Boris Katan flights 2014 -> Clusters are Fun <-

The Rocketry Forum

Help Support The Rocketry Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Wimp. There were no 33 mph gusts but the wind was pretty steady all day. I felt warmer than I did at the 11/8 launch but we did have that heater this time. There was at least one TARC team there and their flight was straight as an arrow. We got off around 175 flights not counting half a dozen at the night launch.

I say "potato", you say "potaaaato".
It's all a matter of pronunciation.

You say "wimp", I say "warm with wife".
Both are constructed with four letter words beginning with "w".
As my phrase does it three times as much, I consider it to be the more correct. :grin:

In all seriousness, thank you and all the other great folks at CMASS for another great flying season.

Looking forward to burning way too many motors doing fun flights at CMASS next year.

Happy Thanksgiving to all.
 
I say "potato", you say "potaaaato".

Actually, I think he says "puhDAYduh".

As one who also skipped the launch because of the elements, I don't think that you're a wimp. I think that you are wise. (Another four-letter "w" word.)
 
Actually, I think he says "puhDAYduh".

As one who also skipped the launch because of the elements, I don't think that you're a wimp. I think that you are wise. (Another four-letter "w" word.)

You're a wimp too.

There was an advantage to being in the cold all day. I was able to convince myself that I need more caloric intake to make up for what I burned staying warm. I got the cinnamon bun sunday.
 
The 12/13/14 RIMRA launch was cancelled due to weather earlier last week.
While the weather Saturday was very nice for December, there was a lot of rain a few days earlier.
Wet fields would not do well with traffic.

So more time to build/repair/upgrade rockets.

Finished fin repair on HellBoy and re-painted yellow below the flames.
Paint lines are visible up close, but from 5+ feet (or in photos) looks nice.

Also removed the 3in diameter tube inside body.
This had been used as a separate deployment tube for main chute.
As most flights are between 600-900 feet, going with single deploy at apogee for improved reliability.
Will use a second backup ejection charge, instead of previous main ejection charge.
Can see glue line where bottom of 3" tube was in second picture.

Visible in the second pic as well, the reason one fin (the one at the bottom of the picture) broke twice on recovery, and the others not at all.
Answer is in the next post....

IMG_6979.jpg IMG_6984.jpg
 
The larger U bolt is the main chute attachment point.
As it is off center, the fin at the bottom of the pic is most likely to hit the ground before any other part of the rocket.
 
Got more work done on the LOC 4in V2.

Sprayed the fins and lower section of the rocket with Krylon Clear Gloss.
This built a nice shiny clear coat over the 2x layers of thin FG covering rocket.
The wood grain on the fins is still nicely visible.

Then taped off fins and some of lower body and sprayed a couple layers of primer and Krylon Sun Yellow.
I'm not sure I like the angles for the bottom yellow paint lines. May add more yellow later.
Last pic shows level of gloss in both clear and yellow areas.

I believe that bright colors make rockets go faster...as well as making them look cool...and more visible in the grass...:dark:


IMG_6987.jpg IMG_6988.jpg IMG_6991.jpg
 
Speaking of faster, also did some work and tests on the Carbon Weasel.

Built up 4x layers of 1.5oz FG over the NC and top half of the 808 camera body.
This bonded the camera to the NC and formed a smooth transition where they come together.

The white area at the top of the camera body is paper that was tacked in place before fiberglassing.
This helped create the smooth transition.

First picture shows additional paper and clamps used to keep FG at NC tip pointy while curing.
This was sanded off later and several tiny build-ups of epoxy filled in imperfections in this area.

IMG_20141130_240537_030.jpg IMG_6992.jpg IMG_6994.jpg
 
The Carbon Weasel had a problem with deployment on its only previous flight in its current dual-deploy configuration.

Ejection gasses were getting past the base of the NC and also through the altimeter bay.
To solve this problem for the main chute, I created a couple small 38mm pistons and a sleeve.
These are pictured below.

Sleeves are made from LOC 38mm coupler tube, sanded, wiped with slow epoxy, then sanded again for perfect fit.
Each (brown) piston consists of a sleeve and an internal 1/8" ply bulkhead.

Pic 3 shows all pieces:
1/8" Kevlar line would run through middle of brown pistons and connect NC to alt bay.
24" TFR thin mil chute sits inside largest piston.
0.2g ejection charge sits in between small piston above alt bay and larger piston that contains chute.
More sleeve added at bottom of NC to tighten NC seal.

