BALLS 24

Bringing 75mm N3500 25.5#, & 54mm red M1700 13#. Leaving Tuesday morning.

Dennis

Just got back last night. The playa is in great condition there was little wind when I was there which means nothing but it was pleasant. Expect the launch area to be soft. It is hard back to the south and east but not so where we will be. It's manageable once broken up and pulverised it can get dusty. The road out was well traveled and defined with a few "serpents" It would seem BRC was more west and north than usual as there were markers close by the direct line path to the site from 12 mile.

Just got our approval to fly our two-stage project which sims to about 130Kfeet. The reviewers recommended we fly from the B+ site -- anybody have the GPS coordinates of this site? I assume that the GPS coordinates at https://www.rimworld.com/balls24/ are for the A site.

When B+ is recommended it is for the 17 mile radius. We do not launch from the center because it is soft there and by being off center it gives a greater distance to the far side. We are 20+ miles from the NE edge, it is really far.
We will have you set up at 2000-2500 feet. There is a group already there working on set up, if you get there early and want to set up your tower they will direct you. I will get to Bruno's Wednesday PM dark.

Mark

Added, there is the old A site, the new A site, the B site, and B+ site. Fun times dealing with the FAA.
M

pyrobob said:

Nice, Wilson! What do you anticipate the motor designations to be?

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Thanks Robert! Should be around the following (from left to right) once I do my final number crunching:
54mm L1200
75mm M1400
75mm M1900

You can track our progress across the USA using the GPS rocket locator.

Just call 978-810-2840 and it will text you back a link to our location.

Hopefully we get their early enough to enjoy Pyramid lake

Despite some nasty rumors going around we will be there with lots of fiberglass kits and CTI motors(including some of the illusive 98mm hardware).

We'll be following AMW's trip to BALLS.

Have to thank you Robert for your help at the MDRA sod farm launch in Maryland this weekend.

rdh8 said:

Just call 978-810-2840 and it will text you back a link to our location.

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Woa! Did you let Gloria drive again? 112.4:y:


Looking forward to seeing you guys there

xenon said:

Woa! Did you let Gloria drive again? 112.4:y:

Looking forward to seeing you guys there

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Keep this up and they will end up at BALLS 23

Drive safe (especially you AMW guys)
See you all on the playa!

QUOTE=rdh8;1500307]You can track our progress across the USA using the GPS rocket locator.

Just call 978-810-2840 and it will text you back a link to our location.

Hopefully we get their early enough to enjoy Pyramid lake

Despite some nasty rumors going around we will be there with lots of fiberglass kits and CTI motors(including some of the illusive 98mm hardware).[/QUOTE]


[
Just passed Wildman country

Cory said:

Dropped my registration in the mail yesterday. This will be my first trip to the playa and even though I plan to bring a few rockets, will mostly be a spectator trying not to get lost or stuck. View attachment 269683

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Hey folks, My name is Bryan and I am like Corey... This will be my first Balls launch. I will be arriving in Gerlach between 1 and 2pm on Thursday and then out on the Playa. Anyone arriving around that time perhaps we can drive out onto the Playa in a group. Looking for any advice on where to camp. My wife and I are new TRA members and would like to meet new people. We would also like to volunteer to help other Rocketeers with their projects.. ie, lifting, ground crew, cheer squad, in exchange for some of your knowledge. :handshake:

I would appreciate any help or advice from TRA members with any more information that Mark has not covered on the Balls24 website... Private message me if you want to exchange phone numbers or email addresses... Hope to see everyone soon.

StratusFear said:

I would appreciate any help or advice from TRA members with any more information that Mark has not covered on the Balls24 website... Private message me if you want to exchange phone numbers or email addresses... Hope to see everyone soon.

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I think the web-site pretty much covers everything, but ...

To accomplish what you want, I'd just stop at Bruno's, go in and meet a few folks, and watch for someone who is headed out to the launch site.

Have fun - BALLS and the Black Rock Playa are an experience you will never forget.

--Lance.

If you are there soon enough stop at The Hamster Dance Launch at three mile entrance. There is a link on the BALLS page.

Mark

llickteig1 said:

I think the web-site pretty much covers everything, but ...

To accomplish what you want, I'd just stop at Bruno's, go in and meet a few folks, and watch for someone who is headed out to the launch site.

Have fun - BALLS and the Black Rock Playa are an experience you will never forget.

--Lance.

Click to expand...

Thanks Lance..

Thanks Mark for the link and info.. wahoo... 2 more days !!!!

