Heavenly Rider - 2nd Quarter 2017 TRF Contest

[Daddyisabar]

The Heavenly Rider was started last week as my Halloween Rocket, but then I read that this quarter's contest was to include rockets with the motors located in the upper half of the airframe. Finally some love for tractor motors and mid cants! So here it is, a rocket sure to carry it's passenger to Heaven's Gate. Used the last of my Flis kits 3 X 24mm canted motor mounts. Flis kits balsa tail cone, Apogee blow molded nose cone and BT 70 tube. Poseable Skeleton is a Prextex 19" off E bay, Smashed 2.6" tube cut and inserted for ejection charge reinforcement. Big tri-fold mount to kevlar then elastic, will use biggest chute that will fit. Scythe fins from scrap stock, tape, wire, 1/4" lugs, screw eyes and finishing materials round out the parts list. Planning first flight on E12 -4's, weather and RSO permitting

Who needs Pyramids or silly towers to reach Heaven. Our man will get there with rocket science. With the awesome power of three mighty E motors his predicted chances are good. I was thinking of adding some embellishments like old skeleton keys to the nose if it looks like it will need some weight up front. May need the right key to get past that gate!


Plan drawn and initial construction motor mount and nose/tail cone:


Reinforced joints with bandage white electrical tape


Motor mount cut outs


Reinforced interior tube and tri-fold mount.

 

[rstaff3]

Hey, I knew this thread was here! Hijack, hijack, hijack....

 

[Daddyisabar]

Hey, I knew this thread was here! Hijack, hijack, hijack....

Go ahead and post whatever cool thing you are building! Do what ever it takes to get the model rocketry grove back! Some good news here is that CRASH can launch again under strict fire rules which are likely to become almost permanent given the weather conditions. They are as follows:

No flights in greater than 10 mph winds.
No flights that have the potential to glide.
No questionable clusters or staging.
No heads up flights.
No first flights unless a proven design and/or built per manufacturers instructions.
No flights during a red flag warning

Heavenly Rider fails numbers 3,4 and 5. His chances were slim and none, and Slim just left town.

Such is life in the big city on the edge of The Great American Desert. Heavenly Rider will have to seek comfort on the plains of South Park, but at 8,000 feet above Sea Level we are all closer to Heaven there, where the Buffalo roam and the big motors roar.

 

[Daddyisabar]

When it comes to attaching the Mr. Skeleton, I would like it to be able to bend at the attachment point on landing to prevent massive damage, but also be just stiff enough so as not to freely swing during flight, which would happen if attached to only one screw eye on each side. So I think I will go with two screw eyes on each side and hopefully the tension and strength of the wire will provide the amount of swing desired in flight.

He probably was a real swinger in life but I am sure he has paid for all the indulgences needed to get into Heaven.

If he was a free swinger he would not have much of a positive impact on lowering CP and would be more drag, just dead weight on the bottom.

Going to tape the arm joints to match the legs and be even safer, although the wire is going to take most all the lifting force.

 

[rstaff3]

Hey that would be a great ro ket for me. I was a real swinger but now have turned curmudgeonly and am only dead weight.

 

[Daddyisabar]

Hey that would be a great ro ket for me. I was a real swinger but now have turned curmudgeonly and am only dead weight.

THAT IS THE SPIRIT! Time for some tractor motors to lift the weight up to the stars!

 

[Daddyisabar]

Yep, after wiring him up he is definitely going to be a free swinger. A real "Swing Kinder," dancing to that "Schrage Musik" and hanging out at the Cabaret. Dead weight, little help on CP, and just a lot of Drag Man! Mid cants hauling up stuff underneath, what was I thinking? Either let him swing or tie him up tight to a post.

A guy I was just chatting with summed up my rocket stuff as "pseudo-scientific necromancy hocus-pocus." I thought that term was awesome! Yearning now for the warm bosom 4FNC:sigh:

 

[aerostadt]

Daddy, has this thing flown? I would love to see stills or movies of it in flight along with a flight report.

