What did you do rocket wise today?

[Rex R]

it was a case of reach down and pick it up, it hadn't had time to go feral. we figure that either it just happened to get loose/away from it's people (near a campground) or more likely it was dumped( I REALLY hope that there is a special place for folks who dump young animals). thanks twas a fun flight(missed the trees)
Rex

 

[KenRico]

Launched with the DART club in San Diego.

No HPR with the waiver , but got off a Executioner on a F35W and helped a friend set up his boys rockets. They also launched some Blenders and a Snitch.

Was able to see Grahams LOC kit and Matts original Mars Lander fly too !

Kenny

 

[SaturnV]

Today launched Saturn X A. I do not get a good start. With me was my wife, of course. When the rocket flew horizontally straight toward the nearby village, she said,
End, finally you kill someone with these rockets I hear a woman crying!
But of course there was no way to reach the village. It was at 10,000 feet, but rocket could fly only 6-7000. We found rocket in the field of about 3-4 000 feet

 

[cerving]

Could have been worse... could have land-sharked towards you wife! That's why I leave her at home...

 

[Charles_McG]

Had fun at Bong.

Nosecone separated, but I found it, too.

 

[krusty]

I had the pleasure of talking to about 100 7 - 12yr olds at a primary school on Friday

I took along a bunch of different rockets for the kids to check out - they passed them around while I ran through some photos and videos on the projector screen.



Afterwards the kids had lots of questions - one young lady asked if it was magic! To which I answered no, it's not magic. It's Science! Rocket Science! One of the teachers just about burst out laughing

There were questions about do we make our own fuel, which was a good segue into talking about buying motors with grown-ups at the local hobby shop. They also wanted to know why smaller rockets could go higher than bigger rockets (I had talked about the big V2 rocket our team flew at Thunda last year, and showed them photos). So without saying "power to weight ratio" i was able to explain how small rockets were lighter etc.

The kids absolutely loved the talk and then the teachers helped heard the kids outside where I ran a demo launch. It was a fairly small oval that the school had, so I launched some Art Applewhite 13mm saucers.

I've never had a countdown performed by 100 kids before - it was a blast!!

Due to privacy concerns, I've only attached a single photo - the only one I took of the afternoon.

Krusty

 

[noffie79]

I finally got the stickers I needed to finish my third Leviathan.

 

[Banzai88]

I ran out of RocketPoxy putting fins on a pre buy out RW Formula 54.

 

[rbelknap]

Logged in to TRF for the fist time in... I don't remember how long.

 

[EXPjawa]

Rocket cookies! Hope they taste good too!

Taste like chicken! Well, OK, like normal sugar cookies (just using the sugar in a different way than expected around here). I will say that if painting roll patterns on moderate sized rockets is tricky, doing it on 3" long cookies is a major PITA!

 

[newparade]

I'm working on my Estes Magician. I painted the fins with glass apple red rustoleum 2x and really like it. The last time I built a rocket was over 30 years ago. iSo, now I actually have access to forums like this where I learned quite a bit more about painting. I like it so far. I got a little bit of spray back (is that a good name for a little paint wafting back where it doesn't belong?) that I'll have to repair, but it's been a great experience so far.

 

[TopRamen]

Finally started the Big Daddy Kit!!!
I'm using a slightly longer nose cone so I can throw the recovery stuffs up there to put my CG where it will go without making additional nose weight necessary.
29mm, of course, but not like I have a big enough field yet, so it will be plenty light enough to match the perfomance of a stock BD.
That glassine layer on the BT alone must weigh nearly 2 oz. or more. On a tube that short with such clean lines, that will be about 15-30 seconds worth of peeling.




I was quite pleased that after not having played with Balsa for awhile, that I was confident enough in my manual dexterity to bevel the stock set of fins, then go right to carbon fiber. Opening the pores of the Balsa with 120 grit then rubbing milled carbon in before anything else really helped the cloth grab nicely at the tacking stage, so with a quick trim sanding I'll be ready for epoxy.
Yes, CA is too brittle to do full layups, supposedly... It totally makes CF workable to nearly anyone however, so if you just use it to tack the workpiece in place, you can take your sweet time wetting in and wetting out whatever epoxy you like.
I've ruined things due to the springy nature of CF. Sure, it can't spring if you have a vacuum bagger, but for those of us that don't, it should not make good results impossible, and my BD is never going to break mach, so it is just going to be what it is. My LPR/MPR Rocket the way I build a rocket.
Now I'll no longer need to sandwich something between two pieces of balsa, I can just eyeball it to better results than I ever have gotten before.
Sucks that I've been busy fixing my house instead of building rockets, but I'm staying quite sharp by doing so.


And yes, I do hope to do the yellow decals over the cf, then seal them on with a piece of .75 glass cloth. I've glassed over decals before like this with good results, and I'm not trying to win any awards, so yeah, it will look cool. Nose cone may be black with yellow tip and one or two yellow bands.
I'll possibly start my Openrocket for it today.

 

[TangoJuliet]

I finally filetted the fins on my Laserhawk... Something I'd put off for almost two months . After a bad experience using Milliput, I decided to use epoxy mixed with phenolic Microballoons with much better results.

