What did you do rocket wise today?

A little bit of painting

Cl(VII) said:

Pulled my alt data on two flights from Airfest:

Go Devil 38 on Loki K627: 16871 ft at Mach 2.3
Mongoose 54 on Loki L1400: 18345 at Mach 2.1

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Do either of those have tip to tip laminations? I'm building a GoDevil 38, a carbon Tomach 54, and soon a GoDevil 54. The sims for the big Lokis are all in Mach 2.5+ range, so I'm planning on a T2T on the 54s because it seems to be the cool thing to do. I'd rather not add the weight if it's not really necessary though.

Also, what parachute do you have in the 54?

Downloaded the L1040 Flight data from monday.

And the K250W flight.

Ground tested the main on my Solar Warrior. Broke the shear pins no problem but the chute stayed rolled up in the NC shoulder. Not good. Will try a little more BP to get better extension as well as stuffing as much harness above the chute and into the shoulder as I can to give the chute more freedom during deployment.

AeroAggie said:

Do either of those have tip to tip laminations? I'm building a GoDevil 38, a carbon Tomach 54, and soon a GoDevil 54. The sims for the big Lokis are all in Mach 2.5+ range, so I'm planning on a T2T on the 54s because it seems to be the cool thing to do. I'd rather not add the weight if it's not really necessary though.

Also, what parachute do you have in the 54?

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Both have t2t with 2 layers of CF. There really isn't much weight added given the fins on the 54 were bagged, and I weighted the 38 pretty good with a bleader layer in between. Not a lot of excess epoxy, but a lot of stiffness gained.

For the 54 I went drogueless with a a 24" Fruity Chute Compact Elliptical. It hit at about 32 fps I think...fast, but landing in plowed farm fields, so ok. I would have used my 36" compact elliptical had it not been in another rocket at the time.

Wayco said:

Just finished unpacking the trailer after our 2060 mile round trip to Airfest. Now our front room has that essence of black powder and AP from the 13 rockets we flew last weekend. They are crowded in with all the chemicals and rocket stuff from the estate sale we scored last week. Along with all the propellant Sharon bought at the launch. Looks like at least a week of cleaning, sorting and storing. Ah, the trials and tribulations of being married to a rocket addict.

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Wayne you know you love it. I cant wait to see Sharon's video of our trip to the pads.

Cl(VII) said:

Both have t2t with 2 layers of CF. There really isn't much weight added given the fins on the 54 were bagged, and I weighted the 38 pretty good with a bleader layer in between. Not a lot of excess epoxy, but a lot of stiffness gained.

For the 54 I went drogueless with a a 24" Fruity Chute Compact Elliptical. It hit at about 32 fps I think...fast, but landing in plowed farm fields, so ok. I would have used my 36" compact elliptical had it not been in another rocket at the time.

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Thanks! Does your Fruity 36 fit well? I picked up a Sky Angle 36 this weekend at Airfest but to my dismay it's really way too big. It does kinda fit, but doesn't really leave room for anything else.

The 36 COMPACT fits ok. I don't know if the normal would. I had been using a 30" thin mill from TFR before, and that works fits with plenty of room, but it was in my 38 MD. I was doing parachute musical chairs.

With the 24" compact I was able to get my BRB 70cm beacon in a 3D printed case in the payload section as well. The deployment of the 24" was also controlled by a JL chute release, so there was plenty of room in there with that chute.

Packed the chute for my finished Estes Amazon. My first rocket is now ready to fly! (I went way above what was necessary for this E2X kit. Perfectly filleted fins/lugs and a near-flawless glossy finish! Tis all practice for more impressive kits.)

Put four layers of Gloss on the nose cone of my Crossfire. Just need to polish it now. Also did the first rough pass filleting on the fins and body tube.

Eight days remaining to Midland Sky! Hoping to have two rockets fully functional by then!

RCgothic said:

Packed the chute for my finished Estes Amazon. My first rocket is now ready to fly! (I went way above what was necessary for this E2X kit. Perfectly filleted fins/lugs and a near-flawless glossy finish! Tis all practice for more impressive kits.)

Put four layers of Gloss on the nose cone of my Crossfire. Just need to polish it now. Also did the first rough pass filleting on the fins and body tube.

Eight days remaining to Midland Sky! Hoping to have to rockets fully functional by then!

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Pics?

In pulling video from my GoPro of my L3 attempt I noticed I caught the subsequent launch from the same pad up close. My condolences. Really bad luck on where the rocket came down.

[YOUTUBE]jzFgJ90AAE8[/YOUTUBE]

snrkl said:

Pics?

