11-18-07 Launch Photos

I didn't have a good day behind the camera this time. I had clouds to the est, limiting the available light and I didn't zoom in as much to keep the lens a little faster. This caused some poor focusing because the rocket was so small in the frame. I should have paid more attention to what it was focusing on. Cropping the photos made it stand out even more. Next time I'm going to get in tighter like I did on some of my better attempts in the past. I might miss a few, but it's better than getting blurry stuff.

We started with my son's scratch Goblin on an A8-3.





My son's Estes Patriot on a B4-4.

My Semroc Aerobee-Hi on its maiden flight. I went with a 1/2A3-2T to make sure I kept it close. The flight was much lower than expected, but I believe an A8-5 would have got it high enough to put it in the trees. I'm not sure what I'll fly it on next time. I might switch over to a streamer. Looks like I'm going to have to shoot 1/2000 or faster to keep from getting blurry shots on these little bitty rockets. The blur was more from the rocket's speed than the focus on this shot.



Bovine Rocket Recovery Services, Inc. (BRRS) on standby. Looks like they have hired some young talent.



My son's scratch built HARM was next on a B6-4. It tipped off and then flew nice and straight. Unfortunately, the flight was at a 45 degree angle and it ejected only a few feet off the ground. The only damage was about 1/2" of bent body tube and chipped a bit of paint. No repair is really needed on it to fly again.

Look closely at the flames. It looks like a little thrust vectoring took place again. With the forward fins, this was enough to help tip it off the pad before the nozzle eroded back to normal. I have a feeling this takes place quite often, but wind and other factors get the blame. Wind was completely calm on the ground and probably 5-7 mph at altitude. This rocket has previously flown perfectly in similar conditions.



My Nike-X clone was next on the pad with a B4-4 and a nominal flight.

Last was my son's Mercury Redstone on a C6-3. Boost was perfect. Ejection seemed early and weak. The charge didn't eject the main chute or the wadding, but luckily the capsule's chute came out. The bit of shock cord that came out got tangled with the capsule and saved the rocket.

With bad days like that, who needs good ones? Great shots as usual, great looking models too!

Indiana said:

With bad days like that, who needs good ones? Great shots as usual, great looking models too!

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Yeah, he ought to be ashamed of himself, posting those HORRIBLE pictures!:lol:

Seriously, those look fine to me. Nice work TB.

Nice pictures, thanks for sharing.

GREAT pics, and an overall successful day at the pad (you're launching rockets while I'm eating turkey at the relatives' place - you win).

A couple of Q's:

1. Your launch box setup is interesting; looks like you use a remote launch button and keep the box near the pad. Do you have solo pics of the box?

2. The Nike-X: Did you scratch-build it? Where did you get the decals? My (late) brother had one of those and I've been considering making one.

Great shots as always!

Great pictures.

Lovely pictures.

Have to say I like the Nike-X. Simple yet such a great looking bird in flight. Almost cries out for a 2 stager attemp

awesome inflight photos
Cheers
fred

DaveCombs said:

GREAT pics, and an overall successful day at the pad (you're launching rockets while I'm eating turkey at the relatives' place - you win).

A couple of Q's:

1. Your launch box setup is interesting; looks like you use a remote launch button and keep the box near the pad. Do you have solo pics of the box?

2. The Nike-X: Did you scratch-build it? Where did you get the decals? My (late) brother had one of those and I've been considering making one.

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1. The launch system was built for me by my cousin back in the 1980's as one of his electrical engineering projects at UT Knoxville. It has an LED countdown timer that I can set to start anywhere up to 99 seconds with a little switch box on the board. The last ten seconds are audible. It also has manual functions. I put the launch pad relay box and 12v battery inside an old ammo can to protect them. They are connected by 50 ft of telephone cable. I'm at work now, but I'll try to remember to take a picture of it tonight. BTW, it was made with old 1970's vintage Radio Shack surplus stuff that he had laying around. His parents had a RS store in the 70's, IIRC.

He had a really fancy setup back then, including hold-down clamps for clusters to make sure all lit before release. I asked him if he could make me a simple 10 second timer so I could launch and take pictures by myself. To my surprise I got a heck of a lot more than I was expecting! Since it was old RS parts and he used it for school, I got it for about the same cost as a modern Estes starter set, MSRP of course.