StratusFear said:

Hey folks, My name is Bryan and I am like Corey... This will be my first Balls launch. I will be arriving in Gerlach between 1 and 2pm on Thursday and then out on the Playa. Anyone arriving around that time perhaps we can drive out onto the Playa in a group. Looking for any advice on where to camp. My wife and I are new TRA members and would like to meet new people. We would also like to volunteer to help other Rocketeers with their projects.. ie, lifting, ground crew, cheer squad, in exchange for some of your knowledge. :handshake:

I would appreciate any help or advice from TRA members with any more information that Mark has not covered on the Balls24 website... Private message me if you want to exchange phone numbers or email addresses... Hope to see everyone soon.

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Are you local to the area?

Should be plenty of people heading out all day Thursday. We had reasonable cell service with Verizon on the playa last Sat. I have found out about the Polaris GPS app which seems to work better than my previous it's free and it will allow you to plug in the coordinates and download a map of NV. Camp wherever, slots at the launch are easy to find early. If you like quite the ends or back row to the sides if you like to be in the middle of the party front and center. If you do not like to have fun stay away from the yellow Hummer those people bite!

Hamster Dance has been moved to the Balls location

Mark

If anyone happened to catch my M1350 in a camera frame I would love to see the footage. I have one while pressurizing, then one shortly after where the whole rocket is out of the frame.

Got home late last night from BALLS. WOW!
Thanks to the fliers - man there were some sweet flights this past weekend.
Thanks to all the people who make this launch possible - Mark, Robin, Tom, Waysie, plus all others at AHPRA and TRA.

It was great to finally put some faces with TRF handles - mannyskid, Aksrockets, Solarover13, watermelonman, xenon, etc. Also cool to meet guys like Robert DeHate and Ky Michaelson.

Pictures, video, and flight reports will be on their way shortly. Man, that was one heck of a weekend on the playa.

Best Balls in a long time.
AHPRA put on a great finale.
Thanks for years of service!

Will post more later -- just recovering -- the trip wasn't without it's usual drama, lost a tranny about 15 miles from home.....

FredA said:

the trip wasn't without it's usual drama, lost a tranny about 15 miles from home.....

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Good lord man, there's children on this forum!!!!

Seriously though, I'm looking forward to some photos and flight reports.

Wow what an amazing Balls!
Weather was the best in a long time.
The predicted winds never materialized and we had three days of perfectly clear blue windless skies!!!

Flights were amazing.
Seemed to be a below average CATO & Shred rate .

Team Hardtail had an outstanding weekend.
We flew 10 flights – a team record.
Three on Friday and seven on Saturday allowed an unprecedented “Easy Sunday.”

Brent Rowe made the two motors he flew – which both worked fine but both flights had recovery issues.
One had a tangled chute and the other deploy early due to a programming issue of using Baro-Only apogee detect in a NC-based altimeter breathing through vents in the NC shoulder.
Both rockets will live to fly another day.

The team flew 7 of my motors ranging from a 54mm K-800 to six-inch O-6600 expending about a total of 105kNs impulse.
Some of them were “boring” for Balls…..some were not.
Highlights of the motors are:
- The longest 98mm we’ve made to date – 46” of propellant.
- An “over catalyzed” propellant with 1% RIO added as a test of my propellant’s burn-rate plateau.
- A new motor configuration – the 6-inch was case-bonded and built using novel “un-wed” pin closures that use what we call “Uni-Pin” technology. This O-Motor is a quarter-scale POC for next year.
ALL of my motors worked perfectly!!!

Gabe flew the big motor in his 8” airframe renamed “Pin Head” due to the motor design.
For some reason it deployed early and zippered hard despite what looked to be a very vertical boost – we need to unload the data see if we can decipher what happened.
The pinned motor was a real test for us. First case bonded. First pinned test and what a test.
The motor design was VERY progressive. Lift-off thrust sim’ed at 600# progressing to 2400# at burn out.
I ran the Kn over a range of 155 to 343 and the pressure from 300psi to 1000PSI.
The rocket was subjected to about 22G’s at burn out.
The super wide Kn and resulting pressure range along with the 22G acceleration really tested the new motor design and it came through like a champ.
Plus it is SO easy to assemble and disassemble – we were dying to know what the insides looked like so we had both closures out on the playa in just a few minutes.
Usually taking apart a 6-inch is work left till we get home. This was easy-peasy.
I think the new motor design is a winner

The only other rocket issue to note also came from Gabe where his rocket’s EBAY unscrewed right before our eyes shortly after watching the main deploy.
He needs to add a jam nut or cotter pin.

We did fly one commercial motor – Becky – since her rocket is motor eject which went for a very nice flight as the last of the day on Saturday and our team’s last flight.

We did have a couple of hiccups on the way home.
First, Mike ran out of gas on the return to Cedarville. Not a problem as he had a spare can on board, but wasn’t a nice place to pull over.
Perhaps we thought that was it …. But his transmission died coming up 217 and although trying to limp back to the barn, he didn’t make it and we got to spend about 3 hours on the side of Hwy-26 just about 10 miles short of home.

