Rocketry bucket list

What's on your list? Here's what I want to do before I kick the bucket:
1. Scratch 12 motor cluster.
2. Scratch 4 stager.
3. Electronic air start of a second stage composite cluster.
4. Master airbrushing and weathering techniques.
5. Watch an on site mission launch.
6. Flash pan ignition.
Many others.

Checked off:
1. Various kits, either wanted but couldn't afford as a kid or messed up and wanted to redo.
2. Assembling RMS, LMS, DMS motors.
3. Multi stage clustered BP ignition.

Off the list:
1. Certification. No place to fly H or higher in my state.

And you?

1) Build and launch a full scale Saturn V
2) Learn how to spray paint without the paint crackling

Hmm.....

1. Air start *something* (currently in the works)
2. Level 2 (plans are brewing)
3. Mach 1+ (coming soon)
4. 1 mile+
5. Learn to finish well enough so my flight results come close to the Rocksim simulation results for "polished" surfaces (instead of "matte" or "unfinished"!).

Checked off:
1. Level 1
2. Dual deploy

Get Level 2 & 3
Build a 1/2 scale Sea Killer rocket
Own as much as rocketry stuff as Dave Popkin
Attend a big-ass national launch

Well....
1. Finish building all the kits I currently have.
2. Paint all the kits I have.
3. Achieve 99%+ successful recoveries at launches.
4. Fly at Balls.
5. Successfully fly a minimum diameter.
6. Successfully fly a 2-stage.
7. Mach 1+.
8. 1 mile+ AGL.
9. 12k+ feet AGL.
10. Go after a few altitude records...

Fly a rocket..

Seriously though:
1. (Scratch maybe) build and fly a full scale (or close to it) MIM-23 Hawk. Complete with bevels and conduits
2. Launch rocket carrying an autonomous glider that will return to the pad when ejected from the rocket
3. Master the airbrush (lol spell check for airgun is virgin! LOL)
4. Make my own motors
5. Clusters with airstarts.
6. Staging HPR
7. LDRS or at least some national launch
8. Build and fly a full scale Goddard L13, maybe for level 3.

I've gone thru so many models and designs and methods (cluster, staging, air-start, various recovery methods, dozens if R/C RBG's, flights over a mile, a flight for over 52 minutes, various guidance projects), that nothing specifically "new" comes to mind. A few years ago I'd have said R/C Lunar Module Multicopter (not rocket powered), and rocket boosted Mars Lander multicopter. That last one still needs to get the boost reliability worked out.

Well, OK, I WOULD like to learn how to draw up 3D files for doing 3D printed parts. And maybe get a semi-decent but not expensive 3D printer (hard to justify a 3D printer if I can't draw up my own custom parts). A few years ago I considered a laser cutter for similar reasons, and the killer was compatible software (as well as the steep learning curve to assemble and debug the "affordable" Chinese laser cutters with nearly worthless instructions).

Does not mean I'm out of ideas for models. There will always be something. And new technology can bring other projects to mind, as multicopter and guidance technology has. But I can't think of anything right now that is really "missing" among the things I'd like to do, hobby-wise.

Now, I would like to see a SpaceX launch with the booster doing an RTLS landing, ideally a Falcon Heavy. But short of winning the lottery to have the $ and time to go, I don't see that in the cards. I'd also like to live to see humans land on Mars, but just like Lucy snatching away Charlie Brown's football, Mars keeps being delayed for stupid s*** like needlessly going back to the moon first.

1. Build and fly a full scale sounding rocket to 150,000 ft or ?
I'm half-way there...lol

2.Fly to moon and back, live to tell the tale.

3. Not necessarily in that order.

20 50 then 100 thousand feet. I want to do the first two single stage games and work up with two stage until I can do a larger two stage.

What list?

2 stage Space Shot (P13,000-03,400 minimum diameter), 8” Fiberglass Rocket, 6” Miss Riley, full size outhouse rocket, 2 stage washer dryer rocket.

As 2019 winds down, and 2020 looms near, I decided to review and update this bucket list:

1. D̶u̶a̶l̶ ̶D̶e̶p̶l̶o̶y̶
2. L̶e̶v̶e̶l̶ ̶1̶
3. A̶i̶r̶ ̶S̶t̶a̶r̶t̶s̶
4. Level 2
5. Mach 1+
6. 1 mile+
7. Scale Rocket
8. 2 stage HPR
9. Learn to finish well enough so my flight results come close to the Rocksim simulation results for "polished" surfaces (instead of "matte" or "unfinished"!).

