What did you do rocket wise today?

rocket sok
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Laid up some fiberglass plate. Will be used for a new av bay for an existing rocket and for fins for my next project.
 
I was very depressed yesterday that I had to fill in for my business partner at a meeting causing me to cancel plans to attend my first launch of the year with forecasts of clear skies and less than 5 mph winds.

The meeting was held at the MAPS Air Museum in North Canton, OH. On the way out of the meeting I looked over in the corner of the hangar and saw this
ImageUploadedByRocketry Forum1440348460.594515.jpg
Steve Eaves Saturn 1b

Almost made up for missing the launch... Not really, but that's what I keep telling myself:facepalm:
 
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T34zac said:
Oh well if that's the case, Then you can probably get away with a four grain motor, or even a five grain. However at that point you really have to take into consideration your launch site. i.e. How high is your waiver, how far away are the trees, wind conditions, cloud cover, ect.

I certified on a CTI I216 for L1, but my launch site was huge with a dead calm day and clear blue skies, and I had a large 4" diameter fiberglass rocket. The I216 also has the highest total impulse for any other L1 motor, which basically translates to more altitude (but not all the time).
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Tampa Tripoli prefect for me. They fly at an area just east of Tampa named Varn Ranch. They do a lot of HPR stuff out there. If memory serves, their waiver is somewhere in the 12'000 foot range. This is an exciting project for me! Thank you for sharing your knowledge and experience!
 
JERRYR708 said:
I went to Hobby Lobby and..MERCURY REDSTONE! I grabbed it up and also noticed other rockets not from their usual display.
So I get home and ran to my office all excited while I sat down in my chair. I began savoring that special moment of holding onto that beautiful carded virgin Estes bag without opening it. I hear all these wonderful stories of other people finding these lil gems except for me. Well I got one now. After full inspection and looking at the parts through the clear bag, I thought wow, I got myself a good one without any damage, but then.....I rolled the Body Tube around while still inside the bag and BAM!! a DENTED TUBE! DANG IT ALL TO HELL!!!
View attachment 270561View attachment 270560
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https://www.balsamachining.com has this perfect replacement: T204-34 - $4.00
 
Continued work on my L3 project; link in signature with updated posts. It's almost down to the finishing touches and charge testing. As this wraps up, I may start working on a few kits in parallel for AIRFest.

Doug
 
rharshberger said:
Estes has the exact part for FREE, just contact their customer service and they will get right on it, just send them the picture via the websites contact and the explanation.
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I called Hobby Lobby and spoke to the manager. He informed me that they get a shipment in every Thursday and to call them on that day and they will hold one for me and exchange the damaged one. Now I have an excuse to go back with more coupons to buy more rockets..OOH BOY!
 
Painted second half of checkers on V2. Started taping FLAIL to prepare for epoxy fillets.
 
Laid down two coats of Florescent Red on the fin can of my Vagabond :) Might get a 3rd coat tonight, otherwise I'll pull the masking tape off and call it done :)

Oh, and I took my kart for a spin on the weekend!!

Here's a 6 second clip on Vine - https://vine.co/v/ejuZVugul6D

It feels way faster than it looks ;)

Krusty
 
JERRYR708 said:
I called Hobby Lobby and spoke to the manager. He informed me that they get a shipment in every Thursday and to call them on that day and they will hold one for me and exchange the damaged one. Now I have an excuse to go back with more coupons to buy more rockets..OOH BOY!
Click to expand...

You need an excuse to buy rockets? Pfft!

Krusty
 
Finished painting capsule and tower for my Mercury Redstone. First coat of primer on the BT and fins.
 
Placed order with Estes - couldn't pass up the prices on the sale. Finished a Magician and Extreme 12. Contemplating my next build, either the Mega Mosquito/Mosquito or the Mercury Redstone.
 
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krusty said:
Laid down two coats of Florescent Red on the fin can of my Vagabond :) Might get a 3rd coat tonight, otherwise I'll pull the masking tape off and call it done :)

Oh, and I took my kart for a spin on the weekend!!

Here's a 6 second clip on Vine - https://vine.co/v/ejuZVugul6D

It feels way faster than it looks ;)

Krusty
Click to expand...


