What did you do rocket wise today?

[bad_idea]

What can be "custom" about a centering ring?

Inside diameter, outside diameter, number of motors, etc. I've recently made custom rings to fit a 29mm motor tube into a BT-70 coupler and to fit a 29mm motor tube into a 35mm Quest body tube. I could not find either size ready made on the market, though if I had had more 29 to BT-70 body tube rings on hand, it would have been simple to trim those to fit the coupler instead.

About to start some clustering projects that will require custom rings and am debating whether to make them myself or to find someone to make them for me. Lacking any advanced machinery, they may be more work than than I want to bite off.

 

[Hobie1dog]

I didn't know Tim was a custom fabricator, he must have one of those high-end woodworking shops.

 

[Long_Gone]

Win a Estes Space Shuttle rocket on ebay. That will be a later on build or save in my grandsons later in life rocket box full of kits that cannot be found. Worked on the Outlander scratch build.

 

[rdrown]

Ordered the 3” fiberglass Prometheus from Composite Warehouse At Black Friday price.

 

[Cape Byron]

Played with a nose cone for the 'Tingri' rocket interceptor.



Decals were a bit pedestrian for windows. Needs more bling...







Cannibalised a 1/24th scale Tamiya car kit for a pilot...



Looks reasonable. Still needs cockpit detail and translucent blue styrene windows.

 

[BigMacDaddy]

I bought some more Kevlar line since I finally acknowledged that I cannot find the 400+' spool of Kevlar I already have [somewhere].

 

[Joekeyo]

Epoxied coupler to body tube for a repair & stretch project. As the sages foretold, it's a ton easier to glue couplers with epoxy than with wood glue.

I thought so too, until I started to use a lot more white glue when I glue couplers.

 

[prfesser]

Flew Starover (a stretched Big Daddy with other features) on a G64-7, and Cherokee-E on an E12-6. Both flew beautifully and drifted quite a ways, which gave me a nice walk (good thing, I hadn't had my walk today). The Cherokee was fine but Starover completely broke off one fin, cracked another, and left fracture lines in the paint of a third, near the airframe-fin joint. These fins were basswood rather than the stock balsa; I expected better strength. Rather than attempting to repair I'll dump everything but the nose cone. Fiberglass fins this time, phenolic airframe, and I think I'll add a short tailcone.

Also LCO-ed a bunch of flights. A tad windy but not too bad. Good attendance at the MCMC November launch. Glad to see the U. AL. Huntsville team made it here!

Best -- Terry

 

[tsmith1315]

he must have one of those high-end woodworking shops.

All state of the art, Marty :





(Done by hand, Joe was generous with his comment!)

 

[DaHabes]

Got my L2 today. On to L3...

 

[Sooner Boomer]

Got my L2 today. On to L3...

Congrats!

 

[OverTheTop]

Got my L2 today. On to L3...

Congratulations! This is where you learn about exponential pricing growth.

 

[bad_idea]

Decent progress on two rockets today:

• Slip-on fin can and G-length 29mm motor mount epoxied to Quest 35mm tube. This will be a park flyer on a 24mm adapter and a large field flyer with a long reflective streamer on motor-eject F and maybe G motors.
• For my ongoing mid-power repair, I fit the motor tube extension under two layers of epoxied carboard reinforcement (29mm motor mount under BT-55 coupler under BT-55 body tube) which should go a long way towards providing some strength to the fin-can rebuild which the short length of remaining body tube cannot guarantee, there being relatively little body tube remaining for the body reinforcement to grab onto. Also got the U bolt and hardware installed into the fiberglassed forward centering ring; all that remains is to grind out some slivers of washer that would otherwise impinge on the motor mount. Also installed the forward rail button to the combined coupler/body tube that is the next subassembly to install.

 

[GrouchoDuke]

Worked on one of my rocketry electronics designs. Soldering, testing, etc. It looks like it's ready to fly.

 

[Cape Byron]

6x13 mm cluster Gooney.



My take on this...



That top fin would become a cardstock seat cowling.

Hmmm...

 

[Hobie1dog]

Played with a nose cone for the 'Tingri' rocket interceptor.

View attachment 490892

On my favorite Sea Killer rocket, the two people that I sent the drawings to, that plugged it into the simulation programs, both came back and said that the Forward fins were going to drastically mess up the rocket center of pressure versus center of gravity ratio so how do these huge forward fins in yours differ?

 

[messedupryan]

At the last club launch, my Little Bucky lost his grip on his Dorsal Fin. Lila and I worked on a repair today!

 

[jmasterj]

Put a bad first topcoat on my L1 rocket on Wednesday. Color didn't look how I thought, finish on half the back end was poor. Decided to try wet sanding for the first time today to take off the bad finish and smooth the whole rocket down a little more. Seemed way easier than dry sanding (non-primer) paint, now I just have to wait for the next free 50° day in MD (not holding my breath - looks like Thanksgiving will be warm enough, but I'm not going to try to paint that day).

10/10 will wet sand again.

 

[Joekeyo]

Put rockets away from yesterday's launch. With winds potentially gusting into the no-go zone, I still managed to get a half dozen or so flights in. First flight for the Mercury Redstone on a a C5-3. It was a pretty impressive 200(?)'. Big Daddy flew nice on an E12-6 but the delay was a little too long for the weathercocked flight. Straight flights were a long walk. Weathercocked were much shorter. My assistant David and I both agreed that we had a good time.

