Balls Story

[tfish]

I hope that my Balls story may make for some interesting reading for some. Here is some cut and paste from e-mails and other postings. If you want to know how to the story goes from this

to this

Then your going to have to read the story.


10-02-07
I've had a few people ask about my balls project. Here is a link to it's web page.

https://hometown.aol.com/tfish38/page18.html

It was a pretty radical project in several ways. First was the motor. Doing EX motors longer then six grains takes some thinking and playing with to get them to work. This ended up being a 9 longer grains then originally planned...this made the motor more progressive then 10 grains. The problem with long motors is that they become errosive...meaning that they try to run amuck (techno term) at ignition. I also lit this thing "Ellis style" placing the igniters in the middle of the third grain down from the top. This allowed the upper grains to come on line shortly after motor ignition. I also left out the 5" smoke grain. It was a big "O" motor with the tracking grain and a baby "P" without it. So I opted to leave it out and go for a P motor. I was surprised at how much supplies a P motor uses. I was able to do 3 - 3 grain batches and that pushed the limits of my bowel and arm..hand mixed. Steve came over and gave me a break on the last batch.
The other iffy part of this was me laying up all the body tube and nose cone. I went with 12 layers of 6oz glass from TAP plastics..because that's what they had on sale. I wanted to go with 9 oz so that I wouldn't have so many layers to do. Looking back on it it turned out stronger then if I would have gone with the 9oz. For fins I figured if I started with a good fin shape then .125 G10 with layers of carbon fiber over them would hold up. I began to second guess myself at Balls as several rockets shedded fins on the way. The nose cone was made off of John Cokers 5" conical mold. The layers varied between 3,,in the tip to 6 in the base of the cone.

Below is how the actual launch and recovery went (as I remember it)

Well....I was as nervous as heck...the motor was 91.5 pounds ready to go...47 pounds of that was propellant. The rocket itself was 20 pounds ready to go..you can see why the nervousness..We..Steve W, Ken A, Scott L, and Derrick...were about 200' away with a borrowed launch controller.."Balls" does not have equipment to go out to the 'far away cells (2500') ..we loaded up the rocket on one of Richards "Coker pads". It seemed right at home on it..until you though about the rocket weighing 112 pounds, 140" tall and being a P motor. We had to wait for a couple of other projects to get loaded and that just added to an already full stomach of butter flies. When it was our turn I began to shake as they counted down. At one I pushed the buttons and saw some smoke and some red from the 'wimpy red' igniters and then it took off. I had gone with 9 longer grains instead of the original 10 grains. I wanted a softer start up. I also did an "Ellis" style start up and placed the igniters in the middle of the third grain down...as it left the pad I just kept thinking...please hold together..and it did for the full 7.5 second burn. I lost some butter flies but still had many. There was a bit of a wiggle and I thought the thing was going to come apart. It held together and was now out of sight and just the sound of the motor and the smoke trail streaking upwards were all good signs. Simms showed a 51 second to apogee. Derrick was giving us a count. Around 50 seconds into the flight the Walston signal became very loud! We made it to apogee in one piece and had a 'good' event. I tracked it for a couple of minutes then needed a break (to compose myself) and handed the Walston off to Steve. After a couple of deep breaths I was ready to get back into the game. At this point somebody points out a white chute way up there. With binoculars we can see it but are not sure if there was anything attached to it. As we track the Walston signal it gets weaker as we aim at the white chute...dang something did not go as planned at apogee..Now we have a good strong signal and a visual of to different things..The signal is slowly coming down and heading to the south. At this point we load up in the trucks and head off towards the hot springs. We stop about a mile out..and now have a weaker signal and can still see the white chute. So we split up. Derrick and I are going for the chute that now passes over the top of "lions back" the rest take the Walston and head for the signal.
Derrick and I get up behind Lions back and meet up with John Wilke who just recovered his rocket up in that valley. He asks are we looking for a big white chute..we say yep and he points out where he thinks it landed. It took us about .25 mile to spot it with the binoculars..Only problem was it was not my 'white' chute. This one was 26' and mine was a 17 footer. So, we head back to camp, hoping that the other guys found the rocket. No such luck. Steve and I head back out to a high spot near the hot springs and I get a signal. I get a 'chirp' towards the hot springs and a 'blurp' towards the mountain range. I head off on foot and Steve looks for a road. I loose the signal about half way to the foot of the mountains. Steve picks me up and we end up chasing a signal all the way back to camp. I walk through camp and find another flier with the same Walston frequency that I have. He turns it off and we head back to our 'high spot' only to not have any signal now. It's about 8 pm now..dark and we find a new high spot and get stuck trying to get to it..A little bit of digging and Steve jumping up and down on the bumper does the trick. I've had enough and Steve is looking kind of hungry. We get back to camp and our Colorado neighbors have some Elk Burgers for us. So now what.. at this point I'm willing to cut my losses..and not put Steve or others out for my loss. So Steve flies his 54mm rocket we loose it too..but that's another story!