 

[dave carver]

I'm working on my Estes Magician. I painted the fins with glass apple red rustoleum 2x and really like it. The last time I built a rocket was over 30 years ago. iSo, now I actually have access to forums like this where I learned quite a bit more about painting. I like it so far. I got a little bit of spray back (is that a good name for a little paint wafting back where it doesn't belong?) that I'll have to repair, but it's been a great experience so far.

Welcome Take plenty of photos, we love photos

 

[Charles_McG]

Finally started the Big Daddy Kit!!!

My pic up in post #15337 is of my completely stock Big Daddy taking a swim in a pond at Bong.

There is a lot written about the big shoulder slope causing nosecone ejection problems, none of which I've encountered. But my nosecone (was) almost fall out loose.

This flight was on an AT 24mm F39. It disappeared off the pad like a Vmax . At ejection, the nose cone blew off so hard that it broke the shock cord and tumbled down. I found it too, on the second loop through the tall grass.

 

[TopRamen]

My pic up in post #15337 is of my completely stock Big Daddy taking a swim in a pond at Bong.

There is a lot written about the big shoulder slope causing nosecone ejection problems, none of which I've encountered. But my nosecone (was) almost fall out loose.

This flight was on an AT 24mm F39. It disappeared off the pad like a Vmax . At ejection, the nose cone blew off so hard that it broke the shock cord and tumbled down. I found it too, on the second loop through the tall grass.

Glad you found it!
I usually add a little tape to nose cones that are too loose, and I don't worry about that. I have read some of the Big Daddy threads and reviews.
The nose cone I'm using, from an Estes/NCR BOMARC is also loose in the body tube, but I'm making mods to the shoulder anyhow to allow for the piston and the recovery gear. When I get around to the BOMARC I'll make my own cone on the lathe with foam.
I might just go with streamer recovery to keep it close to the pad.
It should be a really fun rocket to fly even though it's just 4FNC. I've wanted one of these since they came out, but I really don't build anything stock anymore, so I'll just do it my way and enjoy it like that.
I don't even have time for a build right now with my house repairs, but sometimes I get to a point where I can't think of anything to do house wise at the moment, so I can work an easy build like this in and do it over the course of a couuple of weeks, or maybe finish it in an afternoon. There are like a total of 10 steps to this build.

 

[SaturnV]

I did nothing today related to rocketry. But sitting in the dull and boring work I think of great amateur rocket motors on 20-30-50 100 kg of fuel. With tubes of fiberglass and polyester or epoxy resin. Graphite nozzles. Does not seem to me expensive or difficult to implement.I even think about amateur multi stage rocket on solid fuel could put a small satellite in orbit

 

[newparade]

Here's my Estes Magician with fins painted. Pretty decent shine. Today, I sanded off some red over spray from the body.

 

[matthewdlaudato]

I got home and opened a package from Bill at Doghouse Rocketry, going to be incorporating his charge wells with integrated terminal blocks into some rockets.

 

[ballistic_trep]

Finished the Mercury capsule and glued the fin halves together.

 

[dhbarr]

Scales came today: 100g, 1kg, 5kg, 20kg. Now I can weigh everything from MMX fins to a fully-loaded L3!

 

[dford]

I am over this thread. It is an impossible conundrum of thought to keep up with.

 

[Cl(VII)]

Prepped rockets and loaded the van for Airfest. Heading out around 4 am.

 

[smapdiage9]

Loaded about 1/3 of my stuff into the truck- also for Airfest. Unfortunately I have to work a half day tomorrow before I can leave, so the rest of the packing will have to wait!

 

[Igotnothing]

Fatty 2x4 keeps going too high and drifting nearly out of the field. (IKR?) So added cable cutters and drogue.

 

[chrisudy]

1) sanded first primer coat on the Cosmic Interceptor and sprayed the second coat.
2) went to put the decal on the Hyper Bat. Found that the supplied decal was not in good shape... Date code stamped right on the word Bat...

 

[Maxter]

Built and painted an Estes Mini Fat Boy...It took about 30 minutes. I must be slowing down.

 

[EXPjawa]

I did a bit of paint work on my Cygnus rocket. I put the second color on this morning, and its still a bit soft 12+ hours later, so its currently parked in front of a electric heater (I'm monitoring temps w/infrared thermometer). Anyway, hopefully I can get the rest done tomorrow.

In other news, I popped into a local Michael's store this evening, since it happens to be next door to the grocery store, and they emailed out a 50% off coupon this morning. While I regret to report that particular store seems to have dropped rocketry supplies, they did have Testors spray paints on clearance. Normally $5.95 each, thy were down to $2.99, so I bought multiples of the colors I intend to use for my MAC Scorpion - 4 Diamond Dust silver, 2 Lime Ice green, and 2 Blazing Black. So, at least that helps. I may have to go back for other colors...

 

[rharshberger]

Ordered a 1/17.5 scale Mercury Redstone Capsule and a custom 1/21.8 scale Mercury-Atlas Capsule from Boyce Aerospace Hobbies for a 4" Merc-Redstone, and a 5.5" Mercury-Atlas. No complaints at this point about the service I have received so far. Pictures to follow and a build thread or two when the pieces arrive.

https://[I]boyceaerospacehobbies[/I].com

https://www.rocketryforum.com/showthread.php?135889-Boyce-Aerospace-Mercury-Capsule#post1616932

 

[swatkat]

Bench tested those Amazon 11.5" e-matches/ignitors. They work great!