Boris Katan flights 2015 -> Clusters are Fun <-

This year, once again, I will post all my projects and flights in one thread.
Making it easier for me to post, and easier to follow for anyone who subscribes.
Also avoids having threads for some projects and not others.

First HP launch of 2015 will be with CMASS on 4/25/15 in Amesbury, MA.
I plan to fly several veteran rockets, including:

Spinning Saucer of the Apocalypse (10 engines, 3 ft diameter, 7 lbs, big orange spinning saucer)

English Electric Thunderbird (11 engines, 3/20x scale model of the actual missile and a 2x upscale the FlisKits kit, 42.5 inches tall, 7.5 lbs flight weight)

For reference, link to my 2014 TRF thread.

 

I will start by hijacking my own thread to brag about my wonderful children.

My daughter Amelia will graduate next month from Brandeis with a BA in Global Studies.
During her time there she has studied abroad twice. First at The Hague in the Netherlands where she interned at the International Criminal Court. Then later in Uganda where she interviewed many people in the Ugandan government and society regarding their views of the ICC.



She also has been an active member of the Brandeis debate team, currently ranked #2 in the US. Twice traveling to international debate events.
She will be back at the ICC at The Hague for two months after graduation to work as a teaching assistant.

Amelia has interviewed recently for entry level positions in legal offices in NYC and Washington DC, and has just today been offered a position with the US Department of Justice.

My son Paul is a junior in high school and has been active in TARC competition for the last 5 years.
Paul’s TARC team made it to the TARC finals for the second time this year.

He is also a great kid, smart, big hearted, with a positive attitude and good grades.

TRF thread discussing Paul’s TARC team.

Article in our local newspaper on Paul’s TARC team (Color picture on front page of print edition!)

I am very proud of my two wonderful kids.

 

Congrats, Boris! It's always great to see your children do well and shows the support you gave them growing up. All my children have lived abroad for a bit and the youngest is pushing it by being in China for the last 4 years teaching English. Was that his major-nah! Even when they do good they drive ya crazy!

 

Boris, your kids are as interesting as your rockets! I look forward to hearing about both in the coming months!

 

Thank you. Happy kids doing well is a beautiful thing.

Catching up on rocketry posts..

- January 2015 - Finished up the 4" LOC V2.

Using the longer PML nosecone:
> opened up the base
> epoxied in a centering ring with 1" band of cardboard above and below to firmly anchor CR
> CR has 38mm opening and cover to allow option of later adding an altimeter
> also epoxied+FG in Kevlar strap to attach to recovery and 2.5 oz nose weight

 

Then repainted the rocket, leaving only the fins unpainted.
Fins are 1/8" ply with 2x layers of 1oz epoxy.
The wood grain is still very visible.

Decided to name the rocket: Naked Finn's V2

 

CMASS Winter Follies Launch - 1/19/2015 - Acton, MA

Weather was cold but conditions were moderate under the circumstances.
Several fun launches of other folks rockets pictured below.

 

Did video of my flights:

> 7" Applewhite saucer "World" flew high on a long burning F15

> Fliskits Frick-n-Frack staged nicely on C11-0 to B6-0
kit modified for 24mm first stage - lifts off well on this and stages easily

> Naked Finn's V2 first flight on G64-4 was perfect

> Naked Finn's V2 second flight on G64-4 - not so much
No ejection on final flight resulted in an unpleasant ballistic recovery.

 

Nosecone and fins are still in great shape.

Clearly the body tube and upper section of the motor tube will have to be replaced.

 

Preparing for the Spring flying season, fixed a couple minor dings and repainted the Thunderbird.

Used the rocket on a stick method of holding the rocket as I repainted it.

It was looking pretty in preparation for its 15th flight..... (ominous pause follows)

 

CMASS Spring launch - 4/25/2015 - Amesbury, MA

Windy day, temperatures in the 50's.

First picture is my son Paul's TARC team rocket lifting off on CTI F59.
They attempted to fine tune the chute and recovery time, but it was too windy do this effectively.