Would I try it again? Look at this picture Steve took. It looks so small on the pad.

But once it up and going it.. it was awsome

The best I can tell is the flame is 16-17' long. I honestly feel that I got the drogue out at apogee and it's laying out there waiting for me to find it. I have been e-mailing guys and getting the location of found rockets on Saturday afternoon. AJ and I are planning a trip back out there in about 10 days or so. We're borrowing a couple of motorcycles and are going to camp out near the hot springs. We should be able to cover a lot of ground in 2 days on dirt bikes. I look at this flight as getting 3 of 4 things right. (1) I did a 5" P motor that worked. (2) I did a non traditional hand laid up airframe that held together at over mach 2.5. (3) I that I got an increased Walston siganl at 50 seconds which confirms an event at apogee with up to 5 minutes Walston signal after event. What I'm missing is (4) is getting the rocket back to confirm altitude/speed achieved for closure.
Tony

10-17-07
The story of my balls project continues..AJ and I just got home from our 2 day (which turned into 3 days) motorcycle recovery effort. Here's a couple of links to photos taken yesterday out at Black Rock...to keep you wondering on these cold and rainy nights. The phrase between a rock and hard place..has taken on a special meaning for AJ and I.
I'll post the 'full' story in a couple of days.

Here is a photo of a 406cc 2 stroke motorcycle and one of three dry water falls This one was 52 feet high

It's amazing what you'll 'run into' out on the playa..AJ's shirt was a fitting end to a 'long' 3 days.

Tony

More to come......

 

[BHP]

that pushed the limits of my bowel and arm..hand mixed.

Tony

More to come......

I'm sorry to hear that, Tony. But at least you got the job done!

Terrific story on an amazing build. I'm looking forward to the conclusion.

 

[11bravo]

Man, good luck on the search; really hope you find it.
AWESOME launch pic!!!
That flame is spectacular.
Now, when you say "pushed the limits of my bowel and arm...", do you mean bowl or is bowel what you were going for?
I'm not 100% certain, but if you meant bowel I think it should have been plural.
And (yep, more), looks like that last bit on that bike would have pushed the limits of about anyone's bowel.

 

[tfish]

OK..so I spent a few days after Balls trying to figure out where to start looking for my rocket. I had a 'general idea'. We tracked it with the Walston for about 5 minutes. We recovered a 'white' parachute that ended up being from the rocket just before my flight. And, John Wilke found his rocket and another one in the same general area. I played with Google Earth and came up with a search area. Steve Wigfield did the same thing and came up with the same area. The real question was how far to look.

Now, the question of how to get into that area. I was able to borrow a couple of motorcycles from a buddy of mine. AJ (my son) and I were able to schedule a couple of days off work and our plan was set. We were able to camp out at the hot springs near the railroad tracks. We got there bright and early Sunday morning. Set up camp and headed out behind "lions back". The plan was to ride up to high spots and use binoculars to look around. We figured it would be fairly easy to spot a 12" rocket with a 17 foot white parachute. This photo is about 4 miles southeast of lions back. About 8 miles from the launch site.

