What did you do rocket wise today?

JCRL said:

Thank both, Jqav and Nytrunner. I'll add this to my wishlist of rocket electronics. Can't wait to get to the skill level where I'm flying the more advanced rockets.

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Take your time! Experimentation here, fun flying there, it's all good!

I'm working on a "big" experiment right now. I bought a bulk pack of Estes Viking rockets and a Perfectflite Firefly altimeter. I designed a payload section to house the altimeter that's interchangeable between each Viking which all have a different fin design. I want to collect data on which "booster" is the fastest and which flies the highest. It's kind of funny designing science projects at 30 but I'm having a great time.

JCRL said:

It's kind of funny designing science projects at 30 but I'm having a great time.

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Oh, no, not at all. I wish someone would organize a science fair for adults. I have two projects I'd like to try, one of them in rocketry. Of course, I could do them anyway, but a science fair atmosphere would help motivate me and also let me see others' things.

jqavins said:

Oh, no, not at all. I wish someone would organize a science fair for adults. I have two projects I'd like to try, one of them in rocketry. Of course, I could do them anyway, but a science fair atmosphere would help motivate me and also let me see others' things.

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Well, there could be a TRF version... All it would take is for someone to lay down the ground rules and set some dates.

A TRF science fair could be a lot of fun!

Did a field trip this morning to scope out a flying field and pick up supplies for the initial flight of the recently completed Estes V2. A nearby county park has a soccer/football practice area with multiple fields that gives me a clear square area approx. 200 yards in a side! Visited the LHS to get motors, recovery wadding, launch controller, and pad. I was disappointed to find out that the Estes C11-3 motor, recommended for first flight, is out of production. Came home and did some quick research on TRF to learn about the QJet C12 series. Can this motor be used with the Estes standard-to-D size adapter? Any info or advice would be much appreciated!

Bruce, I hate the fact that the C11 was discontinued too. I have heard rumors that Estes might be bringing it back, but I'm not a reliable source on that.

You can absolutely use the QJet with an Estes 18 --> 24 mm adapter. That's probably the best way to go. Either that or just throw in a D12 and hit the button!

Matt_The_RocketMan said:

Does it have a chute attachment? Or is it glued onto the top of the rocket like swift? Tell me how it flies, would like to make some myself, thinking about doing cardboard air frame and the rest 3D

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It attaches to the shock cord. It's a beautifully simple design. https://www.jollylogic.com/products/chuterelease/

I believe the new owners at Estes have decided to bring the C11 back into production. Some vendors have them in stock now:
https://www.erockets.biz/estes-mode...2-required-to-pay-for-parcel-select-shipping/
And the QJets will fit the Estes 18 to 24mm adapter:

Laters.

How well do those adapters hold up to the heat of a composite engine?

I'm still going through old digital archives. Now, I'm reviving another boost glider design, this one from my Omaha Compaq days. And there's another potential career that I was downsized out of.

Also TurboCAD Mac Deluxe 7 doesn't necessarily like the approximated ellipses and other polylines from the old PC AutoCAD 13LT.....



(Maybe those are gluons decaying....)

Doug Holverson said:

How well do those adapters hold up to the heat of a composite engine?

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We shall see.

Put together another big USR cluster rocket.
The Aero-roc 3.

Build Build Build
Laters.

Doug Holverson said:

How well do those adapters hold up to the heat of a composite engine?

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Darnit, now you've made me want to put a thermistor or thermocoupler on the exterior of an engine. My gut says that it won't be an issue with short burn, low power engines, but my gut is not a reliable source. The total energy released is easy to compute, and the great bulk of that energy goes out the nozzle, but the exact value of that great majority would be rather difficult. The only way to know is going to be to measure it.

My second flight as a new Rocketeer, LOL!

... and new to the site. Forgive me if I'm posting this in the wrong place

First: ooh, ouch!

Second: yup, this is the place. Little things worth sharing but not really worth threads of their own.

jqavins said:

First: ooh, ouch!

Second: yup, this is the place. Little things worth sharing but not really worth threads of their own.

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Thanks jqavins!
Any thoughts on what happened, just by the looks??