 

[Daddyisabar]

Daddy, has this thing flown? I would love to see stills or movies of it in flight along with a flight report.

No. still building it. Just trying to work out how rigid the skeleton should be is a bit perplexing now. Maybe some stiffer wire? Just worried if it is too loose and starts to oscillate off the rod then bad things might happen. The end of the tapeworm's/Smaug's tail shreds just like long streamers do, so powerful is the air flow! The Crazy train fluttered but remained stable. The Pict Warrior flew fine as long as all the motor's lit. The Squid flew fine several times then just seemed to go crazy on it's last flight.

Maybe another viewing of Monty Python's Holy Grail will help. I hear in that movie they discuss the new science of foretelling the future from the contents of a sheep's liver, and that if you weigh as much as a duck then you must be made of wood, which floats, therefore proving necromancy.

I guess I won't know until the button is pushed. I can puzzle until my puzzler is sore. Maybe just find a nice back alley and launch The Heavenly Rider and the Space 1999 Eagle sitting on the shelf. Thus letting the elements of nature smash them to bits or gently bring them down to Terra Firma.

Then again I question is the fallacy sound? Should I just put the motor and fins in the back and crush the skeletal remains into a lovely clear plastic payload section, topped off by a perfect, aluminum tipped Von Karmen nose cone??? No, too boring, technically sound and predictable.

 

[Daddyisabar]

To swing or not to swing, that is the question.

Build a Cage? But the Harley guys will then call him a Lame Cager!

 

[Daddyisabar]

...

 

[Daddyisabar]

Heavenly rider wired:


Sand Worm Plans:

The Class 3 Guild Navigator sees plans within plans.

I won't get anything like this done for awhile so if someone want to go for it then do it!

 

[dhbarr]

Sand Worm Plans:
View attachment 317449
The Class 3 Guild Navigator sees plans within plans.

I won't get anything like this done for awhile so if someone want to go for it then do it!

Proposed name: Live Fremen Or Die

 

[Daddyisabar]

Proposed name: Live Fremen Or Die

Great name! Could go on a License plate. Many Fremen warriors could fit on the posed motors.

 

[rstaff3]

Proposed name: Live Fremen Or Die

That IS a great one!

 

[BABAR]

Okay, brain picking the expert. Tractor motors forward of CG.......how do you determine the appropriate "canting" angle?

 

[dhbarr]

Motor core pointed toward the NC tip, I'd imagine?

For the Maker's tail, what about Nomex instead of BT?

 

[rstaff3]

When I have put canted motors up into the body, I haven't paid much attention to where they point. I used canted motors merely to keep the flame off the trailing parts.

But, I'd like to hear where people think they should point.

 

[Daddyisabar]

The greater the cant angle, the less efficient the motor and the less lifting power. There is a spreadsheet/formula on Apogee's newsletter site to figure it out. Like the guys have said before, the angle can be what it takes to get the motors to fit inside the body tube and/or to minimize burning what ever is behind. Use the least angle possible for what ever you are building. On the Pict Warrior they could be straight up and down - full power - on the Albatros DV they were whatever I could get to fit in the tube. On the tape worms I just hacked the foam until I thought it looked good. So above the CG just get them somewhat at the same degree of cant, make sure you have plenty of lifting power, then press the button and pray they all light at roughly the same time.

Angle does matter more if you are below the CG. If you angle them halfway between the CG and CP you have a chance of stability if only one of the two motors light. Again this is covered by Apogee.

 

[Daddyisabar]

Motor core pointed toward the NC tip, I'd imagine?

For the Maker's tail, what about Nomex instead of BT?

I was going for a telescoping rocket off the pad for that one, but a fabric or segmented paper tail could work too.

