April or May flight at Tripoli Mid-Ohio. definitely a "heads up" launch. 
How Would YOU Build This Weird One?
- Thread starter jmmome
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I'll have one or two Mobius Actioncams on the rocket.
About a year late for various reasons, but we had a breathtaking launch on April 15, 2023 with Tripoli Mid-Ohio at South Charleston, OH. The rocket ended up being 8 1/2 feet tall, 45 pounds fully loaded, and 8" dia. with a 12" fin skirt. an Aerotech L1520 Blue Thunder reload got it off the pad quickly and it flew incredibly straight for being such a crooked rocket.
Successfully recovered waaaay too far away from our car- it exceeded an altitude of 2,400 feet when my best guess was about 1,200 feet, and with the 10 ft. & 8 ft. chutes set to deploy at apogee it drifted- and drifted. A cracked plywood fin upon landing was the only damage.
I'd like to launch it again, but may need to hire furniture movers to carry it to & from the field.
Successfully recovered waaaay too far away from our car- it exceeded an altitude of 2,400 feet when my best guess was about 1,200 feet, and with the 10 ft. & 8 ft. chutes set to deploy at apogee it drifted- and drifted. A cracked plywood fin upon landing was the only damage.
I'd like to launch it again, but may need to hire furniture movers to carry it to & from the field.
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bobby_hamill
Well-Known Member
@ KenEcoyte
When I first saw post 16 I thought it was showing where the motor blew
through the side of the rocket.The I realized it was Wild E Coyote hanging on
LOL Nice build
Bobby
When I first saw post 16 I thought it was showing where the motor blew
through the side of the rocket.The I realized it was Wild E Coyote hanging on
LOL Nice build
Bobby
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About a year late for various reasons, but we had a breathtaking launch on April 15, 2023 with Tripoli Mid-Ohio at South Charleston, OH. The rocket ended up being 8 1/2 feet tall, 45 pounds fully loaded, and 8" dia. with a 12" fin skirt. an Aerotech L1520 Blue Thunder reload got it off the pad quickly and it flew incredibly straight for being such a crooked rocket.
Successfully recovered waaaay too far away from our car- it exceeded an altitude of 2,400 feet when my best guess was about 1,200 feet, and with the 10 ft. & 8 ft. chutes set to deploy at apogee it drifted- and drifted. A cracked plywood fin upon landing was the only damage.
I'd like to launch it again, but may need to hire furniture movers to carry it to & from the field.
Two things.
1. WOW! The up flight had essentially zero roll, you’d think @Ronz Rocketz built it! Really nice work on fin alignment, which must have been challenging given the underlying shape.
2. Not only was it a great “Up” video, but the “”Down” video was extremely smooth. Was this dual deploy? And could the rigging of the two chutes be the explanation for the lack of the usual “jangle” of the camera on descent?
A simple miter saw would do, you don't need the compound.
I think the funky CRs would be necessary, but maybe using one in the middle of each section and 3D printed couplers at the ends would be good. And they should be short couplers, probably something like a half inch long on each end, or mating the sections with central tube in place would be difficult to impossible. (They could be full length if you're not using the central tube, but I just really don't like that idea.)
Just a straight enlargement would almost certainly not yield standard tube sizes for the inner core and outer tubes simultaneously. I would enlarge them to get the outer tube size I want, then manually enlarge the inner holes to the next standard size up. Because I'm too lazy to make my own tubes. (Tubes ought to be made in 1.41:1 size increments, like ISO paper sizes.)
I bet Stickershock23 already has them.
Or build the AV bay into the nose.
(Oops, I just noticed the dates on the posts, and got to the one where the build started. Never mind.)
Been catching my breath after this April launch! Sorry for the late responses to your posts.
It actually was single deploy at apogee, with a 14 foot chute from the nosecone section, and a ten foot chute from the fin section. If I get the nerve, I'll figure a way to make it a dual deploy for the next flight- maybe in 2024.
Fin placement was actually pretty easy- they simply attached to the 8 inch body tube, and I created four 8" to 12" dia. shroud sections from fiberglass and epoxied/fiberglassed them to the fins & to the 12" dia. centering ring at the rocket base.
I couldn't have been more surprised at the "no spin" flight. I was also shocked at the altitude reached. I simmed the rocket on RocSim- without the crooked sections- and got essentially the altitude the rocket reached, but i thought the software was kidding me. It was a LONG walk back to the car when the rocket deployed the chutes at apogee.
Still have a 7 foot Gemini-Titan & a 7 foot Mercury-Redstone (Boyce Aerospace makes a fantastic Mercury capsule) that are awaiting their maiden flights, as well as a 7 foot Delta Heavy Lander mashup- landing legs deploy and retro rockets fire at about 150 feet before touchdown. It was much easier when i lived in FL- Tripoli launches every month, and the launch field was only 30 minutes away.....sigh.
And FINALLY got to work again on my almost 8 foot Honest John- check out my build post.
It actually was single deploy at apogee, with a 14 foot chute from the nosecone section, and a ten foot chute from the fin section. If I get the nerve, I'll figure a way to make it a dual deploy for the next flight- maybe in 2024.
Fin placement was actually pretty easy- they simply attached to the 8 inch body tube, and I created four 8" to 12" dia. shroud sections from fiberglass and epoxied/fiberglassed them to the fins & to the 12" dia. centering ring at the rocket base.
I couldn't have been more surprised at the "no spin" flight. I was also shocked at the altitude reached. I simmed the rocket on RocSim- without the crooked sections- and got essentially the altitude the rocket reached, but i thought the software was kidding me. It was a LONG walk back to the car when the rocket deployed the chutes at apogee.
Still have a 7 foot Gemini-Titan & a 7 foot Mercury-Redstone (Boyce Aerospace makes a fantastic Mercury capsule) that are awaiting their maiden flights, as well as a 7 foot Delta Heavy Lander mashup- landing legs deploy and retro rockets fire at about 150 feet before touchdown. It was much easier when i lived in FL- Tripoli launches every month, and the launch field was only 30 minutes away.....sigh.
And FINALLY got to work again on my almost 8 foot Honest John- check out my build post.
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