What did you do rocket wise today?

rich56 said:

Building a Honest John to honor a veteran that actually manned them back in the 1950s. Learning new skills to do my best at it. Laminating and tapering balsa plank wings, using plastic bonding epoxy for the first time.

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What scale Honest John? I know estes has that bt 55, 60? version that is a beautiful kit but always loved the Maxi brute bt 60 (2.6") version.

Lynn McCall said:

You guys inspired me. I hit Hobby Lobby to restock the 20 engines I blew through at the launch this weekend. I emptied the Bs, Cs and Ds. View attachment 390183 Some new kits there too. It was nice to see a Cherokee-E.

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Has Hobbie Lobby expanded their line up? Used to be very basic, Nike X and maybe a Liberty Bell Redstone. Cherokee-D was one of my first, back in 70's, loved that rocket. Do like the fact I can get 29mm E's and F's, blackpowder but with my limited launch field, they fit the bill perfect.

Ted Curtis said:

Very nice! What is that to the right mosquito and death star?

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Estes Venus Probe.

Ted Curtis said:

Very nice! What is that to the right mosquito and death star?

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That is the Venus Probe. It was an Estes kit in the 90's. That one is my second. I never got to launch my first. I built it in high school and was never able to launch it. It got destroyed so I got a new one and built it. I've only launched it once but I'll get it off the ground again this weekend. It's a fun rocket. The nose cone is a lander with an alien sticking his head up.

Been working on a cluster motor mount to go in a BT60 body tube. I had no idea that it would barely fit. My centering rings are actually three pieces. To make it more difficult it's a removable mount that is interchangeable with a single 24mm mount for my Estes Citation Patriot built I have going on over in Low Power. Just to make it more difficult I decided I needed to have retainer hooks too. Sometimes I wonder why I hate myself so much

I won't be finishing it up today because each piece (there's nine of them) needs to set up before I can move on to the next one.

-Bob

My Firefly altimeter arrived today!

Finally got around to unpacking rockets from launching saturday.

Flew the GBI (great big inductor) mk24 on an E9 to see how the longer burn affected the induction effect.



The boost was slower as expected, little spirals similar to the E12 flight, but as I said before, I've seen some finned rockets that have flown worse too.

Almost through the end of the burn, there was what could best be described as a flight anomaly. It experienced a severe deviation from it's trajectory, finished the burn, deployed, and landed.

Post flight analysis was enlightening. Nothing is sure in this life, but I'm pretty sure I have an idea of what went wrong.



Works at the 18mm scale, definitely needs improved thermal protection. Fortunately the forethought to rivet the induction tube for replacement will pay off.

Nytrunner said:

Flew the GBI (great big inductor) mk24 on an E9 to see how the longer burn affected the induction effect.

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That's an interesting looking rocket, do you have some posts somewhere with more detail?

mbeels said:

That's an interesting looking rocket, do you have some posts somewhere with more detail?

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3 years ago I began posting my forum musings on this very thread.
https://www.rocketryforum.com/threads/new-gds-document-from-dean.136251/

There are also sparse updates in this thread every now and again

4500 posts later, I have to dig that thread up again!

Finished painting an Estes Starbird. On to decals. Got the lower fins on a Rocketarium AIM-120.

Got an email I won spot landing at NARAM for the Apollo 17 flag. Got a Merlin Missiles Sword kit. Wouldn't you know it was one of the kits I bought at NARAM. Never hurts to have two as rockets don't last forever. Or could trade for a different MPR.

Put a new Kevlar shock cord on my 20 yr old bt80 DRM. The old one was getting crusty. Also touched up all the battle scars / paint chips with a Testors paint pen.

Getting things prepped for Sunday’s launch.

Tacked on the centering rings for the 3" Darkstar.

I was at a little unofficial launch. Stopped at the Millard Hobby Lobby. They looked picked over. No wonder get the jitters or paranoid about them. I'm going to stop at the Hobby Plex on the way up to the Farm.

Ordered an Estes Pro Series Launch Controller. Checking USPS tracking about 10 times a day...lol. Hope to get it before my vacation in a couple of weeks.

Saw some 20 year old packing material from the Holverson Designs days. It made me a little sad.

Pick up a couple of the new Estes/HL specials; ESAM-58 and a Cherokee E. Both were CHEAP!

