What did you do rocket wise today?

Made the trip from my previous secret location back to the homestead. That was yesterday, but slept from afternoon until this morning. Almost feel alive again....

Threw some money at Estes on their sales page for another QCC Explorer, a Mammoth, and a second Trajector. I think I have a problem.

Helped about two dozen kids launch some Alphas.

Nike Hercules booster finished enough to move on to the sustainer fins, will come back later and add some additional detail with cardstock to the 4 into 1 transition similar to the bolt plate between the fins.



https://tricitiesrocketeers.freeforums.net/thread/360/nike-hercules-stage-build-thread

That's looking really great, one of my favorite scale models. Nice work so far.

Nice video George! You can hear the traffic, but especially the blades as it comes down.
A copter recovery isn't something I've ever done. You are inspiring.

dhbarr said:

Helped about two dozen kids launch some Alphas.

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Very nice. How old are those kids?

[nostalgia]I was the designated builder for the Alpha that came in the "F.R.O.G.S" kit my 5th grade teacher bought for the class -- in 197-something. The class after mine lost that rocket in the woods just past the playing field. In grad school I TAed for 200-level honors engineering physics students in a lab were they built and flew something (not an Alpha, but very similar in my fuzzy and uncertain recollection). The bookstore ordered C6-5s, instead of 1/2A motors and we were unable to complete the lab (measuring the apogee altitude with Altitrack to be compared to predictions from a program running on an Apple II) because launch day had low overcast and the rockets all disappeared into the cloud-deck before ejection. Most of those rockets were never seen again.[/nostalgia]

As for what I did (am doing) rocket-wise today; tool paths for the fins on a Mammoth-to-WAC Corporal kit-bash. OR says it will be stable off the rod and make 150 meters on a D12, but I am building the motor mount long enough for a CTI 6-grain case -- just because.



I am also speaking very sternly to myself about NOT ordering the PSII bundle currently on Estes Specials page. I don't need any more 2 inch rocket parts. I certainly don't need another copy of that goofy Trajector nosecone or any more plastic fins.

dhbarr said:

Helped about two dozen kids launch some Alphas.

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Thank you for paying forward...
I hope it rewards you as much as it rewards those kids..

Teddy

Finished my Fire in the Sky 2017 video yesterday and got it uploaded overnight.

[video=youtube;JALM-BvO2Jg]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JALM-BvO2Jg[/video]

Got my Jawstand Pad ready for next weekends Tri-Cities Rocketeers 3 day June Swoosh launch. Equipped with 20mm Mini rail and a 15mm micro rail. Have to take sort of a break on the Nike Hercules until after that launch is over, some stuff will get done over the next week just not at the build pace I have been currently going.

jlabrasca said:

Very nice. How old are those kids?

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6th-9th? I must confess, I didn't get to know them as individuals ( other than the one who showed me what looked like a 7.5in PML airframe w/blown out 54mm tube & a Loki sticker ; he got it at a yard sale! )

Onebadhawk said:

Thank you for paying forward...
I hope it rewards you as much as it rewards those kids..

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All credit goes to their science teacher, who has been helping local kids build & launch their first rockets since the 70's. Extra credit for letting me show up & play rocket repairman.

les said:

They say there is more than one way to skin a cat (which really upsets the felines that folks are thinking up these different methods...:wink

But I've been using an Accur8 skin kit on my Interceptor.
Nearly done...

View attachment 321601

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That looks awesome! That is one rocket that really deserves a good finish. Good work!

Just placed an order for an 808-16 with the wide angle lens off e(vil)bay. Made sure it was from a US seller with 100% feedback. Hopefully I don't get a dud....
Right now just planning for the tape method of mounting, but we'll see

T-Rex said:

Just placed an order for an 808-16 with the wide angle lens off e(vil)bay. Made sure it was from a US seller with 100% feedback. Hopefully I don't get a dud....
Right now just planning for the tape method of mounting, but we'll see

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The tape method works. I have shrouds on a few rockets, but tape is what I use on those without. Usually do a few wraps with masking tape, then a few wraps with electrical tape over top. Only issue I've had was on a 5" Wildman Drago XL. Rocket was at Mach 1 about 500' off the pad and the camera shifted and the tape pressed the start/stop button and it stopped recording. But that was with a Mobius, the buttons may be different on the 808.

over the winter, my wife was looking over my shoulder when I was looking at Binder Design's website, and she commented on how she liked the look of the Bat, and that "I should build one for her". Well, a few weeks ago I decided to go ahead and pick up the kit, and after it arrived, I asked her if she wanted to help with the build at all, since I bought it, and was planning on building it for her, and she said sure! She now has all three fins secured, and we only have two external fillets left to do.


I told her that if she wanted to, we could have it ready to fly naked at next weekend's launch in Pasco. Sadly, she declined that idea.