This was probably best Balls ever that I’ve attended!
Kudos to AHPRA for a long string of awesomeness.
TRA Gerlach has a tough year to follow.

One for the memory books….
FredA – Team Hardtail.

Now for the photos - In order of appearance:
Friday's flights:

#1 - Pin Head Liftoff - Gabe's 8" x 13' rocket with the 6-inch pinned motor.


#2 - My Intimidator-5 on a 98mm N-3800 with 46" propellant:


#3 - Brent Rowe's Tule Trooper


On Saturday:
#4 - Brent Rowe - Formula 98


#5 - Gabe Q's Nubian-J357 on a 75mm M-2060


#6 - Tom U's Broken Arrow on a 75mm M-1800


#7 - Vicki Q's Zefram-1 on a 98mm N-3300


#8 - Marc Q's Intimidator-4 on a 75mm M-2000 with RIO


#9 - Mike's Little Red on the smallest of my motors, a 4G54 K-800


#10 - Becky's Darkstar on a J315 Redline -- largest motor we could find that could fly with motor eject and the right delay.
[Wanted to buy an EFC from Aerotech, but they didn't have the parts!!!]

we were dying to know what the insides looked like so we had both closures out on the playa in just a few minutes.

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You know you're a motor head when the spent guts of a motor are the most fascinating aspect of a flight. ;-) Right there with you!

The transmission story sucks. Been there done that way too many times with vehicles. At least you were more or less done with the journey rather than just beginning it. Far less stressful indeed. Great photos. The first of many from everyone I hope.

Maybe I can make it next year, I hope. At least my truck will be physically able to make it now. I need a shotgun rider.

Here are some of the better pictures I took with Casper's (Aksrockets) camera on Friday, I forgot to rip the pictures I took on Saturday/Sunday off of his SD card.


N1000




Scott Szympruch Wimpy Red P - 8" airframe




Neil McGilvray's Cow M




Gerald Meux, Guy Hardy, Scott Hertel Wimpy Red Q7000 (This one was impressive!)



Jim Jarvis ThreeCarbYen N5800-N2501-M745




Jim's three stage, second stage smoke trail and third stage cruising.




Wilson Alness' 7600 68/10 minimum diameter (sorry for the blurriness on this one)




Richard Hagensick O




Terry L. Nike Hercules 2xN5800-2xO3400-N2560 (unfortunately the second stage did not light and it augered in)




Hardtail pinned O motor




UMERG Locomotive Breath II




Uh Oh.....




Burp.....

Great shots Manny - nice to meet you all

Martin

Zebedee said:

Great shots Manny - nice to meet you all

Martin

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+1 Manny.

Thanks.

Jim

mannyskid said:

Here are some of the better pictures I took with Casper's (Aksrockets) camera on Friday, I forgot to rip the pictures I took on Saturday/Sunday off of his SD card.


N1000

Scott Szympruch Wimpy Red P - 8" airframe

Neil McGilvray's Cow M

Gerald Meux, Guy Hardy, Scott Hertel Wimpy Red Q7000 (This one was impressive!)

Jim Jarvis ThreeCarbYen N5800-N2501-M745

Jim's three stage, second stage smoke trail and third stage cruising.

Wilson Alness' 7600 68/10 minimum diameter (sorry for the blurriness on this one)

Richard Hagensick O

Terry L. Nike Hercules 2xN5800-2xO3400-N2560 (unfortunately the second stage did not light and it augered in)

Hardtail pinned O motor

UMERG Locomotive Breath II

Uh Oh.....

Burp.....

Click to expand...

Hmm....Terry L.? Didn't he do a build thread on that rocket?


https://www.rocketryforum.com/showthread.php?38336-Composite-build

FredA said:

The pinned motor was a real test for us. First case bonded. First pinned test and what a test.
The motor design was VERY progressive. Lift-off thrust sim’ed at 600# progressing to 2400# at burn out.
I ran the Kn over a range of 155 to 343 and the pressure from 300psi to 1000PSI.
The rocket was subjected to about 22G’s at burn out.
The super wide Kn and resulting pressure range along with the 22G acceleration really tested the new motor design and it came through like a champ.
Plus it is SO easy to assemble and disassemble – we were dying to know what the insides looked like so we had both closures out on the playa in just a few minutes.
Usually taking apart a 6-inch is work left till we get home. This was easy-peasy.
I think the new motor design is a winner

Click to expand...

Care to elaborate a bit on this, or is it a secret? I am picturing a design where the pins act like a snap ring and don't engage into a ring but simply trap a ring. This would be simple to knock through.

I just finished the BALLS 24 video with all the footage I took. I tried to get as much as possible, but I couldn't get every flight. Enjoy!
[video=youtube;zrqtr2ST5Tg]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrqtr2ST5Tg[/video]

Individual videos to come later.

-Casper