What did you do rocket wise today?

[Nytrunner]

It’ll be reinforced with 7 layers of spread row carbon fiber for “independently” increasing fin stiffness and then an additional 6 layers of spread tow for T2T allowing for it to be protected from de-lamination going M3.6+.

Very involved!

Will you create the reinforcing in plate form and cut your inserts to match the pockets?

And what's your strategy for protecting the tip to tip edges at the leading edge of your fins? High temperature coating of some sort?

 

[John Kemker]

Aircraft Spruce sent shipping notice w tracking notice the following morning. My package should arrive Tuesday. Very prompt service as a rule from them.

I'm spoiled. They're about 40 minutes away from the house. [grin]

 

[conman13]

Very involved!

Will you create the reinforcing in plate form and cut your inserts to match the pockets?

And what's your strategy for protecting the tip to tip edges at the leading edge of your fins? High temperature coating of some sort?

Both sides will be directly reinforced first with the spread tow at 0, +/- 45 and 90 degrees. The spread tow I’m using has a binder which makes it very easy to cut exact shapes out of. Once cured and bonded on to the fin canister the t2t will be done in the same fashion. There will be ablative covering the exposed carbon as well as the leading, tip and trailing edge

 

[tOD]

Started getting some rockets ready in the hope that the weather cooperates for PSC launch tomorrow at Weber Farm. Spent some time last night running simulations. If it's a "go" will build some motors and measure some BP for ejection charges.View attachment 406656

Scratched. Gotta wait 'till March.

 

[lakeroadster]

Finished gluing the motor mount and fins into / onto the Hammerhead Shark.

 

[Speaknoevil]

Started my Rocketman Miss Riley.

 

[prfesser]

Was LCO at today's Music City Missile Club launch. Pushed the button on a couple dozen rockets including 3 or 4 SLI team projects.

I was informed that one university project landed rather close to the four-lane Pennyrile Parkway, but a Good Samaritan stopped his car and bundled up the chute into the airframe so it wouldn't drag about. Thank you, Unknown Good Samaritan!

Best -- Terry

 

[GalantVR41062]

Working on a few projects.

Putting a 38mm mmt booster together to slide onto Lowtech 5 (a BT60 scratch build with 29mm mmt). The plan is to put the gps and RRC3 in the payload with wires running down the in side of the airframe to a Ematch in a 29mm CTI 5grain H53 for the sustainer.

Then have a motor in the booster that will get the stack up to speed but stay subsonic, then use drag separation and motor eject for chute recovery of the booster.

I also have a MC Frenzy with a 54mm mmt and tail cone. This will be a nice sub sonic bigger rocket to fly at the high power launch. The paint layout will be chevy orange for the nose cone, fins, switch band, and a few accent rings, the rest will be metallic blue.

I am also doing a 54mm mmt tail cone booster for Lead Sled. I cut out the fins and had this mmt, rings and 2 pieces of 4" body tube/coupler as extras. I am going to paint the booster so the fins look like a TIE Intercepter from the side, then black with white specs as stars. My daughter stuck some stickers on my 1/4" ply a while ago so they will be masked off and not painted over.

I was on the belt sander for a long while, trying to get a airfoil shape on the fins, I will be smoothing these out with a sanding block later.

I also cut the fin "tab" off the 4 plywood fins for my 1/4 scale Viking 7 rocket. I will be fabricating aluminum ones to install for flights with larger 98mm motors.

~John

 

[o1d_dude]

Try a hot water bath for a few minutes. Worked for me:
https://www.rocketryforum.com/threads/question-on-epoxy-resins.151556/
(Bath for the epoxy bottle, not for you).

Tried the hot water bath for the epoxy bottle.

Was able to de-solidify the resin but not able to return it to its former fully liquid/syrup state. At best it resembled silly putty.

Oh, well. Lesson learned. My replacement epoxy shipment is scheduled to arrive on Tuesday.

 

[Joekeyo]

Yesterday really. Flew rockets at Tampa Tripoli with first-timer 16 yo David Jr.
Despite the wind, there was a good crowd. Many HPR rockets were flown. David found them impressive.

My rockets:
The Twin Factor was a crowd pleaser - Two stage action with shuttlecock performance. Estes, bring back the shuttlecock.
The PSC infinity single stage performed flawlessly. The two motor cluster lit consistently. The last flight was on 2 C6-5s. The Altimeter 2 reported 700', 14gs, 150 mph. Once again David was impressed.
The Centurion had slower more realistic take offs. Now that I have seen it's performance, I expect that I can fly it on a soccer field in light winds on a B6-4.