Things went well on the first day we put 42 miles on each of the motorcycles. Most of the time AJ and I were a mile or so apart. We covered a lot of ground. We spent the evening looking for Richard Hagensicks rocket up in the Quinn River..with no luck. I was surprised at how much water was in the Quinn River. That evening AJ and I were treated to yet another awesome Black Rock sunset.

The plan for Monday was to search the area to the north. We would ride up either a ridge line or wash and head for high spots. We had a few trails to use but most of the time we did not. At times it got pretty soft and the motorcycle would just get stuck.

Things were going OK, It was about 3 o'clock and my bike was getting low on fuel. AJ and I met up and we decided to call it quits and head home. We rode down a ridge and then took a trail down into a wash to head back towards the playa. We came to a 20 dry water fall and turned around and tried to get out of the wash. This is where things go from good, to not so good!. Apparently the bike I'm riding can't get back out. We both try riding it out without any luck. We try pushing it out under power and all it does is digs in. So, we take a closer look at the waterfall and figure we can get it down it by walking it/carrying it from rock to rock. It works and now we have it down! AJ notices that there are no tracks in this wash. neither motorcycle or animal tracks! As a matter of fact there are quiet a few animal bones laying around. We take a short walk and find out why. This is a photo looking up at what we find.

Were screwed! We take stock of what we have. AJ just finished off his water. The batteries in the radios are getting low, We have a motorcycle stuck at the top of a 52 foot dry waterfall and we have 2 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. The plan is for me to walk out down the wash and for AJ to try to ride his motorcycle out and meet back out at the truck. If one of use is not back by 10 pm then the other will call for help( SAT Phone). I take off on foot and find a pretty good road and make it out of the foot hills in about an hour and a half. I'm unable to contact AJ on the radio. I keep checking the ridge line and finally see something moving. Then I see a headlight. It's AJ! He was able to get out. We both get back to the truck and call my wife and tell her what's going on and that we need another day. We head off to town to get some food and supplies. What were looking for is some rope gear to lower the motorcycle down. We run into "BLM Joey" and tell him our story. He has some cord that may come in handy and invites us to a pot luck dinner for the 10 year anniversary for the land speed record. We take him up on his offer and meet the crew of the North American Eagle. The next morning we get up and are able to drive my truck to within about 100 yards of the water fall. The gear we have is 70 feet of nylon 'mule cord', 4 orange motorcycle tie downs, a cable bike lock, the rubber mat from the bed of my truck and one carabineer.The plan is to make a rope system and lower the bike down. We set up a couple of anchors points tie off the bike and AJ eases it over the side.

The tag line gets hung up and so do the handle bars we get it all cleared and we lower it all the way down!

We load it in the truck and then head off to camp. We are putting the last few in the truck when we hear a roar out on the playa. We can see a huge plume of smoke and a streaking car. It's the North American Eagle doing some low speed (300 mph) test runs. We head out to see what's going on and they are fueling it back up to do another run. We take a few photos and video.

AJ's T-shirt was a fitting end to a long 3 day search.

So what did I learn from all this? I learned that I can do a 5" P motor. I learned that my 'non-traditional' hand laid rocket held up to just under mach 3 (simmed). I learned that I need to take the jet stream into account now. I learned that I should have more then just a Walston in my rockets (GPS). I learned that a 12 foot rocket and a 17 foot chute is not easy to find. I learned that you should be really prepared (for anything) when you head out into the the Black Rock area. I learned that you can ride into areas that you can't ride out of. I learned what the phrase 'between a rock and a hard spot' really means. I learned that you can find some really interesting things out at Black Rock..North American Eagle. And, I learned that you can have a great time, even when things don't go as planned!

Tony

 

[fox_racing_guy]

What a story and I'm sorry you didn't find your rocket. To bad I wasn't with you to RIDE that motorcycle out.
I love all the beautiful photo's too.