URRG September 28 & 29

Let's try this again...

Planning to attend this launch. Bringing my 54mm Mongoose to fly on a 54-2550 Kosdon Slow clone. This time, I am intending to fly it without the payload bay, and all electronics in the nose (Raven 2 and Tragic Little Aerospace GPS). Should use up most of the waiver!

Also planning my repaired Competitor 5 on a 98-3G Superfast M2900.

Anyone else attending?

Bump! Is there even a launch?

Mongoose 54 is coming along. 7.4V battery for the TLA GPS transmitter is waiting for me at home, as is the LiPo charger I ordered from Amazon. I have made the electronics bay sled, mounted the Raven/Power Perch and TLA GPS, an made the stepped bulkhead for the cone.

Many thanks to GaryT for getting the nosecone and bulkheads to me so quickly! These FWFG nosecones are incredibly nice to mount electronics in.

Once I finish the Av Bay, I will upload some pictures. Assuming the final weight is 8.8#, altitude estimates are 20,500' at 2,100 fps, according to OpenRocket. Realistically, I will be happy with 18,000 and 1,800 fps, but we'll see!

For now, the Competor 5 is stating home. I will bring a 3" rocket with a Kosdon I300 and a 54-1050 Swamp Gas, but my primary focus will be launching and recovering the Mongoose. That could take all day!

Yes there will be a launch! We have gotten quite a few e-mail inquirys about it so we should have a good number of fliers show up. The weather forecast looks perfect, and I have just received word that the corn is down!

Looking forward to your flights Dan, are you coming both days?

shearpin said:

Yes there will be a launch! We have gotten quite a few e-mail inquirys about it so we should have a good number of fliers show up. The weather forecast looks perfect, and I have just received word that the corn is down!

Looking forward to your flights Dan, are you coming both days?

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Nope, just Saturday. Driving from North of Albany, so I'm only making the trip for the day.

Welp, a bit of a bummer today. My Mongoose 54 was the first flight of the day, simulated to go 20,500' at 2100 fps. The rocket was pointed ever so slightly toward the length of the field, but it did not actually fly in that direction. Instead, the rocket went more towards the medium-length of the field, and then drifted to the short end. :-(

Here's where it gets confusing...the GPS gave me the following coordiates: 42.717050, -77.204143

We show up...no rocket! Check the GPS again...still transmitting...not moving...wtf!?! My brother and I scanned the field for 2 hours without any luck. The speed at which the rocket fell as tracked by the GPS suggests that the main MAY have come out at apogee. Regardless, we lost transmission with the GPS, went out to the last coordinate it broadcast and picked the signal up again! It was there somewhere, but nowhere to be found today. Pissed.

Came back, had a Coke, and flew my Intimidator 3 on a 54-1050 Orange to 3,761'. Had a 1400 loaded prior to the launch, but backed off to make sure I got it back. Perfect flight.

Thanks to URRG for hosting this launch! Nice relaxing day, beautiful weather. Maybe I will make it back out when the leaves are down to see if I am in the bank of trees near the coordinates it gave me.

What program did you punch in your GPS coordinates to locate it?

jderimig said:

What program did you punch in your GPS coordinates to locate it?

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I have a Garmin Etrex. I plugged them into my phone as the link shows, 42.717050, -77.204143.

The Garmin Etrex would not take the "42.7," it would only go to .5. This was very confusing, and leads me to believe I may have been doing something wrong. Did I make a rookie mistake?

If the Etrex only goes to 0.5 its sounds like to me it wants coordinates in Degrees.minutes. It sounds like you got GPS coordinates in decimal degrees. A minute of latitude is about 1 mile so that is potentially a big error. Your Garmin probably has a setup where you can specify the input format of GPS coordinates.

If you have a smart phone or a computer with Google maps you can enter the coordinates there and see where your rocket is. Make sure you preface the coordinates with LOC:.

According to google your rocket may be here:

jderimig said:

If the Etrex only goes to 0.5 its sounds like to me it wants coordinates in Degrees.minutes. It sounds like you got GPS coordinates in decimal degrees. A minute of latitude is about 1 mile so that is potentially a big error. Your Garmin probably has a setup where you can specify the input format of GPS coordinates.

If you have a smart phone or a computer with Google maps you can enter the coordinates there and see where your rocket is. Make sure you preface the coordinates with LOC:.

According to google your rocket may be here:

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Interestingly enough, I walked up to that house to ask if I could go into their field...

As you can see, that is not far from where I was looking, which would explain the transmitter re-establishing connection with the receiver.

This has me hoping for one of two things: at a future date I can go back and knock on their door, or they found it today and will return it to the club tomorrow.