A good time was had by all. Thank you fellow members for all your hospitality. I am looking forward to the April launch.

 

[neil_w]

Estes, bring back the shuttlecock.

Odd'l Rockets still makes it.

 

[Nytrunner]

Was LCO at today's Music City Missile Club launch. Pushed the button on a couple dozen rockets including 3 or 4 SLI team projects.

I was informed that one university project landed rather close to the four-lane Pennyrile Parkway, but a Good Samaritan stopped his car and bundled up the chute into the airframe so it wouldn't drag about. Thank you, Unknown Good Samaritan!

Best -- Terry

Glad to see the Student Launch teams got their flights in before the deadline! Our HARA field is better described as retention pond currently. We can only hope it dries out for March....

 

[us185damiani]

Finally flew some rockets today! Bluebird zero and Mercury redstone on a C6-3, Red Max on a B6-4 and the StarWars X-Wing on a C6-3 all flew very well! Launched the Redstone 1st on a B6-4. All good parachute deployments perfect flights

 

[rharshberger]

Turned another nose cone this one for a BT60 upscale of the Cherokee-D from Basswood (had a chunk laying around from my Nike Hercules nosecone project), tested a new to me method of lathe turning the block using a pressure chucking method of a dowel through the center of the nose cone leaving a hole in the base for noseweight.

 

[Construct_VA]

The weather finally cleared enough for our Club to have a launch!

 

[wolsen]

Finally got to fly my X-Wing rocket. A bit more motor next time, but overall the rocket gods were kind today and it came down without a scratch.



And a flight video

 

[Nytrunner]

Pro Series Patriot on The way to paint.

Sanded down putty and sprayed white primer on nose, sanded down putty on body.

May start building a small competition kit (no paint) while i await further painting conditions

 

[Jay Dub 4009]

Threw down the second black roll pattern sections and last coat on the nose cone on my 3” iris and threw the space heater in to do its thing. Ordered the sticker shock scale Atlantic research stickers. In a few days I’ll put the red on the fins and grey on the upper payload bay. While waiting days for paint to cure, will have to figure out how I’m going install the missile works screw switches I got in for my dual quantum’s. Probably will have to redo the whole Avi bay. Now I wish I had a 3D printer, might be in my future.

 

[John Taylor]

Pro Series Patriot on The way to paint.

Sanded down putty and sprayed white primer on nose, sanded down putty on body.

May start building a small competition kit (no paint) while i await further painting conditions

View attachment 406805

Congratulations on a great classic rocket!

 

[Charles_McG]

Flew my first rocket of 2020. Great conditions. Sustainer igniter lost continuity during boost.

I’m thinking my second flight of 2020 will look a lot like the first. But higher.

 

[us185damiani]

More stuff! I launched 4 rockets yesterday. The Mercury Redstone, Semroc Bluebird Zero, Red Max and the X-wing all flew great! Then I scratched up 2 Cobra 1500’s one from BT-55 as per original and one from BT60’S for different

 

[rockladen]

This weekend I soldered my second Eggtimer Quantum kit, mounted both Quantums on AV sled, tested with Christmas light bulbs drogue and main channel signals, and all is good! Next weekend will do deployment testing.

 

[Nytrunner]

Sustainer igniter lost continuity during boost

Any useful post flight discovery?

 

[ChicagoDave]

I had my first Rocket Fatality ever. My LOC Park Flyer SandHawk on an H135 at Bong this Sunday. The weather was perfect and the SIMs said I should get about 4100' AGL from that little rocket. It had survived an H128 a few weeks ago but for some reason the ejection charge didn't eject the payload so it came in ballistic.

20200216_215409362_iOS

• ChicagoDave
• Feb 17, 2020

 

[SeanW78]

I had my first Rocket Fatality ever. My LOC Park Flyer SandHawk on an H135 at Bong this Sunday. The weather was perfect and the SIMs said I should get about 4100' AGL from that little rocket. It had survived an H128 a few weeks ago but for some reason the ejection charge didn't eject the payload so it came in ballistic.

