Loki Research Airfest Report

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Loki Research

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I was waiting to post this until I had all the photos sent in, but I didn't want to wait to long.
Friday began with the assembly of a pair of 54/4000 reloads. I weighed out 35g of West Systems 105 resin and 7g of 205 fast hardener and then placed it on ice in my cooler. With the extra hands of Kyle Cornelius, we taped together the 4 white grains and then the 4 red grains for each motor. A few minutes later, I poured the epoxy down the grain stack of the red motor and completely covered the stack with epoxy, then I slid the XX liner down over the entire load all at once. We put the nozzle in the back end (covered with Saran Wrap) and set it aside. Then we repeated the process with the remaining mixed epoxy on the white L~2300 that Kyle would fly.

In the mean time, Mark Brown was prepping his rocket to fly on a 98/12500 N-4400 with about 14,500Ns. The N-3800 Loki White has exactly 12,500Ns and has all 1.5" cores with a #64 nozzle. This motor had 3 grains with 1.125" cores, 2 with 1.25" cores and ran a #60 nozzle. Anyway, this was Mark's first flight in 7 years. He's flown his share of big motors, but he still had a few butterflies using this motor for the maiden flight.

He had "Run For Cover II" prepped & ready to go by late afternoon, and by 3:45 we had the rocket on the pad and were ready to launch, complete with 3 brand new Loki Research stickers. :)
Run For Cover II Cropped.jpg
Unknown to both of us, Kent from Giant Leap Rocketry had an aerial drone out at the away cell filming the launch and got the most outstanding lift off video. I'm hoping to get a flash drive back with it and I'll post it then. It's awesome to say the least. Terry Smemo might also have some really good lift off shots as well. I watched the flight from near the LCO table through my binoculars and held my cell phone in line with them as best I could shooting video. So please excuse the horrible quality.
Marks rocket reached a hair over 11,000' and even broke mach. Pretty good for a 12' tall 7.5" diameter rocket weighing 75lbs on the pad!
Loki_N4400_flight_summary.JPG

[video=youtube;PfUhkETljJM]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PfUhkETljJM[/video]

We recovered the rocket less than a mile away, but it sustained a bit of damage. The 14' surplus military main chute failed to fully inflate, though it didn't appear to be tangled at all. It looked like the airframe impacted itself, damaging a coupler tube and smashing a 1/2" thick centering ring. There were about 3 spots in all that suffered damage.

Saturday was busy,....people everywhere and lots of spectators watching. The big Loki flights were the pair of 54/4000 motors to be flown by Mike Hall and Kyle Cornelius. Both were flying in minimum diameter rockets. Mike had flown the L~2300 white for it's maiden flight, but his rocket shredded. This time he upgraded to a CF airframe and shortened the rocket, but it proved to still not be enough. Looking at the flight data's acceleration curve, he was very close. Standing on a 6+ foot Loki Red flame, it moved out in a hurry. When the rocket broke up, most of the parts from the motor up came back fairly close to the away cells. The motor however continued upward. On the way in to the field Sunday morning, I took the time to scan the field for the booster. Having done the same thing back in February, I had a pretty good idea what to look for and where. Sure enough, I found the Black Momba booster poking out of the ground about a mile down range to the east and about an 1/8th mile to the north. Needless to say, Mike was pretty happy when I returned with it. Mike had also had a threaded ring made for the new extended bulkhead, something I've not had the time to get to. With a 1/2" thick ring secured at the end of the case, and the bulkhead locked in position, it appeared that the motor didn't sustain any damage upon impact. I haven't heard back from Mike yet however to see if he was able to completely disassemble the motor and verify that everything is undamaged.
M_1500_Data.jpg 54_4000_Red_crop.jpg 54_4000_Red_2_Crop.jpg 20140831_095055.jpg



Then came what I think many would call the highlight flight of the day. Kyle's rocket was awesome. I would have been extremely hard pressed to find anyone with a rocket better suited to fly one of these 54/4000 motors. It was the motor, about 6" of coupler tube housing the electronics and a nose cone on top. He launched it from a lug-less tower as well. He had 600F degree BBQ paint on the fin can and managed to cook most of it off. His smile says it all!.
20140830_141359.jpg Kyle L~2300 White1.jpg 20140830_163436.jpg 20140830_163442.jpg

