BT70 Centuri Vulcan Upscale

[JAL3]

The epoxy on the weights got a day to dry and then the cone was tied into the elastic.

 

[JAL3]

That means that the Big Blue Vulcan is ready to take to the air!

 

[JAL3]

The Big Blue Vulc sat around from August to January after being finished without ever getting to fly. I wanted to make sure that all the motors of the cluster lit off so I wanted to use the new Quest igniters. I just kept putting off the ordering of them. I finally ordered some just before Christmas and received them just in time for my Club's January launch.

I installed a nomex protector and a 24" nylon chute and then began to prep the motors. I decided to use the new Quest long burning C6-3s. They seemed to be a little fatter than the older European Quest motors and they fit snugly into the mount. They were tight enough that I was not worried about friction fitting. The Quest igniters were nice also and their design made twisting the leads together nice. The plastic straws that protect the pyrogen were supposed to be used as plugs. I found that they did not fit the nozzles too well until I took an X-acto and sharpened the ends a bit. Then they worked fine.

 

[JAL3]

When I got things set up at the pad, I warned everyone that this was a heads up flight. It looked good sitting there and I was eager to press the button.

 

[JAL3]

At ignition, it was looking good. All 7 motors seemed to have lighted off and the Big Blue Vulcan rose off the rod.

 

[JAL3]

The flight looked good early on. Their was no wobble as is common with my original Vulcan or my BT60 upscale. It did, however, begin to tip over. This occurred during the powered phase of flight.

 

[JAL3]

I got a sick feeling when I decided that it was definitely pointing downward and I could still see flames coming out of the motors.

 

[JAL3]

When the motors did burn out, I waited anxiously for the ejection charge to save my months of work. I wondered if maybe some C6-45s had been labeled as C5-3s and it kept plummeting downward. It then disapeared behind the GSE truck and I was delighted to hear Todd exclaim that he had seen a good ejection. He neglected to mention immediately that the ejection took place AFTER impact with the ground.

 

[JAL3]

An examination of the carcass was instructive. All 7 motors did ignite and it took off well enough. It just could not stay oriented vertically. There was not enough thrust. Later in the day I had a similar experience with another rocket flying on a Quest C6. It too seemed underpowered. Immediately afterward, that same rocket behaved wonderfully on an Estes C6. Having a bigger spike might have saved the Vulcan. A better option, though would have been to use a larger motor mount.

The motor mount was the only part of the rocket to survive unscathed. The nose cone was dinged up pretty well and the body tube was crumpled at the forward end. It was not worth repairing and I gave it to an excited boy from my club to fool around with.

 

[Peartree]

Sorry to see that John. She was sweet to look at.

 

[rokitflite]

Yeah... The Quest long-burn C6s really only burn like a C3 or 4. Nice in light weight, streamlined models, not so in a big draggy model. Its like you flew it on a 60 Newton F20... Not quite enough "umph". Sorry It was a cool looking model a long time in the making.

 

[JAL3]

Sorry to see that John. She was sweet to look at.

I'm disappointed, of course, but not too much. I learned plenty both in terms of dos and do nots.

 

[JAL3]

Yeah... The Quest long-burn C6s really only burn like a C3 or 4. Nice in light weight, streamlined models, not so in a big draggy model. Its like you flew it on a 60 Newton F20... Not quite enough "umph". Sorry It was a cool looking model a long time in the making.

That's one of the lessons I learned. I got plenty of experience with the newer C6s that day. They did wonderfully in some and pretty bad in the heavy ones. I was surprised at how bad it did in the Quest Super Eagle but I guess that rocket was designed with the older motors in mind.