Vigilante Clone maiden voyage

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Marc_G

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Had a great first flight of my Vigilante clone that I discussed over in the modeling forum (paint humidity thread).

It's on Youtube here:

[YOUTUBE]C4iw3JWpNfA[/YOUTUBE]

It was a B6-0 to either A8-3 or 5, I forget which. Nice boost; good booster separation (dinged the stage coupler on landing, but no big deal) and landed within 5 feet of where I stood when pressing the launch button.

Static picture of the model is here:

Vigilante Closeup.jpg
 
VERY nice... :cheers:

What a long recovery walk-- hope you've recovered fully! ;)

On one of my first flights of the Vigilante was back in 86-87. I took it over to the neighboring town with a buddy from church, who wanted to see rockets fly (and subsequently got into it himself). There's a (mostly) dry creek bottom that wends it's way around the town behind it and around the south end of town, so we set up the launch pad there in a broad area on the east side of town in the creek bottom. Launched and the rocket took of straight, but as soon as it cleared the trees on either side of the creek, the wind must've hit it because it turned over toward the south and about this time it staged and took off like a cruise missile toward the other end of town. I kept an eye on it and it soon burned out, coasted a bit, and deployed the chute. It was a fast deploy and the rubber band shock cord snapped, leaving the chute drifting off to the northeast as the rocket turned over and came in ballistic. We recovered the first stage and set off a few blocks away to try to see if we could find it.

We looked in yards and rooftops as we went, seeing nothing. After making our way up and over zig-zagging a few blocks in the general direction, we saw the chute and nosecone draped over a chain link fence, and retrieved it. We kept going to the end of the block where the ground sloped down to the creek bottom on the south side of town. Now, here the creek was pretty broad and actually had standing stagnant water in it, and 4 foot tall or so weeds all along the banks from out in the water a few feet to about ten feet back up the bank from the waterline. I slogged in through the weeds to see if I could see the rocket out in the water, or on the other bank. I came down to the edge of the water, and there not 5 feet away was a small clearing, maybe 2-3 feet in diameter, where there were no weeds, and right in the middle of that was the Vigilante, core sampled in to the mud right at the waterline. I crept out and retrieved it, and pulled it out of the mud with a distinct sucking sound-- TOTALLY intact. Other than about the first two inches of body tube being stained with mud, the rocket was no worse for wear...

That probably ranks as one of the most amazing recoveries I've ever had, because basically I didn't really expect to ever see that rocket again! To get it ALL back intact was a virtual miracle IMHO...

lateR! OL JR :)
 
The short walk for Vigilante was kind of a consolation prize from the Recovery Gods.

The prior launch was my Der Green Max 2. Put it up on a Quest D5-6. Launched just as a gust of wind hit, and it weathercocked a bit... not critical but it raced up at a bit of an angle. The six second delay was way too long, and it was coming down, and more to the point, still heading away from me, FAST. Blew its laundry at about 250-300 feet up, but at such velocity the chute fouled a bit. It landed "Way Out There." And I got distracted just as it landed so was a bit unclear as to exactly which direction to go hunting in this prairie restoration project (read: government sponsored prickerbush festival).

20 mins of searching, no luck. Bummed because it had my keychain cam on it and today was the first ever use, with two videos on it (or so I thought).

Launched a few more (including the Vigilante followed by the Hot Needle of Inquiry). Then packed it in and sent the kids to the adjacent splash park with the wife while I headed back to the prairie. Found Greenie about 20 mins later. :D Vidcam intact.

Got home, plugged in the cam, but found I had goofed on the pad and just took still pics of the deflector plate instead of initiating video capture both flights. Grr... But the rocket and cam live to fly again!
:horse:
 
That was pretty cool man. I'm glad you got your greenie and cam back.
 
The short walk for Vigilante was kind of a consolation prize from the Recovery Gods.

The prior launch was my Der Green Max 2. Put it up on a Quest D5-6. Launched just as a gust of wind hit, and it weathercocked a bit... not critical but it raced up at a bit of an angle. The six second delay was way too long, and it was coming down, and more to the point, still heading away from me, FAST. Blew its laundry at about 250-300 feet up, but at such velocity the chute fouled a bit. It landed "Way Out There." And I got distracted just as it landed so was a bit unclear as to exactly which direction to go hunting in this prairie restoration project (read: government sponsored prickerbush festival).

20 mins of searching, no luck. Bummed because it had my keychain cam on it and today was the first ever use, with two videos on it (or so I thought).

Launched a few more (including the Vigilante followed by the Hot Needle of Inquiry). Then packed it in and sent the kids to the adjacent splash park with the wife while I headed back to the prairie. Found Greenie about 20 mins later. :D Vidcam intact.

Got home, plugged in the cam, but found I had goofed on the pad and just took still pics of the deflector plate instead of initiating video capture both flights. Grr... But the rocket and cam live to fly again!
:horse:

My first flight with the keychain cam was pretty much everything I'd hoped it would be. The second flight with a keychain cam might have been better, but just as the chute popped and I started walking after it, I realized that I'd forgotten to press the button to start the camera. I'm sure it'll happen again, which will make it easier to take when it does happen.:eyeroll::D
 
That's a great looking rocket, nice job. I like the proportions a lot. Is this scratch built or a reproduction kit or something like that? I'd like to build one myself.
 
That's a great looking rocket, nice job. I like the proportions a lot. Is this scratch built or a reproduction kit or something like that? I'd like to build one myself.

It's a funny story actually.

First, it's a classic kit and all the parts etc. as well as links to plans are found here, let the page load then search by kit name "Vigilante:"

Semroc's classic model rockets page

In an order to Semroc I ordered some precut fins, I think for a Starship Vega (which are a bit involved, and I was ordering other stuff anyway, so I put the fins into the order to save me the trouble... haven't gotten around to building the Vega).

In a rare event, SEMROC actually made a mistake and sent me the Vigilante fins instead. They have similar part numbering or something. Of course SEMROC expedited the proper stuff to me, and let me keep the Vigilante fins in the bargain.

Vigilante, what's that? And why are there six fins? Oh, a staged build... I like the simple lines of her... I'll have to build one! And I had an extra BNC-55AO cone, as well as tubes and other bits, so it was a quick simple build where I worked on my technique.

BTW, here are some neat pics of it staging, extracted from the video:

Staging1.jpg

Staging2.jpg

It's a nice rocket. Already one of my favorites.
 
I'm sure you will be up to the task.

The only (small) gotcha in the build is to make sure all the motor mount stuff is placed correctly within the booster and sustainer. I taped two engines together to simulate the flight engine stack and use that first in dry-fit mode to make sure I knew exactly where the optimal place for each mount was. Even so, this model is less picky than some because the booster mount doesn't have a rear thrust ring. It's tollerant.

Also, I use Titebond II (liberal coatings) when gluing the mounts in because I find it to be much less rapid-grabby than regular wood glue that I use for most of the rest of the bonds.

The task of getting both sets of fins on identically (so they will line up) is also pretty easy if you use a jig.

Marc
 
Wow nice flight, the other day when I launched my 2-stage, it went up at an angle, then staged and even more of an angle :eyeroll: It got stuck in the woods . I can see it but can't get it back. :(
 
My Vigilante has its yellow base coat... Need you to get a Vigilante gallery started so I'll have somewhere to post ;)
 
Pretty neat acquisition and recovery stories in here. Oh, and the flight was good too :)
 
COOL launch. It looked like you pointed the camera where you wanted it to land, back with the "on deck" rockets.
 
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