Ceiling Pusher 29 -- A Mach Busting 29mm Minimum-Diameter Rocket

[ksaves2]

You gotta tracker in that thing? It looks like it's going to spend a lot of time in outta sight land. Shoot, I see you're from Canada and will have to contend with the pine tree rocket vacuum cleaners they have up there along with the black bears! Kurt

 

[rocketgeek101]

You gotta tracker in that thing? It looks like it's going to spend a lot of time in outta sight land. Shoot, I see you're from Canada and will have to contend with the pine tree rocket vacuum cleaners they have up there along with the black bears! Kurt

No tracker at the moment. There is room in the nosecone to potentially fit a small one though. First few flights will probably be on some smaller motors so hopefully that will keep it in sight. I will be using tracking chalk and a mylar streamer to help increase visibility.

 

[mbeels]

That looks beautiful. You mentioned the motor ejection charge, is the motor delay long enough to be useful for this rocket? Good luck with the flight!

 

[ntsgators]

This looks amazing, can’t wait to see it fly. I’m new to minimum diameter rockets so how do you hold the motor in? I’ve seen some that you screw the motor into a bulk head but since the motor you are choosing is a G80 how do you plan on retaining it?

 

[ksaves2]

No tracker at the moment. There is room in the nosecone to potentially fit a small one though. First few flights will probably be on some smaller motors so hopefully that will keep it in sight. I will be using tracking chalk and a mylar streamer to help increase visibility.

That's a healthy attitude to have. Fly lower power first to keep it within sight to see how she responds. I will caution you though if you progress to higher power motors that the longer it remains out of sight, the greater chance you have of losing it. Upper air winds wreck havoc on a rocket track. Plus it's very easy to lose sight of the smaller rockets as they descend because they are simply harder to see. They don't have to be very far away to lose sight of them.

I've done my fair share of GPS tracking some large rockets that spend a lot of time out of sight. Many times, the crowd is looking 180 degrees from where the rocket actually is in the air based on ground wind direction. I can see on the live tracking map that the rocket is actually at altitude due east of the launch position and everyone on the ground is looking due west! In that case, no one would see any of the events.

Also with the smaller rockets it gets difficult to see recovery system ejection due to the smaller size of the rocket even with the smoke or tracking powder.

Exercise caution and work up to larger motors. Consider a tracker if it's going to remain at altitude for a longer time. If one can use a GPS tracker that's even better. Good luck. Kurt

 

[rocketgeek101]

That looks beautiful. You mentioned the motor ejection charge, is the motor delay long enough to be useful for this rocket? Good luck with the flight!

For smaller motors yes. For larger ones, I'm not sure yet. I still have to update the OR file to correspond to the final design.

This looks amazing, can’t wait to see it fly. I’m new to minimum diameter rockets so how do you hold the motor in? I’ve seen some that you screw the motor into a bulk head but since the motor you are choosing is a G80 how do you plan on retaining it?

I am using a machined aluminum retainer that someone on here kindly donated to me for this build. It's essentially the same thing as a snap-ring style slimline retainer.

I also designed and 3D printed a set of fly-away guides for this bird:

 

[ntsgators]

I am using a machined aluminum retainer that someone on here kindly donated to me for this build. It's essentially the same thing as a snap-ring style slimline retainer.

Ah ok, so are you going to have a lip at the end of your rocket or do you plan on making it flush to reduce drag?

 

[rocketgeek101]

Ah ok, so are you going to have a lip at the end of your rocket or do you plan on making it flush to reduce drag?

There is a small ~1mm lip.

 

[ntsgators]

Got it, good luck on your first flight

 

[rocketgeek101]

Flew Ceiling Pusher 29 for the first time on Sunday. Great flight on a CTI E31 24mm 1-grain White Thunder motor to around 1000'. The 3D printed shoulder for the NC snapped in half upon landing, but otherwise there was no damage. It should be simple enough for me to print a new stronger shoulder for it. The 3D printed fly-away rail guides I made worked great.