Holding out?

Well my fellow Canadians, interesting times these are. How is everyone holding out?

I feel fortunate, as a teacher I get to keep working and don't have to worry about employment right now on top of the rest. To say the job description has changed and took some adjustment would be an understatement, but thankful for a lot right now.

I finished my 3D printed Mars Lander 2.0-Canadiana. The first version I printed I used the Estes/USA decals similar to the original Estes kit. My students were convinced that's the reason it went unstable, smacked into a tree trunk under the power of an E18, and shattered into tiny plastic shards lol.

Version 2.0 is reprinted now. I heeded my students advice and printed Canadian decals for it Looks ok at the moment, hopefully the better sim job will be accurate enough this time.

Look for flight photos in a future Earthrise.

What are people up to these days, how're you keeping busy?

Spending time in isolation building models for the upcoming season, whenever it can start.

Great Hobbies is still open, so I'm still working. I manage the Ottawa store and we actually have been moderately busy throughout this pandemic. People are hoarding stuff to work on like it's toilet paper. So far we've all managed to keep healthy by just being smart about how we go about our business. Washing our hands frequently and just giving everyone the space that's recommended. I don't know how much longer we'll be able to keep operating, but we're doing it for now.

Good to hear! In my student letter home with their work instructions I actually recommended as many as possible order a plastic model to work on. It's actually a great skill builder in reading, following directions and parts lists, visualization and the old hand-eye...curious to see how many do it.

Dipstick said:

Good to hear! In my student letter home with their work instructions I actually recommended as many as possible order a plastic model to work on. It's actually a great skill builder in reading, following directions and parts lists, visualization and the old hand-eye...curious to see how many do it.

Click to expand...

Lol, and now today is our last day.

Yes, model building is a great skill to get early on. My son just took an interest in it and he's really enjoying it. Really starting to work on his attention to small details, which is a great thing!

Dipstick said:

Well my fellow Canadians, interesting times these are. How is everyone holding out?

I feel fortunate, as a teacher I get to keep working and don't have to worry about employment right now on top of the rest. To say the job description has changed and took some adjustment would be an understatement, but thankful for a lot right now.

I finished my 3D printed Mars Lander 2.0-Canadiana. The first version I printed I used the Estes/USA decals similar to the original Estes kit. My students were convinced that's the reason it went unstable, smacked into a tree trunk under the power of an E18, and shattered into tiny plastic shards lol.

Version 2.0 is reprinted now. I heeded my students advice and printed Canadian decals for it Looks ok at the moment, hopefully the better sim job will be accurate enough this time.

Look for flight photos in a future Earthrise.

What are people up to these days, how're you keeping busy?

Click to expand...

Hope everyone is doing well and staying safe.

Looking forward to seeing some flight photos on Earthrise
Next time I’m at Rock lake I’ll have to bring my Mars Lander along for a drag race

I’m still working, my job as a Toyota Hybrid Tech is still on the essential list. My wife and teenagers are always worried about me going to work as they are at home safe. At work we try the very best we can to protect ourselves and the vehicles we work on, but staying safe is always on my mind and can be mentally stressful at times when the treat is something we cant see.

I printed my Mars Lander from a file posted on Thingiverse, looks very much like yours Dipstick. My White parts are printed in ABS, red parts are in PLA. The full scale lander has a 24mm motor mount, the scaled down lander has a 18mm motor mount.

Very nice. How much do those weigh?

Mine is identical to your larger one, and I also have a 24mm mount.

With about 100 grams of nose weight mine is at 360 grams, so quite heavy but I am trying to get it stable...

Will report back when I can fly, we had another round of snow that is just starting to clear up.

Thanks neil_w.

The full scale version weights 192g. With nose weight and chute 270g. I still need to give it its maiden flight. The scaled down version weighs in at 52g without nose weight.

Hello everybody!

Unfortunately I haven't been doing much for rocketry in the last while, and since the COVID pandemic I've been blessed by working in a industry that is deemed "essential". I still have many unfinished kits......still wishing to burn some BP and AP.....

Dragging some partly built kits out of the garage. It seems I have a tendency to start a project and then run into a hitch or notice something shiny and then....

Finished the building part of the #1969 Saturn V. And finished a semi-clone version of the Omega to use with a printed "cineroc" with 808 keychain camera that I made a while back...

I need to get some paint, particularly primer.

Next up is a Fliskits Acme Spitfire that I want to do up as a Steampunk version. Have seen lots of these online.

Also have a teeny tiny Fliskits saturn 1B that is half built. I got a little intimidated by the launch tower and some of the other tiny parts.

Oh, and there is a mostly finished mean machine down there somewhere.... And after that, some rocket repairs on some kits from the 1970's and 80's - My Centuri Skylab is mostly intact, but needs some work.

Finally, there are about 20 unopened kits if I get bored after that.

Just cruised my "long term storage" (big rubbermaid tub in the garage) and I found two original SEMROC Stellar Spartan (KV-59) kits that were purchased before Semroc was sold off to eRockets.........hmmmmmm..........

Good stuff guys! I got to fly my Mars Lander at work yesterday and had a picture perfect flight on an AT E28-4. Nice to know I have the stability right now. Next plan is a up the power level lol.

No pics, I only got a blurry liftoff shot and with blue thunder F there isn't much to see...

Part of my strategy has been looking through old pics of launches, watching footage, etc.

I was reading about the first CTI Canadian demos in an old Earthrise and wandered over to the CTI website. While perusing I found this partial list of systems they'll work with...just about fell out of my chair at the last one, isn't that a great description of rocketry

"CTI has experience with both solid fuel and hybrid propulsion systems.

Past projects include:

• pyrotechnic pin actuators
• Igniter and ignition systems
• gas generator systems
• weather rocket motors
• rockets and effects for television and film
• currency destruction systems"

Got a chance to fly the Mars Lander on an incrementally more powerful motor. Went with an F24WL. Really nice boost, but the noseweight makes the rocket lean pretty quickly with any amount of rod angle.

Here's some screen grabs. I could easily not mention my mistake, but I will because of the impressive results. I forgot that little red plastic ejection charge on my reload (duh). Mars Lander landed at terminal velocity on it's nosecone...the interesting thing was the soft tilled field it landed in absorbed all the impact. The only thing that broke was the legs, which folded forward on impact and cracked. So I get away with having to reprint the legs only.

Here's some screengrabs from liftoff:

Dipstick said:

Part of my strategy has been looking through old pics of launches, watching footage, etc.

I was reading about the first CTI Canadian demos in an old Earthrise and wandered over to the CTI website. While perusing I found this partial list of systems they'll work with...just about fell out of my chair at the last one, isn't that a great description of rocketry

"CTI has experience with both solid fuel and hybrid propulsion systems.

Past projects include:

• pyrotechnic pin actuators
• Igniter and ignition systems
• gas generator systems
• weather rocket motors
• rockets and effects for television and film
• currency destruction systems"

Click to expand...

I challenge you to find a more accurate description of rocketry than "currency destruction systems"

Having a real hard time here trying to organize a Cambridge Rocket Club launch considering that the Province of Ontario COVID-19 Emergency Measures restrict us to gatherings no greater than 5 people. We hope to try to accommodate these guidelines by holding a launch this Saturday (May 30th) with for 5 person launch windows. Not sure how this will work but we have to try something. Did manage to fly my Mini-Cineroc a couple of weeks ago and got some video and photos back.

Yup, gotta get flying somehow. I guess we're lucky to be at 50 here in Alberta.

Cool pictures, don't catch that rocket

On Mars, do you still have to swear loyalty to the Queen?
(just kidding)