BattlePark - December 10 & 11

[KurtH]

Sunday was fun

I got 1 flight in, my glassed EZ-I on a J-350. In the morning it was almost cloud free for a brief period. There was also very little wind, so the flight was practically straight up to 3899 feet, and straight down with a perfect, text book dual deployment flight profile. I could see the whole flight, though the rocket was wayyyy up there it looked smaller than a grain of rice at apogee.

I figured I could not top that, then the clouds came, so I spent the rest of the time socializing.

 

[Handeman]

I was a little behind Kurt with the 37th flight of Grapeshot. The high clouds and haze had moved in and I wasn't able to watch it very much. Once the K456DM fired I was able to watch just past motor burnout, which was the good part, and then lost it. The younger eyes of the college guys had no problem following it the whole way. I did spot it after the main deployed and it came down in the cow pasture. No cows around today so it was an easy recovery in the high weeds. The chute laid on top of the weeds and was easily visible from the flight line, even without my new glasses.

Of course I had the Walston tracker in it and didn't need it again. This flight went to 4,343 ft at 432 mph. I looked it up and 5 of the last 9 flights were over a mile and 8 of the 9 were over 4,200 ft. I'm finding I'm flying much higher since I started mixing my own motors and using the 4g 54mm snap ring case a lot.

Between that flight, the beef stew Sam brought, the coffee with real coffee grounds, it was a very good, if cold day at Battlepark.

 

[kcobbva]

Jeff - I'm glad to hear the cows weren't there. I got out an "Oh No!!" before I read that part! Grapeshot is a cool rocket! I'm glad it remains flight worthy!! I'm sure it would have been nice today, but I really enjoyed everything about Saturday! Perfect. Many fliers today? Any certs?

 

[Handeman]

Actually, there were three college guys that did their L2s on Phoenix Missile models. That is NOT a good model to fly L2 motors in. Those long fins make it hard to get a stable flight from it. It would have been much better if they left the upper strakes off. Much better CP/CG ratios. You'll have to talk to Ben whether they got the certs or not, I think they did because they all brought the rockets back in good shape.

 

[ben]

Moving them out to the longer 1515 rails helped with the stability. Yes they got their certs.

Ad Jeff said, not a good rocket for a level 2.

Ben

 

[tHoagland]

Moving them out to the longer 1515 rails helped with the stability. Yes they got their certs.

Ad Jeff said, not a good rocket for a level 2.

Ben

They're college kids, they haven't learned yet; the the best looking ones are always unstable.

 

[kcobbva]

There're college kids, they haven't learned yet; the the best looking ones are always unstable.

Were they the same ones that did the level 1's with them in Oct/Nov? Seems I saw a few with two of them and they seemed to fly off a tad then. If so I can imagine the flight on a J or more.

 

[ben]

Yes the same students.

Ben

 

[MaxQ]

Moving them out to the longer 1515 rails helped with the stability. Yes they got their certs.

Ad Jeff said, not a good rocket for a level 2.

Ben

Interesting...are these "scale" USA Phoenix models or another kind?

 

[MaxQ]

They're college kids, they haven't learned yet; the the best looking ones are always unstable.

The kids or the rockets ? LOL