanted to make sure the rocket wasn't going to spit motors at ejection when I noticed a crack in the paint near one of the fin fillets. Looking more closely at that, I saw that the fin was still attached, but that the tube was partially delaminated. I tried to do the fix with wood glue at first (using a toothpick to work it in under the crack, but most of it just squeezed back out. Thin CA did the trick. (I did manage to almost glue my gloves to the rocket in the process.) I decided to harden the exposed balsa on the edges of the fins with some thin CA as well. (That tarmac, and wind at Moffett can be rough on rocket finishes.) While I was doing that was when I found the second fin with the same hairline crack and partially delaminated tube.

In all honesty, the rocket probably would have been fine. The fins weren't wobbly, but why take the chance? I got one flight in on a D12-5, but managed to not set my A2 to launch ready status before the flight. (Or it reset while we were on hold for the C-17 that taxied out to 32-L and took off)

The rest of the day was spent helping check in rockets and hand out pad assignments, with a couple of quick stints helping new flyers out at the pads. Oh and a break to record Thirsty's flight. We had a pretty good crowd out there today. A couple of hundred flights easy. (Probably could have been a record day if we hadn't had to hold for the C-17 and the 2 Ospreys that were also using the airfield today. Although getting to see those Ospreys take off was pretty cool.)

Attended the SARG club meeting this morning where we conducted some club business and then got into the good stuff: Show and tell (100k' 2 stage rocket, ARLISS rocket, Night Flyer complete with in the dark demo, homemade/DIY GPS system, Eggfinder system, WildMan Jr 2 stage), and a number of cert and ARLISS videos.

Naturally I left the meeting with the rockety bug in overdrive.

Last night, Mrs. OD and I watched an excellent rocketry video on youtube called "The Beginner's Guide to Amateur High Power Rocketry" by Brian FitzGerald. It's about 2-1/2 hours long, shot in Hi Def, and features rockets and interviews at Argonia, POT ROC in Amarillo, and a mixing party. A surprise guest in this video is Quentin Wilson who is one of the original "Rocket Boys" of Coalwood WV. Guess what? He still flies rockets.

o1d_dude said:

Attended the SARG club meeting this morning where we conducted some club business and then got into the good stuff: Show and tell (100k' 2 stage rocket, ARLISS rocket, Night Flyer complete with in the dark demo, homemade/DIY GPS system, Eggfinder system, WildMan Jr 2 stage), and a number of cert and ARLISS videos.

Naturally I left the meeting with the rockety bug in overdrive.

Last night, Mrs. OD and I watched an excellent rocketry video on youtube called "The Beginner's Guide to Amateur High Power Rocketry" by Brian FitzGerald. It's about 2-1/2 hours long, shot in Hi Def, and features rockets and interviews at Argonia, POT ROC in Amarillo, and a mixing party. A surprise guest in this video is Quentin Wilson who is one of the original "Rocket Boys" of Coalwood WV. Guess what? He still flies rockets.

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Nice seeing you at the meeting. Sorry I had to leave a bit early. My very well behaved 5 year old made it through an hour and half and I didn't want to press my luck any further!

Went to the THOR launch with the 3" Darkstar today. New 3D printed altimeter sled for my Telemega. All three performed admirably on a K570 and then on a L990 to wrap things up. 12,625 ft AGL and mach 1.2 on the L990. Broke both the first L class motor, 2-mile, and verified 1+ mach club today. (I've had other rockets that simmed to mach, but never any definitive proof. Probably one of the best launch weather days as the day went on. It started a little cloudy but was all blue skies and relatively calm winds by time for the L launch. K570 was about 500ft from flight line and L990 was about .75 miles (only had to walk through about 800 feet of corn and/or beans.)

I think this bird has earned it's paint. Now to pick a color scheme...

Met a couple of new rocketeers at the site; they were there with cameras today, but I have a feeling there will be some rockets next time.

Also got three more Telemega boards from OSHPark in today to replace the one that lawn-darted/core-sampled at AIRFest.

Doug

Flew my leviathan (F23FJ) and my two stage mega mosquito at moffet today in addition to my G-force and some LPR.