...I don't see a rack on the front or rear of that "rocket retriever"...yet... ;)
 
I built ANOTHER avbay. I think that's my sixth dual deploy avbay in two weeks. Four of them were redundant. I think I could do them in my sleep, or maybe I already have and can't remember....
I'm also watching Sharon finish her Gizmo XL for Airfest. Hardest part is clenching my hands behind my back as she drills holes and adds pem nuts to the N/C and payload tube. She even did some soldering today, never thought I would see that.
 
Also built an A/V bay for my Leviathan XL (meaning it has an extra tube) It's all painted up and final product weighs in at 21.3 Oz. Sans-motor. I think this is the bird I'll fly for my L1. Also completing a Big Daddy "XL" just put the internal fillets on the fins. Modded 29mm motor mount and eyebolt/Kevlar, etc all done. Ordered another large bottle of Titebond M and T. Nearly through the 8 Oz. bottle of Maxi-Cure BSI as well. I thought I'd never get through 8 Oz!
 
Yesterday, I launched about 7 rockets with MARS. I'll have to go back through and get an actual count. But several first flights, including my upscale Teros, Leviathan, Astron Drifter and AC Orion clones. All good flights, all recovered intact, and lit all three motors on my Cobra...
 
Just went to Countyline Hobbies and picked up a AV bay and Payload tube among other things for my Super Batray.
Sanding like crazy on an Estes Voyager - trying to make one really nice rocket. Usually I'm fine if they decent from 50' - get'em on the pad and lite them, but this I would like to see if I have the patience to make it look GOOD.
 
I took the kids out to launch our LPR rockets on Saturday. 8 rockets/11 launches, 10 successful. Here's the picture sequence for the unsuccessful launch.

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It is (was?) an attempted two stage launch of the Estes Loadstar II. I launched it successfully a couple of weeks ago on a B6-4 but the B6-0/B6-4 combo did not work out for me Saturday. It seemed like the second stage motor took too long to light up and the rocket had tipped over and was pointing towards the ground by the time it ignited. It shattered the nose cone & payload bay. Body tube & fins are salvageable and I will probably glue it back together and try another two stage launch.

Spaceman Spiff (blue Lego guy) survived the 'landing', though both of his hands were detached from his body and scattered among the debris, amazingly enough we found them in the grass.

cheers - mark
 
markg said:
I launched it successfully a couple of weeks ago on a B6-4 but the B6-0/B6-4 combo did not work out for me Saturday. It seemed like the second stage motor took too long to light up and the rocket had tipped over and was pointing towards the ground by the time it ignited.
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Did you accidentally have the engines swapped? i.e. the B6-0 in the upper stage and the B6-4 in the lower? Also, higher wind might account for this.
 
Was spaceman Spiff drunk at the time? Lego astronauts are known for their poor tolerance to alcohol.
 
Spent 300 bucks at Hobbylinc today for Mid-power reloads and SU's. SARG launch can't come soon enough!
Still collecting orders for a bulk LP order.
 
Set up the Ultimate DS for ejection tests this morning while it was still cool. (Less than 90*) I used CJ's suggestions, 3 grams for the drogue with a 4 grain 98mm motor casing, and 4.5 grams for the main, with the 48" payload tube, 3 4-40 shear pins and a Skyangle XL chute. Everything came out perfectly. I stuffed most of the dog barf back into the rocket after it quit smoking. If I had to fill it again, another trip to Home Depot might be in order. Those of you that think a bale of cellulose insulation lasts forever have never flown an Ultimate DS and a Gizmo XL. Speaking of the Gizmo, Sharon got hers ready and we did ejection tests for it also. Started with 4.5 grams for the main, but with the bottle of champagne in the N/C, it didn't get very far, probably only 4 ft. The main chute never left the payload tube. We put it back together and fired the drogue charge, 3.1 grams and it came off smartly. She took the avbay back in and reloaded it with 5 grams, which moved it out much better. No neighbors complained about the noise, so it's all good.
Made an order for several decals with Mark at Stickershock, and he just emailed me to tell me my order has been shipped! He has a special going, check out his thread.
Also talked to Perfectflite, the new SLCF with the audio output for an external beeper is now available. They are also gonna have an LED light that you can plug into that receptacle and will blink out the beeps. I was told it will be available tomorrow, so I'm ordering a couple of new SLCF's, external speakers, LED lights and standoff hardware when it shows up.
 

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