Today may have been my most productive flying day all year. Summary of flights in no particular order:
2 flights on my Fliskits Doubles (two-stage MicroMaxx). Prior to flight I had to super glue the booster motor mount back in place, but it ended up being a bit too far aft for a flush joint. I flew it anyway. First flight had a “No Ejection” motor in the booster and it failed to ignite the sustainer. No damage except for the nose end of the body tube being widened a bit by impact. For the second flight I replaced the booster motor with a standard MicroMaxx, equipped with a 0.7 second time delay and ejection charge, which successfully ignited the sustainer and separated the stages. Recovery was easy and the whole flight was trackable.
1 flight on my Super Luna Bug, complete with high-visibility green and black paint job just like the face card. A10-0T/1/2A3-4T stack kicked the booster motor but failed to separate the airframe, and the booster got cooked. Being able to inspect the booster and motor stack immediately after retrieval, it appears that the tape holding the motors together produced a much tighter fit than the tape retaining the booster motor. It was really neat to see the thing held on by the friction of the tape joint and the remains of the fins’ glue joints holding them onto the sustainer motor like a grotesque flower, I wish I had thought to get a picture before disassembling it. Future booster builds will include a hook or some other means of positive motor retention, as that’s two boosters cooked now for that rocket.
2 flights on the Yankee Doodle, my first with Q-Jets. Perfect flights on both A3-4FJs in the pack, if a bit early on ejection.
1 flight on America’s A** (Estes Goblin-derived), a C11-5 earmarked specifically for this build. Chute untangled itself and produced a short walk with no damage.
1 flight on my Hi-Flier XL, C11-3. I do recall that this was the last flight of the day, around 11:30AM. Tangled chute but no damage.
Pictures and flight video coming soon!
2 flights on my Fliskits Doubles (two-stage MicroMaxx). Prior to flight I had to super glue the booster motor mount back in place, but it ended up being a bit too far aft for a flush joint. I flew it anyway. First flight had a “No Ejection” motor in the booster and it failed to ignite the sustainer. No damage except for the nose end of the body tube being widened a bit by impact. For the second flight I replaced the booster motor with a standard MicroMaxx, equipped with a 0.7 second time delay and ejection charge, which successfully ignited the sustainer and separated the stages. Recovery was easy and the whole flight was trackable.
1 flight on my Super Luna Bug, complete with high-visibility green and black paint job just like the face card. A10-0T/1/2A3-4T stack kicked the booster motor but failed to separate the airframe, and the booster got cooked. Being able to inspect the booster and motor stack immediately after retrieval, it appears that the tape holding the motors together produced a much tighter fit than the tape retaining the booster motor. It was really neat to see the thing held on by the friction of the tape joint and the remains of the fins’ glue joints holding them onto the sustainer motor like a grotesque flower, I wish I had thought to get a picture before disassembling it. Future booster builds will include a hook or some other means of positive motor retention, as that’s two boosters cooked now for that rocket.
2 flights on the Yankee Doodle, my first with Q-Jets. Perfect flights on both A3-4FJs in the pack, if a bit early on ejection.
1 flight on America’s A** (Estes Goblin-derived), a C11-5 earmarked specifically for this build. Chute untangled itself and produced a short walk with no damage.
1 flight on my Hi-Flier XL, C11-3. I do recall that this was the last flight of the day, around 11:30AM. Tangled chute but no damage.
Pictures and flight video coming soon!
Last edited:
