Lansbergen-1 had perfect first flight !!!

[te_groen31]

HELLO !!

YES ! Finally.... Friday afternoon I finally had a chance to launch my
rockets.
Including my first built, the Lansbergen-1.

Beautiful day, very sunny, no clouds and hardly any wind.
Perfect day for a launch.

First I wanted to try the small rockets, mainly to test the winds
at higher altitude. If the big one would fly high indeed, knowing
the exact speed and direction of the wind might be nice to know
before I sent it up....! ;-) Afterall, it has a fairly big chute.

The smallest rocket went first. I used a 13 mm A3-4T engine.
Since a small paper model I had launched before only went
40 or 45 feet high, I thought this, much heavier rocket, would
no go much higher..........

How wrong could I be. This little rocket, Estes' Eclipse, was a
proven rocket, and very aerodynamic. Also, these little engines
are VERY powerful !! A big hissss and up it went........
At least.... I think it did.... Now you see it..... now you don't....
It just.....well.....disappeared. And way ( waaaayyyyy ) up there,
suddenly, I saw it coming down on the yeallow and black
Estes chute !
WOW. It works. And what a speed. What an altitude !!
Who would have expected that such a small rocket would make
so much noise and push that rocket so very high...!!??

I shall DEFINITELY buy more of these engines. Their performance
is impressive.

Then it was time for the bigger rocket. I used several engines.
A, B and C engines. I never test the rocket and I never used any
software program. I built and balanced the rocket purely by
"feel" and "the force", hoping that everything I have read on
internet before, would help me make a good rocket.
With all engines it flew perfecty straight. The A engines were
not strong enough. On one occasion the chute came out when
the rocket was pointing nose down !! 15 feet before touch-down
it popped, but it was too late. The chute never deployed.
I rolled too much wires around the chute.
Damage ???? Almost nothing !!!! The top of the cylinder had a
small dent !!!! That's it !!! How is this possible ?? Even the
nose cone litterally didn't even had a scratch !! Incredible...
I have video evidence of these launches. Filmed with a
Nikon Coolpix 4500. about 9 Mb. If you want to see it, I'll
mail it to you.

The most impressive was the C6-5. Geeeezzz .... it just
kept going up and up.... Even though there was little wind, I
had to walk quite a distance to pick up the rocket.

And then it was time for the big one. Finally. Launchpad, igniters,
everything worked. Wind was okay...let's do it.
First I tried the C11-3. Slow ascent but it went pretty high.
If only the chute would deploy...... The chute I made was made
of a material used for kites. When it deployes it makes a
particular FFLLOOPPbbbb sound. Even at that height you can
hear the ejection charge go off and the chute deploy.
Then it was time for the biggest one I had.... The D12-5 ( special
thanks to Mike, Bar.... ;-))

For a minute I thought I really had to go climb a tree. When would
this rocket slow down ?? A huge, slightly curved smoke trail showed
the way it flew. Then suddenly, a thin white smopke trail showed
the delay was functioning. Then.... first I saw the chute deploy,
then, a second later, I heard the sounds..... WOW !! Yes.
It worked.
I'd better start running. This one is gonna land far away...... ;-)


Impressive.
Can't wait 'till next launch day !!!
I love rocketry !!!!!

The small rockets flew perfectly. The Lansbergen had a steady
nose cone, but the bottom was wagging like a dog's tail. I think I know
why. Time to build Lansbergen-2.
And make it fly steady.


Erik. ( that's me, in the red T-shirt, running towards the rocket. )

 

[te_groen31]

Here I am preparing the motor, inserting the igniter.

 

[te_groen31]

On the launch pad, waiting for the engine to be inserted.


No longer just for show.... this time it's the real thing....

 

[te_groen31]

Here are ( very low res ) screen shots of thelaunch
of the small rocket.

No launch pics of the Estes Eclipse.... sorry.....

 

[te_groen31]

Screenshots of the launch of Lansbergen 1.

This is the D12-5.

I used a stainless steel sheet for a blast deflector.

Little deflection, though..... It burnt a hole right through
the metal. In 1/10 of a second !!!

These engines are POWERFUL !!!!!
Well... HOT, at least !

pic 1 : Last moment before ignition
pic 2 : Ignition. The white plug comes out ( flies to the right )
pic 3 and 4 : Engine is gaining power...
In the 5th pic the metal is glowing and almost liquid.
In the 6th pic the flame blasts right through......
watch the sparks....these are liquid metal. I saw the hard
metal balls laying on the launch pad, afterwards......