I watched the assent through my 10x power binoculars and after burnout, it just disappeared. However, after the rocket got closer to apogee and began to slow down, I was able to pick up the tracking smoke and I watched as it arced over at the top and separate. Then, I continued to watch it trail smoke for another good 15-20 seconds. The smoke grain on this motor is about 2.4" long, enough to visually track a rocket to at least 29,472 feet! Kyle successfully recovered the entire rocket later that day. Unfortunately the electronics power cycled on him and the direct velocity readout had to be calculated from the flight data later. Kyle determined that it reached mach 2.96 (3,246ft/sec) and pulled 83 G's.

Kent's drone battery was running low before Kyle's flight, but a kind passer-by said he had one in his trunk. A few minutes later he was up and running, but only just in time. I tried to shoot video with my cell phone but it went out of focus at the worst possible time. It sounded more like a clap of thunder than a rocket launching! LOL

[video=youtube;9KN5WBqeZLg]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9KN5WBqeZLg[/video]

[video=youtube;tLWVAxIN_xs]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tLWVAxIN_xs[/video]

More in a bit shortly. I've reached the attachment limit.
 
Somewhere in all this Saturday, I earned a new customer. He bought the 38/480 hardware and an I-405. (John also took the still launch photos in the previous post, Thank's John!)
He had flown Madcow Rocketry Torrent several times before, but I don't think he had any idea just how good his first Loki Research flight was going to be.

[video=youtube;VY6xKmrAQkY]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VY6xKmrAQkY[/video]

As Jeff Taylor use to say,.... another happy customer! :)

Somewhere in all of this, Eddie Williams flew an M-1200 Spit Fire in a minimum diameter rocket to 18,157 feet. Just got that verified.
Eddie_cropped.jpg

Later in the afternoon, Chris Short from Chris's Rocketry Supply demoed the 38/1200 J-1127 Loki Blue in his 3" fiberglass red white and blue Bomb-Pop. The rocket is 40" long, weighed 6lbs on the pad and screamed it's way to 8,162 feet. The Perfect flight says it went from 118ft/sec at .35 seconds to 2,420 ft/sec at 1.35 seconds, but that means that it broke mach 2, but frankly, I can't believe that it broke mach 2. It took off too quick to get a framed photo, but I somehow managed to capture video of the flight with my cell phone. If anyone managed to capture a photo of it, Chris and I would greatly appreciate a copy.

[video=youtube;LYovoBrSui8]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYovoBrSui8[/video]

Lastly, if you have never been to the rocket pasture in Argonia, KS, then let me show you what you are missing, from your rockets perspective. It is quite the field when you see it this way. The video is compliments of the guy I met with the drone. I just can't remember his name, but it was his wife's 3rd visit to a KLOUDBusters launch, and it was his first.
20140830_163052.jpg 20140830_145422.jpg

[video=youtube;HRbtu9eHGBA]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HRbtu9eHGBA[/video]


It was a great weekend and not a single incident with a Loki Research reload. As usual, they all worked as designed. I believe the best part for me was when Bob Brown took the time to swing by my tent after the range shut down Saturday and tell me, he thought I had a banner day for Loki Research, that all of my flights rocked, and if those flights didn't sell motors, he didn't know what would. That meant a lot coming from a guy like Bob Brown, who's been to who knows how many rocket launches and trips to BALLs. If I impressed him, well that's saying something. Thanks Bob, thank you to all the Tripoli Houston members for taking the time to come over, say hello and speak with me, and thank you to every customer who flew Loki Research at Airfest 20. You are the reasons why I am still here.



Sincerely,
 
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Lastly, if you have never been to the rocket pasture in Argonia, KS, then let me show you what you are missing, from your rockets perspective. It is quite the field when you see it this way. The video is compliments of the guy I met with the drone. I just can't remember his name, but it was his wife's 3rd visit to a KLOUDBusters launch, and it was his first.

Scott, I believe his name is Brian. I was told to look out for him, by a friend of mine, who flies Heli's with him, but I never got a chance to meet Brian myself.

