3/15/09

[jj94]

I had a small launch with my friend for TARC plus a few other things for fun. We got a spill hole in the parachute to a size that'll get us to around 48 and calibrated the rocket to go fairly close to 750. We hit 777 on our first launch last week, then it bounced around from 760-732 from yesterday's launch. Still needs some minor tweaking. Thought you guys might like to see some footage.
This is from last week, on the 7th. You can clearly see a small blue flash just before the motor comes up to pressure. That's the small sliver of Blue Thunder I put at the top of the grain in most of my reloads to aid in ignition. Works like a charm, and you can see that it comes straight up to pressure. The initial delay from the end of the countdown to ignition is because the battery was a bit slow on getting the Copperhead going.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SkH-YHdvTG0

This is the last launch from yesterday. I can't remember our altitude and time though. Our best altitude was 760 which was yesterday's first launch. Our best time was ~48 which I believe was this one. The Blue Thunder can't be seen as easily, but it's still there and the motor comes up to pressure nearly instantly. G53's are great motors.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zgCwSuVVNCQ

 

[jj94]

Forgot to mention. I launched my nearly stock Estes Patriot (I only replaced the centering rings with plywood and got a longer shock cord plus two long streamers. I stopped babying around and took full advantage of the field. D13-7 carried it to around 1200-1400 feet. Maybe a bit lower because of rodwhip, but that is what Rocksim predicted on a near straight flight. I have to do that again!

 

[Davidtmp]

Forgot to mention. I launched my nearly stock Estes Patriot (I only replaced the centering rings with plywood and got a longer shock cord plus two long streamers. I stopped babying around and took full advantage of the field. D13-7 carried it to around 1200-1400 feet. Maybe a bit lower because of rodwhip, but that is what Rocksim predicted on a near straight flight. I have to do that again!

I'm thinking of beefing up one of my others. I have a stock built, flys good. Need more!

 

[n3tjm]

Nice launch videos. The G53 is a very nice motor . First one I flew was a G53-1 . Check it out on youtube. (Search for G53 and dgardei)

 

[jj94]

Thanks. This rocket has flown on F40's too, as Rocksim originally said that they were powerful enough to get it to 750. Only got to about 600 max so now we ended up with around 6 more F40's. Now they're ours for personal use and I'm planning on flying it in my Weasel and maybe my beefed up Fat Boy after repairs. Anyway, it's also flown on a G71 with a 1 second delay that gave it quite a zipper on its first qualification flight last year. Then an old SU G80 which was alright; we had no other motor choices for our second qualification flight but wasn't good enough to get us to the finals. We opted to go with G53's which are working very well for us this year, and we very well may have a good chance of making the finals.

 

[abw]

That was a FUN launch. Sucked that the altitude dropped so much after the first flight. If we had been able to replicate the 760 (with the tweaked chute) we would be golden for the finals.

 

[jj94]

You still have to give me the other two or three launch videos. I'll compile some into a single video and post it (or just each separate launch) on Youtube.

 

[abw]

Sure. As long as you don't give the stats (other teams would steal them...)

Here's the thread on the question we had:

https://rocketryforum.com/showthread.php?t=1605

 

[abw]

Oh, and I never saw that "puff of blue." Could you screenshot it?