BTW, he and his brother introduced me to rocketry in the mid 70's. I remember them launching a Citation Red Max and a Cherokee-D specifically, plus a few others. They gave me a catalog and the beat up Red Max after that first launch. Needless to say I was hooked. Their launch system was a little less complex back then. They had about 20 ft of cord with bare ends that they held to their lawnmower battery at launch. It was the first electric start lawnmower I'd ever seen. Can you tell I'm from the country?

2. The Nike-X is scratch built. I did use a cone from a CC-Express, but I could have turned one if needed. Most of the decals are from Excelsior. I bought them to experiment with before applying some upscale Red Max decals I got from him. It was my first set of decals from Phred, plus, I was trying out Microscale's decal setting stuff too. I didn't want to ruin the Red Max decals so the Nike-X was my practice set. I messed up the interstage decal, so I made my own with Micro-Mark paper to replace it.

Those shots of the rockets under thrust are fantastic. Seriously, manufacturers would do well to have shots like those on their packages.

I'm afraid I have to join the chorus here and ask what you are worried about! I enjoyed all of the pics, especially the in-flight shots. Keep them coming!

By the way, looks like you had some decent flying weather. We had rain and snow here.

tbzep said:

I didn't have a good day behind the camera this time. I had clouds to the est, limiting the available light and I didn't zoom in as much to keep the lens a little faster.

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The lighting, exposure, and timing on the inflight photo of the Nike-X is perfect.

So stop whining, you'll get no sympathy from me.

It's like finishing a rocket. No matter how good the fins are filled, no matter how smooth the paint is, no matter how straight the decals are, no matter how wet the Future clear coat looks, we always find things we should have done better. :joyman:

I really like the shots of the rockets in the air where you can see the glow of the flame on the back of the nozzle.

Sorry Dave, I forgot to post a pic of the launch system last night. :shot: I'll try to remember tonight.

OK, I'll say it... Gorgeous models & pictures... But I like the BRRS photo the best!

tbzep said:

Sorry Dave, I forgot to post a pic of the launch system last night. :shot: I'll try to remember tonight.

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It's all good - I'm shopping for ideas for my launch box. I have it rough sketched, and I know what I want in it; I'm just looking for ideas on how to arrange everything, and whether I can get it into one of the narrow 30mm cans or move up to a 50 cal. box. The battery is probably the deciding factor.

Motorcycle or lawn tractor batteries aren't all that big..The battery for my dead riding mower is MAYBE 4"x4"x6"...

I'm going with a sealed lead acid (SLA) like a Yuasa or GP. 12V, maybe 7Ah.

DaveCombs said:

I'm going with a sealed lead acid (SLA) like a Yuasa or GP. 12V, maybe 7Ah.

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My launch system originally had a 12v wet cell military surplus battery made by GE. It was about 1.5x to 2x longer than a modern gel cell and looked really cool to my young eyes with each rectangular cell connected by heavy brackets. It finally died and I replaced it with a Tower Hobbies branded 12v gel cell battery that's about 10 or 15 years old now.

Dave,

Here's the system. Back in the 80's I had the pad relay and battery in a semi-scale launcher for my Centuri Saturn V. It's old, but it's good. I've thought about making new cases and front panels for it, but that would take away from the vintage feel.

Pic 1 shows the whole thing together. There's a homemade charger that goes with it, plugging into the front in place of the launch cable, but I didn't feel like digging it out for a pic. There's a ton of room in the ammo box for the pad relay box and the battery.



Pic 2 shows the controller. It doesn't look fancy today, but I thought it was super space age back then. If any of you remember CNA Systems launch controllers, this was fancier in function, but not in looks.



Pic 3 is the pad relay box front panel. As you can see, it shows charge/discharge for the old 12v wet cell and for future use of ni-cads (they weren't popular at the time because they were very expensive). That feature isn't used with the gel-cell.



Pic 4. Closer look inside. You can see the discharge resistors in the shrinkwrap.

Great pics. The inflight pics were superb. Nice launch controller as well.

:adore:

Once again I bow to your in-flight photo skills. Nice job!

Tbzep, you have outdone yourself with the in-flight photos...most excellent.. !

Nice rockets too...... ofcourse

I'll second what Andy posted.
Great launch pics! Prestine looking builds, as well.

Wow. How do you get such sharp flight photos with just the sky in the background? I'm lucky to get one blurry photo at the rocket climbs the rail.

G

Did the BRRS deployed the Cushioned Recovery And Paddy System (CRAPS) throughout the recovery area to protect any rockets that may experience a parachute failure?