Mike D.
 
Scott is doing some great things for people like me, who like to fly really high and fast. This was a lot of fun, and I have a few ideas for next time to make my rocket go higher and faster. I wonder what that red 4000 load would do in this rocket.....
 
Unfortunately the electronics power cycled on him and the direct velocity readout had to be calculated from the flight data later. Kyle determined that it reached mach 2.96 (3,246ft/sec) and pulled 83 G's.

Wicked awesome flight. That sucks about the power cycle, does that mean the whole accel curve was lost?
 
Scott, still waiting on a spitty load for 75/8000 or 98 4 grain!! Please, please, oh please!!!
 
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Scott is doing some great things for people like me, who like to fly really high and fast. This was a lot of fun, and I have a few ideas for next time to make my rocket go higher and faster. I wonder what that red 4000 load would do in this rocket.....

I have no idea, but I hope I'm there when you try it! Awesome flight Kyle, thanks for showing me your rocket. Glad you got it back.
 
I don't think my Torrent will ever see another recovery that good. Those are some amazing flights, and that aerial video is awesome. I think I'm hooked on Loki motors now.
 
I forgot to add, the photo of Kyle's rockets was taken by Lauretta Gordzelik. Thank you Lauretta! All the other launch pics were from Jon Wiese. Thank you Jon!

Ryan, the data was still there after being downloaded, it just wasn't able to beep it out right after the flight from what I'm told.

Connor, Jim, TMT got rained out again yesterday, and the 14th got scrapped to a conflict of use with the test field, so the next date for TMT testing is now the 20-21st of September.
Hopefully that will include the 76/8000 Spitfire.

Jon, sorry about the "h" in your name in the 1st post. I'll correct it. ;-) I'm glad to have earned your business.
Don't forget, all Loki Research G, H and I motors (except for 2 of them) can be shipped through the USPS with NO Haz-Mat charges!
 
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Wicked awesome flight. That sucks about the power cycle, does that mean the whole accel curve was lost?

Thanks! There's no acceleration curve on the baro-based SL100 I was using. I also had an accel-based timer for backup which reports (but doesn't store after power-down) peak acceleration and velocity. They were beeping at the same frequency, and my attempt to open the ebay resulted in stretching the power wires, leading to the power loss. It would have been interesting to see how close the timer was to what I determined the max velocity and acceleration to be. Basically I played with the drag settings and made slight mass overrides in OpenRocket until I had matched up rocket weight, CG, altitude, and time to apogee with that of the actual flight.

The next flight will have an accel-based flight computer.
 
Connor, Jim, TMT got rained out again yesterday, and the 14th got scrapped to a conflict of use with the test field, so the next date for TMT testing is now the 20-21st of September.
Hopefully that will include the 76/8000 Spitfire.


:pop::pop::pop::pop::pop:

TA
 
Thank you Alex. I'll take "Loki Blue Rocks" for $1,000 please.


Built by Mark Brown, it is 7.5" in diameter, 12 foot tall, weighs 75 lbs loaded, and reaches mach 1.156?


Answer please?


What is.....
048A4799.jpg 048A4800.jpg 048A4801.jpg 048A4802.jpg 048A4804.jpg048A4808.jpg 048A4813.jpg


Compliments of Terry Smemo.
 
That was my favorite rocket at Airfest! LOL. I really loved that motor. Nice work Scott. I may just have to try one of those again! Run for Cover II is ready to go again. I just had to cut down the top of the mid section 3" to fix a zipper, and re-glued the centering ring at the base. I'm glad I used that big drogue, or I would not have been so fortunate. Thank you Terry for taking the pictures and sharing them. And thank you Scott for posting them.

Mark Brown
TRA 5925 L3
 
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Thanks Dave. I thought so too :)

Mark, I knew you'd like that motor. I'm glad I left the nozzle at a #60 too. And you were worried that the rocket may not hold together.

Who says you need G12 to fly an N motor past mach. Lots of those are a :flyingpig: anyway. :wink:
 
Looks like the flame is having a hard time catching up with the rocket too. It isn't till the last two frames that it looks like the flame is attached to the rocket.
:headbang:



TA
 
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