Astron Avenger launch report

[Handeman]

I was at the Battle Park launch yesterday and got in the first flight of the day.

There was only 1 - 2 mph wind so I put a C6-0 to C6-7 in the Avenger. It tilted slightly with the wind and staged perfectly at about 180 ft. The booster landed 30 ft from the pad. The sustainer pooped the chute at about 1,200 ft. and and 200 ft down range. It landed 200 yards from the pads.

BTW the Avenger is a repo of my first 2 stage rocket from back in the early '70s. It was the last rocket I flew until I became a BAR 25 years later.

Here's a couple of pics.

 

[Rocketcrab]

Always liked the Avenger. I have all the parts to clone it, including the fin set from SEMROC. Your pictures have provided the needed motivation!

 

[UfO]

I was looking at the plans for the Avenger online. I'm thinking it might be my first 2 stage. I love the look of it.

 

[Huge Blues]

Always liked the Avenger. I have all the parts to clone it, including the fin set from SEMROC. Your pictures have provided the needed motivation!

Second that. I loved that model as a kid.
Been thinking about a downscale MMX version since the NE motors arrived.

 

[Handeman]

The Avenger is a cool rocket and it flies great. I haven't tried any payload yet. I have a HiAlt15 I might put in it. Not sure how well it will work with the extra weight on a B6 or C6 booster. Probably be just fine.
If I were going to mod this kit, I would set it up with a 1/4" gap stage from a D12-0 booster instead of the 18mm. Might have to have some payload weight then for stability. Don't know if it would get any more altitude that way or not.

 

[Fred22]

Seems like a fun rocket and the pictures were great. Glad you had fun Whats your next two stager ?
Cheers
fred

 

[Handeman]

Not sure what the next two stager will be. I have the booster from another 2 stage scratch built that ran away and never came back. Might build another sustainer for that. I'm thinking of the D12 booster for the Avenger, but I might just go with a 24mm to 24mm scratch built. Then again, what about a 24mm to 24mm to 24mm three stager? So many ideas, so little time.

 

[BsSmith]

The Astron Avenger was great, it was the first rocket I ever saw launch. We had it until it landed in the woods a few years ago, we never even found it in the tree. We still have the bottom stage of it though, I should clone a top stage for it sometime.

 

[Handeman]

I've flown the Avenger a few times since these posts.

I started using the Alt15K altimeter in the payload bay.

The flight back in January was on a C6-0 to C6-7. It weathercocked some and only got 745 ft. I wasn't satisfied with the motors. The homemade CRs in the sustainer just weren't right. I also thought the C6-0 was a little wimpy coming off the pad. I always thought that was why it weathercocked so much. Not enough speed.

I tore the motor mount out of it and rebuild it. It's much better now, centered and aligned correctly.

To fix the wimpy liftoff, I built a 24mm booster for it. The outside looks the same as the 18mm one. I built it so it would have a 1/4" gap between the D12-0 and the upper motor. I centered the 24mm MMT using four pieces of balsa. This also allowed the gap staged booster to vent out along the outside of the MMT.

Launched it with a D12-0 to C6-7 at Battle Park on March 20, 2010. What a fantastic flight! The smoke trail from the D12 was great and there was no gap in the smoke as the C6-7 lit. Other then a slight bulge in the smoke trail and seeing the booster start to tumble down, you could hardly see where it staged. It staged at about 200 - 250 feet. The C6-7 powered it to apogee and it was slightly nose up when the chute popped. The altimeter beeped out 1,427 ft.!

 

[sandman]

Available from;

www.excelsiorrocketry.com

Avenger decals.

 

[rokitflite]

My first and favorite 2-stager as well! I built an upscale one a couple years ago.

 

[DeWain]

My first and favorite 2-stager as well! I built an upscale one a couple years ago.

Hey Scott. How big is that upscale, and what motor do you use on the booster? I have been planning a BT70/BT60 upscale, but have been wondering if it would be too heavy for a D12-0 booster.

I kind of like how the original size takes off nice and slow, so a comparable takeoff would be great. A take off that is so sluggish that the there is a risk that the sustainer would arc over into the spectators would *not* be great.

 

[rokitflite]

Hey Scott. How big is that upscale, and what motor do you use on the booster? I have been planning a BT70/BT60 upscale, but have been wondering if it would be too heavy for a D12-0 booster.

I kind of like how the original size taked off nice and slow, so a comparable takeoff would be great. A take off that is so sluggish that the there is a risk that the sustainer would arc over into the spectators would *not* be great.

It was in fact a BT-70 / BT-60 upscale. I used a D12-0 staged to a C11-5 and it was not sluggish at all! Here is a video of the flight thanks to Kevin Johnson:



https://www.youtube.com/user/kevinj73#p/u/27/2JmQ9EtDAd0

 

[DeWain]

Thanks Scott. I'll definitely have to add the Avenger upscale to my everygrowing build pile!

 

[bobkrech]

The Avenger was the first, and only, kit I ordered from Estes back in 1970. I also got a free kit that I kit-bashed into 2 additional rockets, and I had ordered a bunch of motors as well.

I made the Avenger exactly as the instructions said, and painted and sanded the rocket extremely smooth, and it didn't weigh very much. Since it was a two stage and wouild go quite high, I painted the airframe gloss orange and the balsa parts gloss navy blue. It was probably the best looking paint job I ever did on a rocket and I said to my self that you could easly see it a mile away. Little did I know...

One Saturday afternoon I went to my old high school which had large atheletic fields to launch them. I started launching my 3 rockets with small motors, and recovered them all. The Avenger was first launched as a single stage on a B4-4, and then I went home for the evening. I went back on Sunday afternoon and got more daring and started using the bigger motor, loosing my kit bashed rockets on C6s. I has a really nice flight with the Avenger with 2 B6s, and then as the sun started going down, and after the wind died, I launched the Avenger on 2 C6s.

It was a picture perfect ascent, probably to well over 2,500' when the 18" chute popped out a apogee. The golden setting sun brightly illuminated the orange and blue rocket. It looked real pretty. Then unfortunately I learned that large motors and large parachutes with high level winds don't mix. I watched my beautifully painted rocket slowly drift out of sight after more than 3 minutes in the air, and I was correct, you could easily see it a mile away, but there was no way you could ever find it in the woods beyond the school. At that time I was a poor college student, and had spend what at that time seemed like a lot of money only to watch my efforts blow away in the wind.

Didn't launch another model rocket for 30 years....

Bob