Breaking the Monotany: Launch Day.

[1974_Trident]

This has been a particularly tough winter for me because I have been sick with pneumonia for almost three weeks. Today I was less symptomatic tan I have been in a while and the kids were getting restless. Despite the bitter cold I decided it was a good day to launch the rockets we built over the past few months. We started out late in the day so I told the kids that it was probably just one shot each. It was the most excited I've seen them in a while. We loaded up the truck and headed to the school yard and enjoyed some family aerospace:

First picture; All astronauts with their respective space craft. I am the really big kid.

Second Picture: Three year old Natalie with her Alpha. Not shown; Hello Kitty decals.

Third Picture: Flight Chief Dad checking Natalie's connections.

Fourth Picture: Hello Alpha on A8-3. Flight to about 300 feet. Ejection at apogee. Where'd the 'chute go? Fortunately the spacecraft landed on some nice soft snow. No parachute, just six shroud lines with charred tips.

Fifth Picture: Cosmonaut Ryan and Der Red Max.

 

[1974_Trident]

Next Flight: Der Red Max on B4-2. Nice flight to about 400 feet, beautiful ejection right at apogee. Chute remained in a frozen state the entire descent (it was realllllly cold today!). Good news: Only one fin popped off and the space craft landed only 10 feet from the launch pad. The rescue crew did not have for to go.

Second Picture: Astronaut Ian and Big Bertha.

Third Picture: Big Bertha on C6-3. Flight to 600 feet ejection at apogee.

A good 'chute! Wind suddenly picked up and carried space craft about 1000 feet down range. No damage.

 

[1974_Trident]

Last flight of the day: Aerotech G-Force.

First Picture: Filling the fuel tanks.

Second Picture: Setting up on the pad.

Third Picture: Awaiting for the wind to stop for a moment.

Fourth Picture: Liftoff on G64-4W. Roarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. I was quite surprised how loud these motors are up close. You Tube just doesn't convey the feeling.

Fifth Picture: Roaring to 500 feet.

 

[1974_Trident]

First Picture: Coasting to Apogee. Ground Control to Major Tom, You've really made the grade.

Second Picture: Apogee: Houston, we have a problem!

Third Picture: Ground Control to Major Tom, Your circuit's dead. Is there something wrong? Can you hear me, Major Tom? Can you Hear me, Major Tom?

I can't hold her any more! She's breaking up!, EJECT!!! EJECT!!!

We can rebuild him. We have the technology.
Better!
Stronger!
Faster!


Just a note. Astronaut dad escaped at the last possible moment and walked away with little more than a bruised ego.

 

[Peartree]

Looks like you (and the other kids) had a nice time. Thanks for the pictures. Sorry about your G-Force. I hope it wasn't too badly damaged.

 

[terryg]

Save the parts from the crash since they can be useful. The nosecone can be converted to a tailcone. Body tube can be used for shorter rockets, payload bays or used for couplers. Fin material can be used for other purposes. You can get some neat rocket materials dumpster diving.

 

[Fred22]

Great pictures thanks God looking at your little ones reminded of when mine were that age and thats a good thing
cheers
fred

 

[Luv2launch]

Any ideas what caused the ejection charge to not go off?Did you hold the case up and shake the BP down into the well after you put the red cap on?Maybe grease on the delay?Or maybe the shockcord got pinched between the coupler and body tube?I have flown my G-Force once so far it's a nice flying rocket its first flight was on a G71 redline.

 

[ck101]

:eyepop::eyepop::eyepop::y::y::y:Strong team

 

[1974_Trident]

Any ideas what caused the ejection charge to not go off?Did you hold the case up and shake the BP down into the well after you put the red cap on?Maybe grease on the delay?Or maybe the shockcord got pinched between the coupler and body tube?I have flown my G-Force once so far it's a nice flying rocket its first flight was on a G71 redline.

The ejection charge did in fact go off. If you zoom in on picture #2 of the last post you can see that there is nearly three inches (almost a total separation) of white tube coupler showing between fore and aft body sections. The body tube fitting was perhaps a bit too tight. I never considered the pinched shock cord scenario but it is something to keep in mind for the future.

 

[stickershock23]

Thanks for sharing, looks like a good day.. no matter what happened.

Just a suggestion. on larger rockets like that. I always add a little ejection charge. I was never comfortable with the charge supplied. it usually enough, but that one or two times it's not..... and you get bad results.

I fill the little red cap about to the top. I'd rather have to much than to little. People have said it causes problems. like blown apart tubes. but personally I have never seen that happen.

Good luck with it!

 

[Luv2launch]

The ejection charge did in fact go off. If you zoom in on picture #2 of the last post you can see that there is nearly three inches (almost a total separation) of white tube coupler showing between fore and aft body sections. The body tube fitting was perhaps a bit too tight. I never considered the pinched shock cord scenario but it is something to keep in mind for the future.

On my G-Force I sanded down the couple quite a bit to make sure it slid easy into the lower tube.The only thing I don't like about it is the chute compartment is very small just about enough room to put the chute and shockcord into I wish I had another coupler to put into the payload section then putting in the bulkhead in to attach the shockcord to it.

 

[1974_Trident]

Hmmmm.

It's been nagging at me for a week now; Why did the 'chute on the alpha burn up (as in completely disappear)? Three out of four flights this day had deployment failures and I can easily find explanations for two of the failures. As long as I can explain the failure I can avoid future failures.

Der Red Max: The chute was simply too cold to open. After landing no shroud lines were tangled, the chute was just too stiff to open.

G-Force: The body tube joint between fore and aft sections was too tight. More sanding to achieve a looser fit on future builds.

What did we do differently to the Alpha than for the other rockets? Immediately I know that we dusted the 'chute of the Alpha with a generous coating of baby powder. The 'chutes for Der Red Max and Big Bertha were not powdered. But why would a dusting of baby powder cause a 'chute to completely burn up?

Until now I was under the impression that Baby Powder is all talcum powder which is very effective at inhibiting flame. After all, Talc and Asbestos are of very similar chemistry and are often mined together. I just took a container of baby powder out of our medicine cabinet, after all my kids don't need it any more so the half a container we have left need not go to waste.

Last night I took the container out of the medicine cabinet to look at the ingredients: CORN STARCH!!!

No wonder the 'chute completely burned away.

Have you ever sprinkled a dusting of corn starch over a candle? Poof!!!

So in the future I will read the ingredients of anything I plan to add to my flight. And I think it goes without saying that I shouldn't dust the 'chute with the FFFFg I will get.

 

[1974_Trident]

:eyepop::eyepop::eyepop::y::y::y:Strong team

Thank you very much.

 

[Pem Tech]

Owie....
Too bad about the G-Force, but you have an excuse to build another one now.

 

[1974_Trident]

Actually I'm thinking of just buying a whole lot of CA, Fiberglass and epoxy and repairing this one.