Christmas Tree Rocketry

[Gus]

OK, I don't want to hear any nonsense about how this violates the safety code, threatens our hobby, causes psoriasis, etc.

This is just really funny and really well done.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FCjHV63MQ4w&feature=player

 

[skycopp]

Actually, I launched a christmas tree 2 years ago and I do have a bad case of Psoriasis.

https://www.mdra-archive.org/photos/ESL116/BobUtley/Full/JChristmasTree.wmv

 

[RocketFeller]

It's funny, I was just thinking about launching a Christmas Tree yesterday. Where I live just about everyone raises Noble Fir Christmas Trees and there are mountains of cut, baled, and unsold trees just waiting to be burned...

 

[skycopp]

It's funny, I was just thinking about launching a Christmas Tree yesterday. Where I live just about everyone raises Noble Fir Christmas Trees and there are mountains of cut, baled, and unsold trees just waiting to be burned...

Well, if you want a bad case of psoriasis that will have you up at nights with the itchies, then go ahead and launch one. But don't say I didn't warn you.

-Scratchy

 

[Mike Di Venti]

skycopp,
how did you mount your motor to it?
any weight on the top end?
i have a 6' tree that saying to fly it!!

 

[skycopp]

skycopp,
how did you mount your motor to it?
any weight on the top end?
i have a 6' tree that saying to fly it!!

Well, if you look at my trees from the past couple of years, you can see that I didn't get the stability right. The only thing that I did with the first tree was to tie a couple of 2 lb weights towards the top, but I think that made it more unstable and you can see that it just flipped over and over.
The second tree, I just trimmed here and there so that if I stood the tree up, it would stand for a moment before tipping over. It was only marginally more stable.
How I mounted the motor to it. I just put the motor into the rear of a fiber glass tube with a nose cone on top. It was about 3 feet long I guess. Then I used about some of those really big zip ties and really cinched it to the tree. First though you have to trim some of the branches to get the rocket attached to the trunk as close as possible. Note, there were no fins on the fiberglass tube.

For launch lugs, I didn't bother. What I did was stood the tree up onto the launch pad, and then used 3 big zip ties to zip tie the tree to the tower. Don't get it tight, don't want the tree grabbing the tower and trying to lift it. Thats about it. By the way, limit the motor up to a K size.

 

[RocketFeller]

What kind of a crazy cluster was that? I watched the video without sound, so I was wondering if they say what the motors were?

 

[Adrian A]

What kind of a crazy cluster was that? I watched the video without sound, so I was wondering if they say what the motors were?

30-something Estes E9s

 

[Mike Di Venti]

I have a gorilla k700 and an amw k1000
both ready to go. ones a red
i was thinking on large pipe clamps.
motor installed in a motor mount tube
i thought the rebar at the top of the tree was good idea .
thinking of zip tying that also.

will you be there this wknd?

 

[Kaycee]

Wonder how you'd model that in Rocksim? :y:

 

[Microspeed]

What kind of a crazy cluster was that? I watched the video without sound, so I was wondering if they say what the motors were?

Based on the white caps and the ~1.6 second burn time from the thrust curves, looks to be 33 D12's.

Edit: Oh, the video says 32. I thought I had counted 6+6+7+7+7 motors.

 

[skycopp]

Here you go!

https://www.davdi.com/vidz/ChristmasTreeLaunch.wmv

 

[MarkII]

Actually, I launched a christmas tree 2 years ago and I do have a bad case of Psoriasis.

https://www.mdra-archive.org/photos/ESL116/BobUtley/Full/JChristmasTree.wmv

OK, I have to ask -- what's up with the mannequin that shows up ay 00:03?

MarkII

 

[MarkII]

OK, I don't want to hear any nonsense about how this violates the safety code, threatens our hobby, causes psoriasis, etc.

This is just really funny and really well done.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FCjHV63MQ4w&feature=player

It's the ______________ of rocketry as we _________ it! :y:

MarkII

 

[skycopp]

OK, I have to ask -- what's up with the mannequin that shows up ay 00:03?

MarkII

That belongs to another rocketeer who uses it to help him get into the HOV lanes.



Boy is my psoriasis flaring up!

 

[skycopp]

Here is the first ever video of the christmas tree launch from the view from an RC plane.
https://vimeo.com/8812223