Build an EX motor big enough to require a Black Rock trip. Someday....

My rocketry bucket list is one single exceedingly stupid item: to have one of my designs produced commercially as a kit. I am not pursuing it with any sort of urgency, though, and do not particularly like my chances.

In the meantime design/build/fly/repeat will keep me satisfyingly entertained (or perhaps entertainingly satisfied).

In no particular order:

Fly a rocket into the space equivalent zone
Clustered airstart rocket
Upscaled fiberglass versions of some paper rockets I have built
Get back into ex type motors and learn about composite motor construction

Build my Ultimate Wildman for L3 cert.
Build the rocket in my avatar, 6 or 8 inch two-stage.
And one day fly something past the Karman Line.

1. Finish and fly all the rockets I have either in construction or planned...

Tobor said:

Build the rocket in my avatar, 6 or 8 inch two-stage.

Click to expand...

I've noticed that rocket, is it your design? Looks interesting.

Deleted

For 2020.

1. L proof av bay on Hyper 54 kit. And study L2 written more.
2. Tripoli L2 certify a 54mm MD on a J.
3. Either cram a IQSY-Terrier L1 multistage project for review in staging or 54mm L flight into schedule somehow. L proof aluminum FARG.
4. Keep goals less quantity than last year so they get completed.

For 2020

1. Get a 38mm motor casing. I'm thinking CTI will be the way I go, for now.
2. Get my L1 (Tripoli or NAR cert) with my almost built MC Super DX3.
3. Figure out dual deploy and convert same rocket for L2 cert. (possible launch on the same day.
4. Assist, in any way I can without doing any work, building, or calculations myself, to get my son's TARC team to the national competition.
5. Maybe build a 54mm motored rocket. Something to have fun with once I'm certified.

mbeels said:

I've noticed that rocket, is it your design? Looks interesting.

Click to expand...

Yeppers. The first time I sketched it out on graph paper was back in HS, circa 78'. But back then it was just a "D" sized single stage rocket.

Tobor said:

Yeppers. The first time I sketched it out on graph paper was back in HS, circa 78'. But back then it was just a "D" sized single stage rocket.

Click to expand...

Well, if you do a build thread, be sure to post it here on TRF.

mbeels said:

Well, if you do a build thread, be sure to post it here on TRF.

Click to expand...

Roger that.

1. Finish my PCB
2. Finish my CAD
3. Finish my half complete parachute
4. Finish my launch pad
5. Finish my rocket

Find a Launch Site

My bucket list:

1: Continue to learn rocket building techniques.

2: Have my family attend a high power rocket launch.

3: Continue to fly low and mid power rockets safely in parks with my daughter and friends.

4: Fly higher and more complex launches and gather multipile points of data, photos, and video, setting some records on the way I hope. Boosted dart project.

5: Research motors, design, build, test, fly some 38, 54, and 75mm motors and larger.

6: build a full scale ARCAS sounding rocket.

7: Enjoy the journey of rocketry, working towards my L3 someday.

8: I hope to listen and pass on knowledge, encouraging those around me in this hobby.

~John

I moved my 2020 goals to the appropriate thread.

Gonna need a plenty of time before kicking the bucket for all the things on my list, but here are the most challenging:

1. Fly a rocket to the Von Karman line (100km)
2. Fly more than Mach 3, then more than Mach 4, then... (you get the picture)
   
3. A boosted dart on (at least) an N or O motor
4. Cluster with multiple phase Air Starts
5. Engineer and build an internal frame rocket with non-bearing skin
6. Launch a few detailed scale models of iconic buildings as rockets, like the Big Ben in London and Fernestrum tower in Berlin
7. Launch a rocket in all 7 continents - though Antarctica may not be possible

Other than those, I've got plenty of unfinished projects, and probably should get my Level 3 out of the way one of these days

Reminds me I nee to update 2019 rocketry goals

I've wanted to do an air-start for a very long time. That's been on my bucket list since I saw my first HP air-start way back at NSL in 2004. I thought to myself now THAT'S cool!

So......Some 15 years later and about 10 years after I started the project, it is almost complete. Hoping to fly it this spring ( or at least by AirFest) so I can scratch that one off the list.