But hey, I got my wife to build a rocket with me! The best part is she said she's having fun doing it! Now, If I could just get her to join NAR and go for her L1...

Flyfalcons said:

Finished my Fire in the Sky 2017 video yesterday and got it uploaded overnight.

[video=youtube;JALM-BvO2Jg]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JALM-BvO2Jg[/video]

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Great video, Ryan! I was there on Friday, and planned to be back on Saturday, but had something come up. Are you going to be at the TCR launch next weekend?

krislhull said:

Great video, Ryan! I was there on Friday, and planned to be back on Saturday, but had something come up. Are you going to be at the TCR launch next weekend?

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Yep, Saturday and Sunday. Won't be camping but I'll at least be hanging out Saturday evening until heading off to the hotel for some Z's. I have a J420R that I'm really looking forward to trying out, among other flights.

Registered for Airfest.

Prepped for a rocket class I'm teaching to 36 kids tomorrow.

Built an Art Applewhite 18mm monocopter.

3D printed several parts of a modular rocket designed by Landru I found on thingiverse.

Productive!

So I'm sitting at the hotel watching Trailer Park Boys when all of a sudden........

Getting my to do list ready for the mad dash prep and finish getting ready for next weekends TCR June Swoosh launch. Put the accent colors on my two Alphas, and the final color coat on my Nova Payloader, touched up the sections on my Big Bertha and Mega Mosquito that ran (Krylon Industrial is good stuff, but it runs pretty easy if you forget its the real thing), color coated my FatBoy. Sewed lines on three each 6", 8", 12", 18" chutes, two 24" chutes and a chute made from the patterns from the Vatsaas spreadsheet (aka ChuteCalc). All chutes were sewn or hemmed yesterday. Lots of getting ready for next weekends 3 day launch.

Although not strictly rocket wise, (rocket related) I mediocrely assembled one of those Metal Earth Lunar Landers.

I also discovered this, which I found interesting:
https://books.google.com/ngrams/gra...t;,c0;,s0;;rocket;,c0;;Rocket;,c0;;ROCKET;,c0

My 1/32 in , 360 lbf string finally came. Need to buy a kite to go with it for "testing"

Cut and dry-fitted the fins for the 2" WAC Corporal. Pretty sure the MM tube will fit.

Using the Mammoth nose cone and the un-cut body tube from the Trajector it matches the proportions of the K-11 pretty well. Think I am going to finish it and call poetic license on the discrepancies.

Working on the profile for the BT80-based WAC Corporal fins today. Now that I've got a better handle on Fusion 360, I am going to try to mill an elliptical airfoil with a 12° root to tip taper. Since I'll be losing the double-diamond bevels, I am trying to decide if I want to put a tail-cone on the big one and make it look more like a downscale of the original rocket than an like upscale of the K-11 kit.

I'm a few days late as this happened Sunday, June 11th. The Wright Stuff Rocketeers had a NAR competition this weekend and the first event was spot landing. I have a dedicated rocket I use for this event (the rocket is named Spot), but this time I pulled out my Bat finned rocket (H.E.R.B. (Holy Exothermic Reaction Batman!)) and dedicated the flight to Adam West (TV's Batman who died last week). Sadly, I didn't do well as I was about 52 meters from the pin. Nothing under 50 gets scored. Sorry Adam.

Zeus-cat said:

I'm a few days late as this happened Sunday, June 11th. The Wright Stuff Rocketeers had a NAR competition this weekend and the first event was spot landing. I have a dedicated rocket I use for this event (the rocket is named Spot), but this time I pulled out my Bat finned rocket (H.E.R.B. (Holy Exothermic Reaction Batman!)) and dedicated the flight to Adam West (TV's Batman who died last week). Sadly, I didn't do well as I was about 52 meters from the pin. Nothing under 50 gets scored. Sorry Adam.

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I saw a photo on the NAR FB page the other day of the guy who won that event. I think it said 7 cm!

Got final paint & assembly done on the Vector Force upscale. Need to reassemble and repack the recovery gear, but I'm hoping to launch it on Saturday with SCORE in Pueblo.

Went to the clubs monthly meeting, came home and started finalizing rockets (recovery harnesses, parachutes, etc) for this weekend. Almost pulled a no brainer and almost forgot to add the 2.25oz of nose weight to the Centuri Bulldog clone, Doh!

TangoJuliet said:

I saw a photo on the NAR FB page the other day of the guy who won that event. I think it said 7 cm!

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70cm, slightly over half a meter or about 2 feet. He did that on Saturday and I went on Sunday so I did not see it.

I cleaned up everything from my rocket class, and the rest of the garage/shop while I was at it. Also, got my 3D printer in it's box, so I should have an easier time printing some materials like ABS and Nylon.