Thanks for your help John!

$100 to the first person that goes and gets it tomorrow

Phone number? Maybe an URRG club member can get it for you.

I sent an email to Bill Clune to see how to best handle this with the interest of the club in mind.

If someone gets it, or is planning to get it, shoot me an email at [email protected]. I prefer to not give out my phone number on the forum.

Dan- sorry to hear that you did not get the Goose back, if Johns positioning is correct, looks like it landed right in someones barnyard. If so, they should be bringing it back to the club today.

My G3 rocket, Powderfinger's Last Stand flew shortly after yours on that M1500. Flight went perfect, finding it was a bitch. After me and my son tracked it about a mile or so to the southwest on a wooded ridge, I went back and Pete Allen brought his Com-Spec receiver to help finish finding it. Checked back with the landowner before going back in , and Pete spotted it about 70 ft up in a large maple tree. The tree was about 100 ft on an adjoining landowners property, so went and talked to her.
Cutting the tree down was not an option, but both landowners know and have had work done by a local tree service, and gave me his number.
He is going in sometime this week to look at getting it down and will be contacting me. Nice landowners around our club, they always seem to work with us as long as we always touch base with them before going on their property. Thanks so much Pete for your help!
If your rocket does not show up Dan, when I go back up I can take a look for it .

Thank you so much!

Wish you luck with yours as well.

Dan, I am not sure if those coordinates I plotted are your "final" on the ground coordinate or last received (in the air). If the latter simply use Google Maps or Google earth and draw a line from the launch pad location to the plotted way point. Your rocket will be on that line past the waypoint.

(PS I have alot of experience finding my own rockets this way).

jderimig said:

Dan, I am not sure if those coordinates I plotted are your "final" on the ground coordinate or last received (in the air). If the latter simply use Google Maps or Google earth and draw a line from the launch pad location to the plotted way point. Your rocket will be on that line past the waypoint. (PS I have alot of experience finding my own rockets this way).

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The coordinates I provided were from 2 hours after I launched it . We were receiving data from the transmitter live as we were searching for the rocket. It didn't move the whole time (apart from negligible small fluctuations).

Really hoping the rocket was found by the homeowner and is returned today. If not, I will head out next month with hopes of finding it.

Dan your Lucky Every family on that side of the field Loves us.... I think the only problem will be hunting season, once it starts they wont let us back in there till Christmas!!! I Think I will be heading out there tomorrow, Ill draw the line John mentioned and knock on some doors.
I flew my G3 on the smallest motor she has ever had in her a 54mm 3 grain (I couldn't find a liner for the 6 grain). I spent my entire afternoon looking for my G3 (nearly the same rocket as shearpins) My tracker was sending me all over Hells High Acre, I thought someone grabbed my rocket and ran away with it. I eventually found the G3 I was tracking BUT Turns out I was Tracking Shearpin's G3.
So the fun begins... I really need to get a Rocketry Specific GPS system HINT HINT you Know who you are!!

wclune said:

Dan your Lucky Every family on that side of the field Loves us.... I think the only problem will be hunting season, once it starts they wont let us back in there till Christmas!!! I Think I will be heading out there tomorrow, Ill draw the line John mentioned and knock on some doors.
I flew my G3 on the smallest motor she has ever had in her a 54mm 3 grain (I couldn't find a liner for the 6 grain). I spent my entire afternoon looking for my G3 (nearly the same rocket as shearpins) My tracker was sending me all over Hells High Acre, I thought someone grabbed my rocket and ran away with it. I eventually found the G3 I was tracking BUT Turns out I was Tracking Shearpin's G3.
So the fun begins... I really need to get a Rocketry Specific GPS system HINT HINT you Know who you are!!

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Many thanks, Bill. My bounty still stands!

My guess is it landed very close to that house/barn. If the gentleman has mowed his lawn, he probably found it. I know for a fact it's close, as the GPS was reading loud and clear...That would be epic if I got it back!

Just talked it over with the wife, we'll be out in October to hopefully zero in on the Mongoose. I'll also bring along my Competitor 5 to fly on a 98-7000 Fast motor to 9,500'.

Okay,

Many thanks to John for his insight on the coordinate format issue. I have now successfully changed the input format for the handheld Garmin ETrex unit, so that's that. It's reporting that the rocket is 173 miles away (as the crow flies), which seems feasible due to the drive being 208.

Assuming no one has found it already, I will be heading out on the 19th with slightly more confidence than before. Until then, I keep my eyes on eBay

Score I pulled the goose out.

wclune said:

Score I pulled the goose out.

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Really!!!! Awesome!!! See you next month!

wclune said:

Score I pulled the goose out.

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Oh, and post pics!