What did you do rocket wise today?

Club launch today at Great Meadows lots of good flights and a very nice day! Flew my new 32" tall 3" diam. Mercury Atlas. Then in the afternoon flew Snarky, and recovered all mine in good shape. [/ATTACH]

Finished a V2 build and got some more goodies from Apogee.

Level 1 certified with a LOC Goblin and an H219.

Flew it again on an H550.

Good times.

Further painting

Glued back 2 broken fins on a rocket out of a 20 rocket box I found on CL.

Donnager said:

Level 1 certified with a LOC Goblin and an H219.

Flew it again on an H550.

Good times.

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Congratulations. Now you are certified to spend a lot more..... Welcome to the club!

Haven't done anything rocket-wise yet today, but yesterday I got to fly some rockets.

So this happened to my MiniA Heli last month. I'd gotten two good flights with that repaired and modified nose (the plans call for slots in the nose -- which did not survive the first lawn dart) but the CA-soaked paper gave way at deployment on its third post-repair launch.



Fortunately I have a robot to fix these things for me now...



Yesterday, with its third nose cone, it flew well; nice straight boost and deployment at apogee. It even took its time coming down. Unexpectedly, it came down nose-first (it isn't supposed to).

I was pretty much the only one who noticed that it was inverted.



I guessed that it had spit its engine, but it was still loaded when I recovered it. The printed nosecone is just heavy enough to turn it over.

The 3" Darkstar creeps toward completion with the second set of internal fillets injected. West 105/206 and chopped carbon fiber.

I finished up my Super Big Bertha tribute to the 80’s.

I went to my LHS to get some engines and my friend and owner at Ventura Hobbies told me he had a deal for me. We went over to the rocket kits and he pulled out a Agent and a Ventris he's had for quite awhile and said you can have both for 70 bucks. I already have a built Argent but thought what the heck.
Later in the evening are stated messing around with Openrocket and the argent. I have been wanting to do a boost glider for while and here were all the makings. I have the Aerotech 29/40-120 casing. I'll covert the nose cone into the glider as seen in the plan. It took awhile adjusting and adjusting until I got good stability, boost and ALT. But I got it, Can't wait to dig into this project. I'll make a separate thread for that.

I like the Ventris. Videos I've seen show it to be a good flyer. All and all a good day for rockets. Oh and I managed to get the Ventris all framed up and primered.

"I <3 the '80s" :3

Finishing touches on a Mega Der Red Max clone. 38mm with altimeter in the nose cone. First time using a magnetic switch to turn it on at the pad. Altimeter deploy main at apogee and chute release at 500 ft....that’s the plan at least.



Wave the magic wand over the X and it comes to life and starts beeping.

Built a paint rack so I can do all of these rockets in one go

Built a Saturn V

Continued work on painting a fleet of down- and up-scale Berthas from BT-5 to 4". Hoping to fly at next club launch on all impulse classes from 1/4A through I across 10 models.

dmgrime said:

Continued work on painting a fleet of down- and up-scale Berthas from BT-5 to 4". Hoping to fly at next club launch on all impulse classes from 1/4A through I across 10 models.

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I would be remiss if I didn't mention bt-2.5/ 1/8A (MicroMaxx).
Just to make your fleet complete.
Cheers.

I've thought about doing that, and naming each one differently from for each motor size.

• Tiny Tina (MicroMax)
• Small Sarah (13 mm)
• Big Bertha
• Large Laura (24 mm)
• Giant Gina (29 mm)
• Huge Helga (38 mm)
• Enormous Edna (54 mm)
• Titanic Tanya (75 mm)

Hooked up the shock and a 12" thin-mil nylon chute that I had laying around to Plasma Dart II. It is now RTF.

I am never sure about parachute sizes. 12" chute on a 2.7 oz rocket shows descent rate of about 11 mph in OR, which I think is a good target, at least for soft landing surface.

Downloaded and installed OR.

It's a nice program and I am using it to get a estimated CP on my scratch built rockets.

I have used a 12" nylon chute on a 6oz rocket, good for getting it down quick but the cardboard tube will show signs of landing after a few flights.

~John

Designed all day.

JCRL said:

Built a paint rack so I can do all of these rockets in one go

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Mind the overspray! That looks fun though

Nytrunner said:

Mind the overspray! That looks fun though

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I'll spray them individually, this is primarily for drying.

More stuff for rocket gliders.

Test fit carbon fiber slats in a 3D printed fincan.

Nothing as exciting as the stuff above... sanded some dowels and CA'd an engine mount.

I did THINK a lot about rockets today, though. Hopefully that counts?

ewomack said:

Nothing as exciting as the stuff above... sanded some dowels and CA'd an engine mount.

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CAed an engine mount? That is... non-traditional. Details?

I did THINK a lot about rockets today, though. Hopefully that counts?

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Sure, why not.

neil_w said:

CAed an engine mount? That is... non-traditional. Details?

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"Non-traditional" seems to fit. The Sky Shenzhou kit has a solid plastic engine mount with a retractable engine hook. The instructions clearly say to "Superglue" it into the main body tube, so I followed their orders obsequiously. The pictures below show the engine mount with the hook all the way in and all the way out.It apparently makes for a very unique launch. We'll see. I'm really hoping to finish this kit very soon and post a build thread. It was definitely an interesting ride.

Build thread would be great. That hook is *funky*.

Lots of fiddling about. Boost Glider rig and a Ventris on the way.
View attachment 392985

ewomack said:

"Non-traditional" seems to fit. The Sky Shenzhou kit has a solid plastic engine mount with a retractable engine hook. The instructions clearly say to "Superglue" it into the main body tube, so I followed their orders obsequiously. The pictures below show the engine mount with the hook all the way in and all the way out.It apparently makes for a very unique launch. We'll see. I'm really hoping to finish this kit very soon and post a build thread. It was definitely an interesting ride.]

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Sky make some really nice kits. The Shenzhou is a great flyer, but their Condor boost glider is amazing for the price. All their kits seem to have 'unusual' construction methods. Enjoy!