 

[rstaff3]

The greater the cant angle, the less efficient the motor and the less lifting power. There is a spreadsheet/formula on Apogee's newsletter site to figure it out. Like the guys have said before, the angle can be what it takes to get the motors to fit inside the body tube and/or to minimize burning what ever is behind. Use the least angle possible for what ever you are building. On the Pict Warrior they could be straight up and down - full power - on the Albatros DV they were whatever I could get to fit in the tube. On the tape worms I just hacked the foam until I thought it looked good. So above the CG just get them somewhat at the same degree of cant, make sure you have plenty of lifting power, then press the button and pray they all light at roughly the same time.

Angle does matter more if you are below the CG. If you angle them halfway between the CG and CP you have a chance of stability if only one of the two motors light. Again this is covered by Apogee.

The theory of cant angles in my experience isn't an exact science. I have had the same experience on a stock Deuce and a kitbashed Fireball XL5 version. Both had one motor flights that worked as promised, and both had one motor flights that lawndarted.

 

[Daddyisabar]

The theory of cant angles in my experience isn't an exact science. I have had the same experience on a stock Deuce and a kitbashed Fireball XL5 version. Both had one motor flights that worked as promised, and both had one motor flights that lawndarted.

My TRES on two motors lawn darted. Canting is not for those who need the warm bosom of exacting rocket science to quell all fears before launch.

 

[Daddyisabar]

Heavenly Rider hanging out with some bad company; Jack in the Box, Pict Warrior and Crazy Train. His internet name can be Skully McSkullface. Skully is just a Straight G, goin' on a ridin' spree. A real Gangsta.

Heaven is a classy place so Skully has fancied up his ride. Glue on embossed paper from HL makes it real pretty and high class, sure to be a hit with the Heavenly Elite.




Bad Boyz, Bad Boyz, whatcha gonna do when they come for you? Bad Boyz!

 

[rstaff3]

I wish you and Skully a good flight! We don't want any aborts in to the nearest river...or gully...or whatever.

 

[Daddyisabar]

Skully will frighten off any birds. no flesh to pick off his face like in a Hitchcock movie. He has long lost his Flock of Seagulls haircut. Skully is not coming down, this is a one way trip. Skully doesn't even know there is a recovery system installed. For Skully, landing in the Hudson would be at best a shot at Purgatory, but wired to the ship he would surely sink down to those lower parts he is trying to avoid. Unlike Lagari Hasan Çelebi, landing in the Sea or landing in the Hudson is not an option for Skully.

Just bought some fancy RUSTOLEUM Pure Gold paint and the screw eyes are in the balsa tail cone.

 

[Daddyisabar]

More Build Photos:

 

[Daddyisabar]

All painted and Skully is ready to get wired!

 

[Daddyisabar]

Skully enjoying some last Earthly pleasures that won't be available when he gets to the temperance of Heaven. E12's from hobby store with good date code give Skully supreme confidence he will reach the heights necessary to access the Pearly Gates.



Skully is hanging out with another tractor motor rocket I whipped up from spare parts. Gonna call it Sharknader after the awesome movie Sharknado III, where the sharks and David Hasslehoff battle it out in space! I was thinking 12 motors, 4 clusters of two staged A10-0's to an A10-3. With the RSO insisting on proper grammar and high end rocket science, I'm gonna say "Here, hold my beer, I'm a gonna fly me a SHARKNADER!"

 

[BABAR]

Looking good!

 

[Daddyisabar]

Looking good!

Thanks. That Skully is one handsome Devil. . . I mean Angle. Hopefully I can find three good old Estes Igniters or can bum some Q2G2's.

Was wondering if I should get Skully a fire resistant cheese cloth robe of some sort, hard to tell what the dress code is up there. Looking at the paintings on the ceiling just going nude might be the ticket, but that artist was criticized for all the nudity. Skully does not want any kind of Bare Bones operation on this one, no expense is too great. He only has one shot to make a good impression.