Erik.

 

[cjl]

Very nice

Next time you can avoid burning a hole through it by wrapping a bit of masking tape aroung the launch rod 3-4 inches from the bottom. This will act like a standoff, and distance your rocket a bit from the blast deflector, preventing a complete burnthrough. Looks great though, and congrats on the great first flight of your Lansbergen!

 

[mike_bar]

Originally posted by te_groen31
Screenshots of the launch of Lansbergen 1.

This is the D12-5.

I used a stainless steel sheet for a blast deflector.

Little deflection, though..... It burnt a hole right through
the metal. In 1/10 of a second !!! [Snip]

Hi Erik,
Isn't the D12 a great motor!!!

CJL gives good advice. Also, angle that blast deflector and you will has less (no) burn through.

Are you now hooked on the FLYING model rockets???

 

[Stymye]

Erik,
thats a beautifull rocket to be one of your first( "flying" rocket that is)

well done!

 

[mr_fixit]

Erik,

Sorry I missed this thread until this morning! That is a beautiful rocket "Lansbergen-1!" It has a really nice blue color, is it metal flake? How did you create the lettering for it?

Also, that is a really nice field you fly out of! Best of luck, now Maggie and I will be looking out for Lansbergen-2!!

Thanks for the great pictures!


Tom & Mags

 

[te_groen31]

Hello Tom,


Yes, nice color, isn't it ? Looks very nice in bright daylight.

Read my posts ( the 4th ) of "Lansbergen-1 is ready for take-off (almost)"
You can see the rocket (standing on my fridge) beside the 2 spray
cans I used.
I like this brand a lot. Perfect result, every time ! Especially this
clear coat really is clear !! Clear, like pure water and so far, it still
hasn't turned yellow ! Great stuff.

The blue is metallic blue.

The letters are printed on heavy paper and glued onto the
rocket.
A mistake maybe, because I did other things wrong, too, that made
this rockets a lot heavier than it should be.
But as you can see in the attachment below, Lansbergen-2 is ready
for its paint job. I think I will continue a tradition of white-blue
rockets for the Lansbergen series. Other rockets will have various
colors.
However, there's one color I will NOT use again : BLACK.
I lost a perfectly good rocket, simply because it was painted black
all over. It somehow got separated from the chute and landed in a ditch.
Or in the bushes..... Anyway, after several long attempts I gave up.....
Bye-bye Eclipse..... Estes made a perfect rocket. Now it lays perfectly
in a ditch. But I will take revenge..... I built another one, 1.5 times
larger, and painted it in fluorescent red. Because the solvent in that
spray can was very agressive ( corrosive ) the primer underneath it
slowly "cracked". I did not want to sand the model and spray it all over
again with another color (!!) so I decided to make this effect work FOR me
instead of against me. I added more thick layers and made sure the paint
cracked, all over the model.
After it had dried, I filled the cracks with fluorescent yellow. Added some
glittery self-adhesive strips, the words "Solar Flare" (sounded right,
at that time, considering the paint scheme )
and covered it with clear cote !
There! I refuse to believe I will have this one laying
in a ditch or high grass....and NOT see it.............

I also built the same small Eclipse, and called it Eclipse II ( yes....very original...)
Gave it a different color scheme ( metallic, so I can see it glitter in the grass
should it ever get lost again ) and put the black nose cone on top which
DID come down safely on a chute. Took a looooooooong while to come
down, across the highway, in an adjacent field.
Don't underestimate these little A3-4T engines ! Small, light rockets
like the Eclipse can fly VERY high ! I never expected it to fly that
fast and that far. Next time, I'll use a streamer. Takes too long on a chute
for it to come down ! ;-)

I read many good reviews about my Ranger Ray rocket, so I also made
a launchable version. Can't wait to launch this one.
The Brazilian sounding rocket VS-40 is a perfect model to launch. So I made
a scale 1:24 version ( ...ish ) and I will launch this one too.
I wonder how stable it will fly.


Do you want to know a secret ? I do not have ANY software program, nor
do I have ANY previous experience launching rocket, nor do I know
anybody in my neighbourhood who does. I just build a rocket, add enough
weight in the nose cone, and balance it at 1/3rd from the bottom.
If the nose tips down, I know it'll fly right ! At least, so far this method
has worked every time.
All I do is visit a website which has a very simple simulator, I then
replicate the rocket I'm building and "launch" it. Not a perfect program, but
it did help me build and launch rockets.

Gotta stop.
Too many words.

Greetings,

Erik.