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upload image gif

Crossfire is looking a little rough right now, but it should clean up nicely.

Nice!

Inventoried the boxes of reloads in advance of the rocket season here in Cali. 101 total. I think I'm covered. 65 AT Single Use/DMS as well.

One thing I've been pondering a bit yesterday is that an Amazon could be modified to accept some MUCH larger motors than the B and C it's designed for. There's a lot of empty space in that lower body tube! I reckon it could handle 24mm motors easily with a motor mount tube and perhaps a bit of nose ballast to correct the CG. There's a good chance it could even go for a full G.

Is this a crazy idea?

RCgothic said:

One thing I've been pondering a bit yesterday is that an Amazon could be modified to accept some MUCH larger motors than the B and C it's designed for. There's a lot of empty space in that lower body tube! I reckon it could handle 24mm motors easily with a motor mount tube and perhaps a bit of nose ballast to correct the CG. There's a good chance it could even go for a full G.

Is this a crazy idea?

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Full G may be a bit excessive, but I've got a Helicat that I bored out to take 24x70's it goes great on D12-7's. https://youtu.be/7RYS2JCyLko?t=44

dhbarr said:

L1 on an Estes Mammoth, modified only as follows:
>snip<
I built it on the range at Argonia w/BSI 5min epoxy and flew an H97J, JLCR @300ft and landed almost in the road.

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Very cool. Congratulations.

A little more painting. Pulled some masking strips off to see how things went

Did some design brainstorming work on a potential L3 rocket, an upscaled/modified Quicksilver. Might be fun...

Went to club meeting, saw a successful L3 rocket that went Mach 3. High Temp enamel was stripped off the nose and deposited on the body leaving THE best fade paint job I've ever seen.

Applied the name to my Fissile Missile. (My red white and BlueCC Explorer visible in the back.



Also took delivery of a new piece of furniture, discretely left at my doorstep by fedex.......
Also visible is my apartment number! I've been considering taping a spent D12 to the door knocker just for laughs.

Started reading G. Harry Stine's "Handbook of Model Rocketry." Better late than never. As someone who isn't a 12 year old in 1963 I find the first few chapters kind of amusingly quaint, but of historical interest. Looks like it gets more interesting later on. After this I have Mark Canepa's "Modern High-Power Rocketry 2" ready to go.

Cleaned motor cases, printed some more EggFinder mini sleds (thanks for the orders all), and continued planning next year's Airfest project. :dark:

Box from Mad Cow's sale came yesterday. It was like Christmas. I realized I needed some more nomex and Kevlar, so ordered those. Builds will start this weekend.

Nytrunner said:

Went to club meeting, saw a successful L3 rocket that went Mach 3. High Temp enamel was stripped off the nose and deposited on the body leaving THE best fade paint job I've ever seen.

Applied the name to my Fissile Missile. (My red white and BlueCC Explorer visible in the back.

View attachment 327604

Also took delivery of a new piece of furniture, discretely left at my doorstep by fedex.......
Also visible is my apartment number! I've been considering taping a spent D12 to the door knocker just for laughs.

View attachment 327605

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Was that the L3 flight at AF? That was the most extreme L3 flight I've seen!! Peter I think? Amazing

I'm digging the BlueCC!!

Bought a few packs of estes motors and an Estes V2 at 50% off at the local hobby store. They say that they're reducing their inventory in preparation for remodeling...


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Nick@JET said:

Was that the L3 flight at AF? That was the most extreme L3 flight I've seen!! Peter I think? Amazing

I'm digging the BlueCC!!

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Peter Wetzel, yes it was. The back end looked like someone painted it with orange silly string. It was in the back with the show and tell stuff, and I saw that there were "unpainted" streaks on the tube behind the four threaded inserts. I couldn't for the life of me figure out how he'd got that effect with the fade, until we were talking afterwards and he said he Only painted the nose and Fin unit. Mach 3 basically stripped the nose and painted the bare fiberglass body tube...!

It was an impressively simple rocket. 1 single 4ft fiberglass tube, 75mm minimum diameter on a Loki M that took 3/4 the length. Nose blow with small drogue and main reefed with a cable cutter.
And.....he built it in 2 weeks. I think this is the flickr album L3 MD

And thanks! That means a lot coming from the new King of the QCC!

Speaking of the R/W/BlueCC Explorer, it is now fully detailed and awaiting launch (hopefully Sunday! the city mowed our TARC practice field!)



And the Fissile Missile is done with its cosmetics also!
More about that on The Road to L2!