Regarding motor choices... Recording them.

Imagine this... You have a classic old rocket (Let's say an Estes Patriot (Citation Patriot)), and you want to fly it again. You've replaced the shock cord, the parachute is serviceable, but you lost the instructions decades ago. Is there a convenient way of keeping a list of manufacturer's motor choices on the rocket without writing them down on the nose cone/parachute (as you frequently swap them out), or writing them on the exterior of the rocket, so you don't have to have access to the internet, or cell phone reception to check while you're out in the field?

I made an excel file where I list my built rockets, the chute size/streamer, and the recommended motors

When I go to a launch I flag which rockets I am bringing with me, filter on that flag, and print out the filtered list and bring it with me

I make a flight data sheet for each rocket. Has name, recommended motors and recovery and launch rod/rail size. Spaces for date, location of launch, weather, motor, motor lot#, recovery used, RTF weight, and comments on the flight. The binder that holds them is listed on my Loadout checklist.
(I tried to attach a data sheet, but TRF can't handle WordPerfect.)

For most of my rockets, in various sizes, I have taken to printing a sheet of recommended motors (from ThrustCurve) and rolling it up and sticking it in the body tube. Most rockets usually have enough space for that. This means the sheet travels with the rocket, and I dont have to write on anything. It also gives me somewhere to scribble down altitudes, etc for each flight.

You can also keep track of it all on the Rocket Reviews Flight Logs:

https://www.rocketreviews.com/flight-logs.html
That's an example page of some the flights recorded in September.

Set up your account, fly a few, record them and then check out your flight stats.
There are flights per year, impulse per year, cost per year, average cost per flight and
how many motors flown in what power.

I go to the "My Rockets" page, and call up a certain rocket.
I can see first flight, dates of flights and how many times it has flown.

It's a very valuable resource and take very little time to input the data.

I think it's an excellent idea to keep a spreadsheet of your flights. One thing I forget after time is how much BP or what size CO₂ cartridge I used for the ejection charges.

JohnCoker said:

I think it's an excellent idea to keep a spreadsheet of your flights. One thing I forget after time is how much BP or what size CO₂ cartridge I used for the ejection charges.

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I use a spreadsheet as well- one of the reasons is as John stated, to remember amount of BP. Others have stated the other items and I also record weather stats as well as type of chute( based on wind I may alter sizes) I used and the location above sea level as well as long & lat of launch site so if I need to sim or re-sim something I get the most accurate information I can. I also record the amount of newtons a motor had so if I want to see total newtons launched, average newtons launched or some other stat, I can get it pretty quickly.
It took me a while to come up with what worked for me and to use it. Now that I have it I find myself referencing it a lot-especially at the launch site. I'm updating my sheet to allow each category to be sortable so I can chose what data I want to review as over time vie started to accumulate quite a bit.

JohnCoker said:

I think it's an excellent idea to keep a spreadsheet of your flights. One thing I forget after time is how much BP or what size CO₂ cartridge I used for the ejection charges.

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Write the BP charge size in the inside of the motor tube or nosecone shoulder or couplers of the DD rockets. Easiest way to have it at one's fingertips. Kurt