20200216_215409362_iOS

• ChicagoDave
• Feb 17, 2020

 

[ChicagoDave]

I had my first Rocket Fatality ever. My LOC Park Flyer SandHawk on an H135 at Bong this Sunday. The weather was perfect and the SIMs said I should get about 4100' AGL from that little rocket. It had survived an H128 a few weeks ago but for some reason the ejection charge didn't eject the payload so it came in ballistic.

But to add, it was a *great* day to fly at Bong. The weather was nearly perfect for February with very light winds. I got 3 great launches in, including a personal altitude record of 4199' agl (I'm going to round up to 4200' ). Also got some great data from the Featherweight GPS tracker including the exact location of my cratered rocket. Oh, and I got to fly my first I200 in the LOC Graduator. That 29/360 casing is almost as long as the booster section of the Graduator. I had to coil the harness around the motor to get everything to fit in there!!

The Nike Smoke was in the afternoon when the clouds moved in and it got cooler and a lot of people were leaving. I left right after that launch. The chute partially reefed on the way down so it came in faster than I wanted but no harm to the rocket. I've re-arranged the harness so the chut is attached about 3' down from the nosecone in a 3rd loop, so hopefully it doesn't get tangled up next time. I got my L1 on this rocket at Midwest Power last fall on an H128, and It went up on an H128 again. I'm going to try the H135 in this rocket next launch.



Here's the Graduator waiting to launch. That's the morning sky there - clear with no wind. The rocket landed about 1800' down the runway. To the left is a rocket with an L1150 waiting to launch -- it got to 8000' agl -- and my Graduator got 4055' agl. That was my personal altitude record until the SandHawk got 4200' in the next launch (and came in ballistic).



And here's the 29/360 casing to show how much room is left in the Graduator. Barely enough to get the Chute and Chute release in the top. I ended up coiling the harness around the MMT so I could get a bit more room.

 

[Greg Furtman]

Flew my first rocket of 2020. Great conditions. Sustainer igniter lost continuity during boost.

I’m thinking my second flight of 2020 will look a lot like the first. But higher.

View attachment 406817
View attachment 406818

I bet a frozen Bong without much snow is a lot easier to walk vs bog time.

 

[Charles_McG]

Any useful post flight discovery?

My sim was within 10’.
Nothing obvious with the wiring outside the avbay. I’ll have to check the screw blocks.
I should reduce the altitude lockout a little to give myself a little more margin.
The sim tracks right between the baro alt and the accelerometer alt.
I think trying to stage at 300’ and 1 sec after liftoff is too close to the edge of the envelope sensor and filter wise for the baro/accelerometer deviation limit to work for me.

I can post graphs when I can get my JMP license refreshed.

 

[Charles_McG]

I bet a frozen Bong without much snow is a lot easier to walk vs bog time.

Yes, but wind so light that the sustainer landed between the pads and launch table negated the benefit.

 

[crossfire]

But to add, it was a *great* day to fly at Bong. The weather was nearly perfect for February with very light winds. I got 3 great launches in, including a personal altitude record of 4199' agl (I'm going to round up to 4200' ). Also got some great data from the Featherweight GPS tracker including the exact location of my cratered rocket. Oh, and I got to fly my first I200 in the LOC Graduator. That 29/360 casing is almost as long as the booster section of the Graduator. I had to coil the harness around the motor to get everything to fit in there!!

The Nike Smoke was in the afternoon when the clouds moved in and it got cooler and a lot of people were leaving. I left right after that launch. The chute partially reefed on the way down so it came in faster than I wanted but no harm to the rocket. I've re-arranged the harness so the chut is attached about 3' down from the nosecone in a 3rd loop, so hopefully it doesn't get tangled up next time. I got my L1 on this rocket at Midwest Power last fall on an H128, and It went up on an H128 again. I'm going to try the H135 in this rocket next launch.

View attachment 406845

Here's the Graduator waiting to launch. That's the morning sky there - clear with no wind. The rocket landed about 1800' down the runway. To the left is a rocket with an L1150 waiting to launch -- it got to 8000' agl -- and my Graduator got 4055' agl. That was my personal altitude record until the SandHawk got 4200' in the next launch (and came in ballistic).

View attachment 406846

And here's the 29/360 casing to show how much room is left in the Graduator. Barely enough to get the Chute and Chute release in the top. I ended up coiling the harness around the MMT so I could get a bit more room.

View attachment 406847

It was a great day at the Bong.