Several other flyer's fun flights pictured as well.

 

My first up was the Spinning Saucer of the Apocalypse.
2x CTI G57 Whites + 8x D11-P

For some reason one of the G's did not light. So altitude was even lower than usual.

There was scorching inside the motor suggesting that the igniter did fire.
There was no BP plug inside the motor when I examined it after the flight.

My second and final flight of the day was the Thunderbird.
1x F51 + 4x D11-P + 6x E9-6

One of the E9s CATO'ed on the way up.
Also I made a mistake I have only done once before in nearly a decade of HP flying, I forgot to turn on the altimeter.
I gave blood the day before, and my concentration was not sharp.

The 7 central motors normally vent their ejection charges into the chute compartment, providing motor ejection backup to the electronic deployment.
The CATO'ed E9 provided an easy path for all ejection gasses to exit without having to force off the NC.

So the Thunderbird came in ballistic from around 700ft.
Fortunately very far away from any spectators.

 

The part of the Thunderbird that was sticking out of the soft ground still looked pretty from the fresh repaint.

Had to use a shovel to get the rocket out of the ground.
The onboard 808 video camera did not survive.
We calculated that the rocket impacted at about 130mph.

Still in good shape: the back half of the rocket including all 12 fins, and the 4 handmade side booster nose cones

It will take a lot of work, but it will be rebuilt.

 

Was the memory card still in one piece?

 

It was, but the card reader in my PC will not read it. Says file format not recognized. Technical for FUBAR.

The 808 camera was still in the ground in the second picture above.
It was about 6 inches into the dirt
Ran into some pissed of worms down there too...

Camera would not power up
USB cable would not fit bent 808 connector

 

Bummer on the Thunderbird its a beauty, we had two E9 Catos at our club launch on April 18, hopefully everyone files a MESS report and notifies Estes.

I have observed three E9 catos and heard of quite a few more, its definitely not a motor I'm willing to risk in one of my rockets.

 

There's supposed to be software that will fix a file that didn't close properly. I tried it a couple times in the past on cameras that got powered off before the file closed (that's a nice way of saying a hard landing). Never could get it to work.

 

Rest in Peace, Bill my friend.

I respected and admired you a lot.

You are greatly missed.

 

CMASS / MMMSC Launch - 5/30/15 - Berwick, ME
First Annual Bill Spadafora Memorial Launch

It was a beautiful sunny day in the upper 80's. Finally felt like summer had arrived.
Unfortunately is was also fairly windy.

I took a while prepping the Carbon Weasel, a 38mm minimum diameter, 16oz rocket (without motor).
Carefully worked off a checklist.
At the easy-up next to me a father and son must have flown close to a dozen Estes flights by the time I was ready for my first launch of the day.

Went up very fast on a CTI 38mm 5grain I350 Smokey Sam.

The featherweight Raven reported:
max speed 1116 mph = mach 1.47
max altitude 7470 ft

I tried a new drop off rail guide, to see if I could replace the use of rail buttons.
There was a bit too much play between the rocket and the standard rail, resulting in the rocket leaving the rail slightly skewed and coning during thrust, then quickly stabilizing for a straight, fast and high flight.

We had a discussion at the field about the wisdom of flying 1.5 miles high on a windy day.
Two very bold fliers said go for it, others advised caution.
So I launched it...

Thanks to Jason for helping me recover the rocket with his tracking receiver.
We walked the 3000+ feet of open field seen in the background, and the tracker told us to keep going.
Then we walked through another 300 ft of tall pine trees.
The rocket was hanging from a low branch, 20ft from the edge of the large lake - seen in the very cool onboard video.

 

Also launched the Turbine Rocket Saucer on its standard load of 6x D11-P engines.

The LCO, Ken had already announced "the last flight of the day" as I was walking up to the RSO.
So this launch was to be the "final, last flight of the day".

