Balls 30 Flight

[DevSteph]

Bringing my Wildman Carbon Mach 2 to Balls 30 to see what altitude I can get with the CTI 54mm L265. Rocket with electronics (Altus Easy and Eggtimer GPS) and recovery loaded weighs 21.7 oz. Also trying the fly away guides (Additive Aerospace) for the first time. Looking forward to seeing other cool projects out there.

Devin Stephens

 

[DevSteph]

Went 22,416' - Mach 1.2

Whoever logged the GPS coordinates on the booster, thank you!!!

 

[rfjustin]

Went 22,416' - Mach 1.2

Whoever logged the GPS coordinates on the booster, thank you!!!

Was there a separation? Either way, 20K plus is a great up!

 

[DevSteph]

Was there a separation? Either way, 20K plus is a great up!

Unfortunately yes. Bulkhead failed at apogee. The strength of the Wildman carbon tubing is unreal. Ballistic recovery from 20+k and you can't even tell it happened. Booster and motor are perfect.

Also I have to say the Eggtimer GPS is so amazing. Took me exactly to the upper section. Never would have found it otherwise. Big thanks to them. Awesome product!

 

[Rail Dawg]

Devin that was an amazing boost you had!

The “L” motors are one of my favorites.

You made a heck of an effort to fly it on the Black Rock!

Well done.

Chuck

 

[StreuB1]

Unfortunately yes. Bulkhead failed at apogee. The strength of the Wildman carbon tubing is unreal. Ballistic recovery from 20+k and you can't even tell it happened. Booster and motor are perfect.

Also I have to say the Eggtimer GPS is so amazing. Took me exactly to the upper section. Never would have found it otherwise. Big thanks to them. Awesome product!

What material was your bulkhead?

The rocket core sample picture is absolutely hilarious and equally unreal at the same time. Just seeing that is really making me have second thoughts about the material on a 2023 Balls project I have been planning. Not so much on the weight aspect, because I actually NEED weight, but more so for the strength.

Was your motor friction fit or attached to an upper bulkhead linked to the airframe?

Did you have a tail cone (looks like it)?

The upper section came in under chute, correct?


If this was your first shot at Balls, you did an AWESOME job!!!

 

[DevSteph]

Devin that was an amazing boost you had!

The “L” motors are one of my favorites.

You made a heck of an effort to fly it on the Black Rock!

Well done.

Chuck

Thank you Chuck for the kind words. I usually don't fly high altitude projects but with the GPS mini I thought I would see how high this set up could go while having a chance at finding it. The L265 is a great motor.

 

[DevSteph]

What material was your bulkhead?

The rocket core sample picture is absolutely hilarious and equally unreal at the same time. Just seeing that is really making me have second thoughts about the material on a 2023 Balls project I have been planning. Not so much on the weight aspect, because I actually NEED weight, but more so for the strength.

Was your motor friction fit or attached to an upper bulkhead linked to the airframe?

Did you have a tail cone (looks like it)?

The upper section came in under chute, correct?


If this was your first shot at Balls, you did an AWESOME job!!!

Thanks, this project for me was about making it as light as possible. So the bulkhead was 1/4" birch. Motor was thread retained at the top but the thrust ring pushed on the rear airframe.

The tail cone was the motor closure. Upper payload and nose cone w/electronics came down ok. I think the apogee ejection charge was enough that it pulled the kevlar line through the bulkhead.

Not my first Balls launch. Been going out since the 90s. Still learning stuff everytime!

Good luck with your project and hope to see it next year.

Devin

 

[DevSteph]

Final post mortem - the proline 4500 epoxy broke out cleanly on the inside carbon tubing. Lesson learned, that tubing is super smooth inside and needs serious scuffing as my epoxy did not hold well at all. Also it separated at main deploy (400') per the 2 GPS coordinates I compared. So the booster ONLY had to endure a 400' flight into the playa.... Still impressive it survived undamaged.

 

[kenstarr]

Awesome pictures! Super glad you got it all back without any really major malfunction. That's some great altitude on that rocket. Next time I get out there I'll have a few more rockets prepped and a couple more days to spare.
Ken