Was a little disappointed that the ESAM has an 18mm motor mount. Won't stay that way...

Thinking about a build thread on the ESAM.

I made an aluminium charge canister for my next rocket.
I also ordered a Adventurer 2 from Madcow!

I posted more details in another thread, but yesterday I launched my first rocket in decades. The flight went well, but I didn't make the 60 second NARTREK bronze criteria for the 60-second parachute launch. The flight lasted just over 48 seconds with a "B" engine. I'm going back with a "C" engine to try it again soon. Apart from that, the rocket flew very straight and everything worked as expected.

I had a bad dream last night that rubbed my nose in not making it in comics, and now I'm fighting depression now that I'm awake.

If something is going to fail, it's better that it fails fast and early so you can move on without it sucking up too much time, life, effort, or money. Opposite of the lost go-around of InterStellar OverDrive, the Heroes World go around of InterStellar OverDrive, Fun Rockets, Omaha Compaq, and the Silver Hawk.

PS: I feel a little better now, I probably have just sold Mom's old beater F-150.

PPS: Actual rocket content: I bought the Estees mini Honest John the other night. It made me think back to the mock scale Mini-Brute Little John from back in my early teens in the '70s when I was in rocketry the first time around.

I redesigned the AV bay for my Hyper54 flying at LDRS. Had to fit a rrc3, eggtimer quark, Featherweight GPS, 2x 2c lipos, 1 x 1c lipo, 3 switches and all the wires into a 54mm x 145mm was a fun challenge.
I tried keeping as much away from the tracker as possible and plan on changing the bolts on the ends to be a little farther away from the charge wells
Now for ground testing "again"

Finished test printing my soyuz model and uploaded it to thingiverse.

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3759393

Doug Holverson said:

I had a bad dream last night that rubbed my nose in not making it in comics, and now I'm fighting depression now that I'm awake.

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I also had a depressing experience with comics. A number of people, many who I had never met, told me that I had a hit on my hands, that I should get my stuff published, etc., but it never panned out. I sold a single t-shirt, had a comic published in a book and had a small amount of fans with fan mail, but it never became more than that. I persevered for 7 years and "took a break," which has turned out being quite a long break. I think very very few people make it in comics.

Rockets: I bought another rocket kit, this time one that has a small payload and can take "D" and "E" engines. It's a skill level up from my last one, so we'll see how it goes. I'm looking forward to more launches.

Very Nice!!

Zertyme said:

I made an aluminium charge canister for my next rocket.
I also ordered a Adventurer 2 from Madcow!
View attachment 390401View attachment 390402

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I managed to fit in gluing an engine mount, this time for "E" engines (though the kit also includes a spacer for "D" engines).

I spent the last hour untangling parachutes. We had a successful launch yesterday morning but they never get put away nicely after launch. We launched 12 rockets and lost 3 unfortunately. We successfully recovered both Saturn V's and the little Joe though. It was a good weekend.

Set up a work station to jam out 4 quarks. Did some quick napkin math to kitbash a ring fin rocket. Breadboarding a kid's rocket related toy kinda under a deadline with a soft contract. Prototype only, maybe on shelves next year. In Los Angeles and love escape rooms? Visit Two Bit Circus and play all day. You are welcome.

The wife took the kids on a trip this week. Build bench is ground zero. Four simultaneous builds in progress!

I'm gonna be like a college freshman in finals week when it's time to clean up on Friday .

Free internet points to anybody who can identify what I'm working on.

Powered up my second Eggtimer Proton. Thrilled to see that it came flashed with v1.02Q. I have to put a new end on my USB flashing cable and wasn't looking forward to it.

Oh, how I wish this meant I actually had 2 Protons. Still in mourning for the lost one.

beantownJPL said:

The wife took the kids on a trip this week. Build bench is ground zero. Four simultaneous builds in progress!

I'm gonna be like a college freshman in finals week when it's time to clean up on Friday .

Free internet points to anybody who can identify what I'm working on.

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I'm pretty sure those are rockets you're working on. Please email my internet points ASAP, I'm saving up to buy the internet.

To keep this on-topic, I painted the Mercury capsule on my Estes Mercury Redstone. Just need to glue the escape tower in place and it's finished.