 

[Re-Bar Ricky]

Yesterday I finished assembly of my Xarconian Cruiser -now it's on to primer and paint at some point.

Right now, I am working on an Estes Trident II circa 1990-91. I picked it up at a hobby shop on sale years ago and I am finally working on it. I have all of the tube ejection ports and gaskets cut and glued, now I'm working on the balsa nose cones (7 total) before full assembly.

After my Trident II is done, I'm going to pick up on my Interceptor-E and see where I left off many years ago. Been about 10 years since I've worked on it. Better late than never.

Other than that, I did some more painting on my unfinished fleet and repaired my Marauder clone from breaking a fin yesterday as it fell off of my workbench.

 

[Antares JS]

Sand and paint.

 

[Cape Byron]

On my favorite Sea Killer rocket, the two people that I sent the drawings to, that plugged it into the simulation programs, both came back and said that the Forward fins were going to drastically mess up the rocket center of pressure versus center of gravity ratio so how do these huge forward fins in yours differ?

Not sure. The Tingri wings are big, but there are only two of them. I'd say they are also further down the airframe than the Sea Killer fins.



OR gives me 1.39 calibres of stability on a D12-7 with 50gm of lead in the nose. There's a 9.1 gm baffle sitting basically where the CP marker is.

She'll still get a swing test before she ever flies.

The Main Beach rocket is a beautiful flyer, even with unusually placed fins and no nose weight.



I was told by more than one person it wouldn't be stable. They were wrong.

While I wouldn't trust OR with my life, I trust it to give me a reasonable start point with regard to CG/CP placement. I guess that's what I'm trying to say. A simulation is a start point (for me), not an end point. I'm not adverse to nose weight where needed, if needed.

 

[Scotty Dog]

Flew some scratchers today.
3 new ones and a few older restored ones.
My M.O.B. blew up on pad. That hurt.
C11-5 toasted it.
The Triple nickel aka The 5-55 flew beautiful.
2xC6-5 canted. Recover harness didn't unravel.
Used a small piece of masking tape to hold the Kevlar harness looped so I can load in BT. The little loop didn't t rip or come apart to fully deploy the system to work intended.
It supposed to recover horizontally.

The zombie ring one flew great and a great recovery.
Couple others flew good but all had some kind of recovery issue. Nothing major.
Chutes didn't want to come all out play well today.

I gave my buddy a kit to make and fly.
His first launch was the red,white n blue Cato.
It survived and we sent it again.
Nice afternoon of rockets even with the M.O.Bs major malfunction.

 

[Scotty Dog]

Today's launch

 

[Astronaut Cheeseball]

Resin sealed hardening the split fins, drilled and sealed 10/10 rail and vent holes. Drilled electronic bay rivet holes and sealed, glued inner strengthening couplers payload section, and worked on vacuum formed canopy on nose cone. Spiral filling, primer and paint up next.

 

[Scotty Dog]

M.O.B.C.A.T.O.
WOW , A C11-5 took out the M.O.B...itch !!!

 

[Scotty Dog]

Triple Nickel
Love this black bird.
One of my favorite scratchers.

 

[bad_idea]

For my ongoing mid-power repair, I fit the motor tube extension under two layers of epoxied carboard reinforcement (29mm motor mount under BT-55 coupler under BT-55 body tube) which should go a long way towards providing some strength to the fin-can rebuild which the short length of remaining body tube cannot guarantee, there being relatively little body tube remaining for the body reinforcement to grab onto. Also got the U bolt and hardware installed into the fiberglassed forward centering ring; all that remains is to grind out some slivers of washer that would otherwise impinge on the motor mount. Also installed the forward rail button to the combined coupler/body tube that is the next subassembly to install.

Ground the protrusions of the U bolt hardware to fit the motor tube, then used the centering ring and a length of aluminum angle to hold the body straight while I epoxied the body extension. Hope to epoxy the centering ring itself tomorrow.

 

[GrouchoDuke]

Got to final-draft-1 on my Wildman 38mm nosecone avbay. EasyMini, Featherweight GPS, battery & switch. Printing it now...

EDIT: I'm now up to final-draft-3, printing that one & calling it a night.

 

[teepot]

Today I cleaned stuff up from yesterdays launch and made a silly rocket. I made a Flying Plunger. Yesterday the wind forecast was 3 to 6 mph until the afternoon. So I spent a couple hours getting rockets ready. I got two up before the wind came up about 11am. One rocket for some unknown reason I didn't put a chute release on. Main came out at 2500'. No worries there is no wind. No wind a ground level, but there was up higher and thermals too. I thought I was going to have a short walk then it started going up instead of down. Up and down it went until I was half a mile from the flight line. Oh well I can use the exercise. The other rocket drag separated in spite of the shear pins. After that it was a tumbling mess with occasional pops and puffs of smoke from the ejection charges. It's fixable. I also ordered some motors and a couple other things from BMS. Here is a picture of The Flying Plunger. Next up will be a rocket that looks like a plunger. I already have all the parts.