What did you do rocket wise today?

the rocketry show
Wildman Rocketry
Advertise with us
The Rocketry Forum

Help Support The Rocketry Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Received my Estes holiday sale order. Trying to get my kids more interested by giving them rockets as stocking stuffers. Also received a couple of balsa wood gliders and a 2018 ornament as gifts.
 
Made myself a BT55 bulkhead out of two pieces of cross-laminated 1/8" basswood. Seems pretty strong, I think. Still needs a bit more sanding to fit.
Bulkhead.jpg
I reserve only my most exciting accomplishments for this thread.
 
Since we're getting rev'ed up with various forms of glue fumes - I set up my first 'serious' effort of paper skinned balsa. And I must say I'm seriously proud of the results. Goes to prove once again that everything we needed to learn for a successful life we learned in Kindergarten. Glue rules the world!20191213_071501.jpeg
 
kevindcornwell said:
Since we're getting rev'ed up with various forms of glue fumes - I set up my first 'serious' effort of paper skinned balsa. And I must say I'm seriously proud of the results. Goes to prove once again that everything we needed to learn for a successful life we learned in Kindergarten. Glue rules the world!View attachment 400719
Click to expand...

Did you vacuum bag those?
 
87FD3D79-8E51-4226-8978-7DA01DD75334.jpeg Installed rocketry software for L2 project. Got my TeleGPS and RRC3 software installed. Got some reading to do on the RRC3 programming setup lol.
 
Was RSO and LCO at the Music City Missile Club's launch today. Bigger turnout than I expected; another university team came to fly their prototype prior to building the real thing. I attempted to fly my Cherokee-E. I failed. Not once, not twice, but six times with three different starters. I am throwing away the Estes starters and making my own for BP motors from now on.

I was going to fly "Poor Planning" on a Redline H motor, but declined any potential additional humiliation.:mad:

Best -- Terry
 
Awww darnit I was hoping you’d have a cool flight report on it. The H one.
 
prfesser said:
Was RSO and LCO at the Music City Missile Club's launch today. Bigger turnout than I expected; another university team came to fly their prototype prior to building the real thing. I attempted to fly my Cherokee-E. I failed. Not once, not twice, but six times with three different starters. I am throwing away the Estes starters and making my own for BP motors from now on.

I was going to fly "Poor Planning" on a Redline H motor, but declined any potential additional humiliation.:mad:

Best -- Terry
Click to expand...

I only use e-matches for 24 mm and 29 mm BP motors. The head of the nozzle fits perfectly in the nozzles, and I just secure them with some masking tape. I'm pretty sure I have a 100% success rate.
 
Placed an order for a K motor -- which I totally wasn't going to do. Now I've got to build something with a 54mm motor mount. Thinking about a boosted dart.
 
Just bought two stratologger cf altimeters and a few other things from perfectflite direct. I'm happy that they finally have some for sale again.
 
Today my 13 year old and I finished some Estes rockets and painted them in anticipation of launching these tomorrow. He messed up he decals on his der Red Max, but there's no better way to learn than to make a mistake. His rockets turned out nice !
 
4D807B0D-CC48-49B3-949D-70CD9EC2A4A5.jpeg
Programmed an RRC3+ as backup dual deploy altimeter. Apogee plus two seconds. Main at 700 ft. And what a pain compared to a Altus product to program. You gotta have some VCP drivers installed then you have to manually flip a switch on the dongle after you plug it in else it errors.
 
prfesser said:
Was RSO and LCO at the Music City Missile Club's launch today. Bigger turnout than I expected; another university team came to fly their prototype prior to building the real thing. I attempted to fly my Cherokee-E. I failed. Not once, not twice, but six times with three different starters. I am throwing away the Estes starters and making my own for BP motors from now on.

I was going to fly "Poor Planning" on a Redline H motor, but declined any potential additional humiliation.:mad:

Best -- Terry
Click to expand...
Hi Terry, Personally, I haven't had luck with the Estes starters if I use them as is. So I modified my launcher to use a 12 volt 7 amp rechargeable battery. I also crush the tip of a wooden match stick inside the engine before I put the starter in the motor. This has almost always worked for me.

In the case of a failed start, I clean out the engine hole a bit before retrying.

Russ
 
russ miliotto said:
Hi Terry, Personally, I haven't had luck with the Estes starters if I use them as is. So I modified my launcher to use a 12 volt 7 amp rechargeable battery. I also crush the tip of a wooden match stick inside the engine before I put the starter in the motor. This has almost always worked for me.

In the case of a failed start, I clean out the engine hole a bit before retrying.
Click to expand...

Just wanted to caution folks that storing potassium chlorate in close contact with sulfur can result in static-sensitive / friction-sensitive compounds.
 
dhbarr said:
Just wanted to caution folks that storing potassium chlorate in close contact with sulfur can result in static-sensitive / friction-sensitive compounds.
Click to expand...
True, however, Ellern's "Military and Civilian Pyrotechnics" (can be found somewhere on the web) says that match heads already contain both potassium chlorate and sulfur. Apparently it's phlegmatized (love that word!) with other ingredients. Strangely enough, the sulfur is there primarily as a deodorant of sorts; the smell of burnt sulfur covers up the smell of the burnt glue used to bind the mixture.

Still, I would agree that this kind of "boost" shouldn't be stored.

Best -- Terry
 
russ miliotto said:
Hi Terry, Personally, I haven't had luck with the Estes starters if I use them as is. So I modified my launcher to use a 12 volt 7 amp rechargeable battery. I also crush the tip of a wooden match stick inside the engine before I put the starter in the motor. This has almost always worked for me.

In the case of a failed start, I clean out the engine hole a bit before retrying.

Russ
Click to expand...
What's really strange is that the starters never lit; the head was intact on each one. This was a 12v car-battery system with eight separate leads for clips. We tried switching the leads to a new socket. No joy, even though those same leads and sockets had successfully started other Estes motors. Guess I got a bad batch.
 
Man that sounds odd. I’ve used like fifteen E motors from Estes with stock igniters and I never had issues unless the clips were shorting in the launch rail by club anyways, usually on the stand off they could short. If you want igniters or motor starters with more ooomph maybe try some first fire minis or a mix your own kit?
 
prfesser said:
Was RSO and LCO at the Music City Missile Club's launch today. Bigger turnout than I expected; another university team came to fly their prototype prior to building the real thing. I attempted to fly my Cherokee-E. I failed. Not once, not twice, but six times with three different starters. I am throwing away the Estes starters and making my own for BP motors from now on.

I was going to fly "Poor Planning" on a Redline H motor, but declined any potential additional humiliation.:mad:

Best -- Terry
Click to expand...
Sorry bout your bummer day. I hate Estes starter fails. However, since I started dipping them I have had zero failures. There is always another launch to redeem yourself.
 

Similar threads

NTP2
What do you do (or did) for a living?
6 7 8
Replies
239
Views
7K
John Kemker
John Kemker
KenECoyote
Is it really a model rocket if you don't launch it?
4 5 6
Replies
158
Views
5K
bjphoenix
B
T
First-time UK Rocketeer looking for help!
Replies
5
Views
253
LD124
L
ljwilley
What do you think of my V2 rocket?
Replies
18
Views
2K
JPalmer621
J
M
Free Almost Free Model Rocket Building Service
Replies
1
Views
970
mh9162013
M

Latest posts

Back
Top