Not enough information for anything but wild speculation. It may be that either the recovery separation (usually the nose cone) was too tight of the recovery device (parachute or streamer) was jammed, causing the ejection charge to overpressurize and blow out the tube.

That's what I was thinking too, but I'd rather hear iit from a Rocket Vet! Thanks ;-)

jqavins said:

Second: yup, this is the place. Little things worth sharing but not really worth threads of their own.

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Oh, hey, I made a mistake. This isn't the right thread after all. There's another one called "What did you do rocketwise today?" that's for this sort of thing. I spend so much time in that thread and this that I got mixed up about which I was looking at, partly because your post is a perfect fit there. My bad. If this topic is moved over there you'll get more and better informed responses.

This thread is just meant for funny stuff; there's nothing funny about a blowout.

I'll ask the admins to move your first one and our subsequent conversation over there.

Bruce Joblonicky said:

. Came home and did some quick research on TRF to learn about the QJet C12 series. Can this motor be used with the Estes standard-to-D size adapter? Any info or advice would be much appreciated!

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Doug Holverson said:

How well do those adapters hold up to the heat of a composite engine?

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I've twice flown Q-jet C12s in the Estes 18/24 adapter. The plastic didn't melt. This was in a BT 60 based rocket with solid centering rings (no airflow through the fin can) and a foil-lined motor-tube.

40 minutes of taping and a few careful coats of paint later results in crisp lines on the Fliskits Morning Star. Going for the stock paint job as shown on the packaging. I’ll let this cure for a while and then carefully tape over the black to prepare for painting the fins and body yellow and the shroud blue. May just use a fine brush and paint the shroud by hand.

Finished up my homemade edition of the SLS. I think it looks pretty good and now working on installing a screw on fin module for flight.
Took the online photo of it and made my own copy. 27 inches tall and 2 inch dia. body tube.

Went to Hobby Lobby and got a Cherokee-E and 6 packs of engines...
Bs, Cs and Ds. Then I did some work on the Interceptor-E. Almost ready for finish epoxy.

Made a little more progress reviving that circa '03 design.

Sawed off the top portion of a lower nose cone so the payload section now resembles the kit's package.

Likely to save money and double up on materials, the "Magician's" lower nose cone has two parachute loops, one on each end. The top one looked rather sub-optimal (to say the least) against the clear plastic, so I sawed it off with an Xacto keyhole saw and sanded down the edges. This may be the first time I've altered a kit. Oh, the POWER!!!!

I just thread the shock cord through the transition and tie it to the forward nose.

JCRL said:

Launched my Estes MIM104 Patriot for the first time on Sunday. Two launches on B4-2 engines. I had trouble with the fins during construction (falling over while gluing) so I was apprehensive about stability, but both flights were nominal.
View attachment 390896

First flight was straight as an arrow and the rocket landed 20ft from the pad under parachute. The second flight windcocked and then drifted back to the pad, within 15ft. It was close enough that my dad thought the rocket was going to land in his arms.
View attachment 390897

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That is some good rocket flying.

ewomack said:

Sawed off the top portion of a lower nose cone so the payload section now resembles the kit's package.

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Nytrunner said:

I just thread the shock cord through the transition and tie it to the forward nose.

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You guys must have different parts than me. Here's what my Magician payload section looks like:

And it was just built recently too.

kuririn said:

You guys must have different parts than me. Here's what my Magician payload section looks like:
View attachment 391056
And it was just built recently too.

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That's exactly what mine looked like before I sawed off the upper part right below the side loop.

Nearing the end of the painting of my Boyce 1/24 Nike Zeus B. Waiting on the warhead roll pattern and the 3 pairs of red lettered 'US ARMY' from Mark at Stickershock. Looking back, I wish I had gotten Mark to do all the roll patterns in vinyl, but decided to paint them instead. Still have some fin edges to touch up...grrr.
Bet I've used up a whole roll of Tamiya masking tape!
Allen

Built my second eggtimer Quantum. Just like my first attempt it didn't power up. After quite a bit of troubleshooting I realized that I had a battery pack with the black on negative and red on positive. After correcting the polarity both Quantum's powered up. I emailed Cris and confessed. Really shouldn't work on stuff like this after working 12 hours.