 

[video=youtube_share;Tk0lM7J9NnA]http://youtu.be/Tk0lM7J9NnA[/video]

 

Pic 1: Excellent data from the Featherweight Raven

Pic 2 the Carbon Weasel and I350
Can see the 808 #16 (black) video camera fiberglassed into the (white) nose cone.
Works great, other than that camera is now dedicated to only this rocket.

Pic 3 a CTI 54mm 6Grain K1440 White Thunder, purchased at the launch from AMW.
Slightly longer than the 2ft ruler next to it.

I decided to seize the day and go to LDRS.

The hard-hitting K now needs a rocket to go around it.
If the rocket is under 48oz, should be able to break Mach 2...

 

Doesn't the K demand a few black powder motors as a cluster?

 

I share your concern, as big and beastly the K1440 is, it does look lonely all by itself.
As much a I love BP engines and clustering, neither of these are effective when going for raw speed.

Modelling my 54mm minimum diameter "raw speed" project in RockSim, the K1440 yielded the highest maximum speed of any engine.
It is the only CTI motor that gives me a good shot at breaking Mach 2 with a 54mm rocket.

I did also purchase another 60 D11-P engines from AMW at the same launch.
These will power several clustered flights at LDRS that will be a lot of fun, but will not be crazy fast.

 

Project SkyHook

Decided to use the 54mm fiberglass airframe from a DarkStar Jr. kit I picked up a few years back as the starting point for my "break Mach 2 at LDRS" project.
> Simmed build in RockSim
> Cut and airfoiled 1/8" G10 fins
> Filletted fin roots
> Tip-to-tip fiberglassed the fins with 2x layers of 6oz + a 1oz sanding veil

Finished fins were very strong, but were 3oz too heavy against my goal of < 48oz rocket.
Need low weight to break mach 2.
Original fin design and body tube had room and stability for 1 to 6xl grain 54mm motors.

So I adjusted the sim to allow for a max of 6 grain motor (= K1440) and will use adapter and 38mm motors for stable lower powered flights.
This allowed me to trim 1" off the back of the rocket and trim the fins back under the weight objective. (last pic)
Still have 2.5+ calibers stability with the K1440.

 

To keep weight down, using very few metal parts.

Inside nose cone, epoxied and fiberglassed a Kevlar loop to attach recovery harness.
Then extended base of NC 5 inches so that it can contain 36 inch Top Flight Recovery main parachute.
> edge bonded NC to 5" body tube section
> sanded bonded area down
> fiberglassed bonded area with 4x layers of 1oz glass and sanded that down

Made an internal bulkhead with aluminum threaded rod and nuts to attach to Aeropack internal motor retainer.
Bulkhead also has epoxied Kevlar loop for recovery harness attachment point.

Used T mount rail buttons from AMW.
> Sanded T to roughen both sides
> bent T to match curve of body tube and wiped with alcohol
> bonded each T under 3x small squares of 1oz fg

All structural bonds in this build use West Systems 206 slow epoxy.

 

Rocket airframe is complete.

I like the way the fiberglass is translucent.

 

Been prepping several other projects for LDRS.

Carbon Weasel modified to have the same lower drag rail buttons as Sky Hook.
Will fly on I540.

Spinning Saucer of the Apocalypse on 8x D11-P + 2x G57

Turbine Rocket Saucer will do one or two night flights Friday night, 6x D11-P.

Midnight Express on an L820 75mm skid...:dark:

Pictures of past flights below.

 

Also bringing the TOGinator back to life.

Tail section had burn damage after last flights in 2010 and 2011, when D12-0 motors burned at both ends.

> sanded away most burn damage
> Reinforced some motor tubes that had burned through with used motors wrapped in wax paper, then
> fiberglassed several areas with 2-4 layers of 1oz glass
> used black pigment in epoxy for repairs
> sanded again then painted with thinned, black colored epoxy

TOGinator loaded with 27x D11-P engines.
Will also have 3x 29mm engines to be determined...thinking about skids...