Pic 4 shows bulkheads inside pistons.

Pic 5 shows alt bay/piston/NC assembly as it would be inserted into carbon fiber main compartment, shown next to it.

IMG_7000.jpg IMG_7001.jpg IMG_7003.jpg IMG_7006.jpg IMG_7009.jpg
 
To prevent ejection gasses from escaping at the apogee deployment event:

Motor seal in body tube was good, only needed to reduce ejection gas flow past bottom of altimeter.
Found that adding Nomex wadding at alt bay was effective.
Nomex is taped to ejection charge which is epoxied to alt bay.

Using these methods, was able to get good ejection ground test results using 0.2g for both events.

The small 38mm pistons added 0.7 oz to the weight of the rocket.
The Nomex it replaced weighed 0.6 oz, so net weight gain is only 0.1 oz.

IMG_20141111_163418_954.jpg
 
MMMSC Launch - 12/20/2014 - Berwick, ME

Weather was beautiful for December, very low winds, mostly sunny and in the 30's F.
While the weather at the field was great, drove through light falling snow on the way up and back (southern Massachusetts to southern Maine).
Due to the long drive and early sunset, only completed two flights.

First the HellBoy went up on 19x D11-P engines.
A quiet rush of smoke and flame.
Fired by flashpan, all motors ignited.
A fun low and slow flight.

The Featherweight Raven reported:
altitude: 772 ft
speed: 114 mph
acceleration: peak 9 Gs, 3-4 Gs for most of burn

The recovery tweaks previously noted worked well.

IMG_7055.jpg

IMG_7056.jpg

IMG_7057.jpg

IMG_7059.jpg

IMG_7066.jpg
 
Then sent the Carbon Weasel up fast.
It ended up being the last flight of the launch.

Rocket is minimum diameter 38mm, 16 oz without motor.
Sent it up on a 3grain 38mm CTI I236 blue - 14 oz motor :)
1.8 lb rocket with 53 lbs of thrust for 1.75 seconds...

Flight went perfectly, streaking straight into the sky and doing a clean dual deploy recovery.
Broke mach in 1.2 seconds at about 900 ft.

Featherweight Raven reported:
altitude: 6370 ft
speed: 884 mph = MACH 1.15
acceleration: 40G peak, ~30G average

Two minutes after liftoff, the rocket came back down not far from the pad.

Highest and fastest flight I've done so far with onboard electronics.
Slightly higher and faster than RockSim predicted.

Only managed two pictures that included the rocket, the others just show smoke trail...
First pic is about 0.5 sec into flight @ 400 mph
Second pic is at 1.5 sec @ 800+ mph @ 2500+ ft

IMG_7074.jpg

IMG_7077.jpg
 
Last edited:
The data provided by the Featherweight Ravens in awesome.

First pic is Carbon Weasel flight through apogee deployment.
Data line and box show max velocity of 884 mph at 3000 ft at 1.75 second motor burnout.

Second pic is first four seconds of this flight, to see more detail.
Data line and box show where rocket accelerates through mach.

Several interesting things visible in pic two:
> Speed line shows increased air drag above mach
> Rocket briefly experiences 17 Gs of deceleration after motor burnout
> Acceleration and altitude (air pressure) lines show significant distortions at mach

Last pic is the low and slow HellBoy flight data.
Quite a contrast between these two I powered flights...

Untitled-1.jpg

Untitled-2.jpg

Untitled-3.jpg
 
Thanks

Got the video edited.
Included Jason L's very cool Ultimate Darkstar on an M Skidmark

[video=youtube_share;vpuryf7Yu-I]https://youtu.be/vpuryf7Yu-I[/video]
 
For a variety of reasons, I never edited or posted most of the rocketry video I took last year.

This video starts with a short clip of my son Paul's TARC team in action and then covers:
> 15 rocket launches
> burning over 90 motors




[video=youtube_share;qHM_VoW9vno]https://youtu.be/qHM_VoW9vno[/video]
 
Last edited:
This video covers 3 launch dates including the

US vs. USSR HP clustered drag race

plus several other HP and / or clustered flights

[video=youtube_share;PEO7KOJsLcQ]https://youtu.be/PEO7KOJsLcQ[/video]
 
At the end of the season CMASS does a fun

NIGHT LAUNCH including two Turbine Rocket Saucer night flights

[video=youtube_share;xhhmPyCFF70]https://youtu.be/xhhmPyCFF70[/video]
 
Back
Top