JohnT
New Member
Hello all,
I've gotten back into this hobby after a >20 year break. I restarted the hobby as I still enjoy model rocketry, and I now have a two-year-old son who seems to share the passion. I quit flying model rockets around 1999 ish at the age of around 15-16 for a number of reasons, a big one being it was just too difficult to find a place to launch them. 24 years go by, I'm now living in Arizona, and big open publicly accessible places are everywhere
I presently fly Aerotech kits with F and G motors, but I'd like to get into high power rocketry. There's a club in based in the PHX metro area that has monthly rocket launches (I'm guessing they have to take the summers off), but sadly their launch site is like halfway to California and a 2+ hour drive away. I'll make it one of these months. The issue is of course my parental duties don't make me feel comfortable basically slacking off and forcing the wife to take care of the kids for basically a whole day. On the other hand, I could bring my son, he's almost 3 now, but I'm not quite sure he's ready yet for a 2 hour one-way drive out to see some high power rockets. He really does enjoy rocket launching with daddy but since the lift-off sound G motor still does scare him a little bit, I'm not sure he could handle something like a K motor. I want to get the kid excited about rockets and STEM, not traumatize him.
Anyway, I was kind of thinking of creating a 4" diameter high power rocket with a modular engine mounts that could be swapped out to fly both clusters or single motors. I could perhaps fly it on a 2X G64W cluster and use electronics to deploy a chute prove out its design and functionality before switching it to a single 38 mm or single 29 mm H or I motor to cert with. Obviously I'd have to pay attention to CP and CG and all that, but I think I can make a robust airframe and method to distribute flight forces even though the entire engine mount isn't technically glued to the airframe, just slotted in and rotated (and screwed). (The engine mounts will rest against multiple things that ARE glued and that certainly won't be coming loose.) Really, the idea I have in my head is not to make a singular rocket per se, but actually to create a series of modular components that can be assembled into a rocket, and then re-assembled into a different rocket. Not only does it allow for flexibility but in the event of a crash, most likely many or most of the modules would survive undamaged or at least be repairable.
I thought I read that 2X G64W wouldn't require a cert to fly at an event, though I might be pushing up against some FAA limits? I'd basically just like to fully test my idea out before going for the cert, 2X G64Ws would be similar/identical in thrust and total impulse to an H.
It's probably overkill, but the first thing I'm doing is creating a 100A, 12V launching system using IGBT's (a type of high-power transistor). I'm guessing that 100 A is probably overkill and unnecessary even for flying medium/high power clusters but being an electrical engineer, I just like building electrical things
Also, since IGBTs are voltage controlled, I can put the car battery right next to the launch pad and trigger the IGBTs with a hand controller on a really long wire (I purchased 50' cable for the test and ignition signals). Also, that of course allows for lower conduction losses while conducting 100 A of launch current, and makes it easier/cheaper to use a really stiff and wide cable to conduct the launch current. I wanna instantly vaporize my ignitors, even if there's like 5 of them in parallel
Maybe I could even make a later variant of the launcher that triggers using bluetooth and a smart phone app, that would be kind of cool.
Anyway, thanks for having this community available so that I can learn from the knowledge and mistakes of all of you more experienced rocketeers
I've gotten back into this hobby after a >20 year break. I restarted the hobby as I still enjoy model rocketry, and I now have a two-year-old son who seems to share the passion. I quit flying model rockets around 1999 ish at the age of around 15-16 for a number of reasons, a big one being it was just too difficult to find a place to launch them. 24 years go by, I'm now living in Arizona, and big open publicly accessible places are everywhere
I presently fly Aerotech kits with F and G motors, but I'd like to get into high power rocketry. There's a club in based in the PHX metro area that has monthly rocket launches (I'm guessing they have to take the summers off), but sadly their launch site is like halfway to California and a 2+ hour drive away. I'll make it one of these months. The issue is of course my parental duties don't make me feel comfortable basically slacking off and forcing the wife to take care of the kids for basically a whole day. On the other hand, I could bring my son, he's almost 3 now, but I'm not quite sure he's ready yet for a 2 hour one-way drive out to see some high power rockets. He really does enjoy rocket launching with daddy but since the lift-off sound G motor still does scare him a little bit, I'm not sure he could handle something like a K motor. I want to get the kid excited about rockets and STEM, not traumatize him.
Anyway, I was kind of thinking of creating a 4" diameter high power rocket with a modular engine mounts that could be swapped out to fly both clusters or single motors. I could perhaps fly it on a 2X G64W cluster and use electronics to deploy a chute prove out its design and functionality before switching it to a single 38 mm or single 29 mm H or I motor to cert with. Obviously I'd have to pay attention to CP and CG and all that, but I think I can make a robust airframe and method to distribute flight forces even though the entire engine mount isn't technically glued to the airframe, just slotted in and rotated (and screwed). (The engine mounts will rest against multiple things that ARE glued and that certainly won't be coming loose.) Really, the idea I have in my head is not to make a singular rocket per se, but actually to create a series of modular components that can be assembled into a rocket, and then re-assembled into a different rocket. Not only does it allow for flexibility but in the event of a crash, most likely many or most of the modules would survive undamaged or at least be repairable.
I thought I read that 2X G64W wouldn't require a cert to fly at an event, though I might be pushing up against some FAA limits? I'd basically just like to fully test my idea out before going for the cert, 2X G64Ws would be similar/identical in thrust and total impulse to an H.
It's probably overkill, but the first thing I'm doing is creating a 100A, 12V launching system using IGBT's (a type of high-power transistor). I'm guessing that 100 A is probably overkill and unnecessary even for flying medium/high power clusters but being an electrical engineer, I just like building electrical things
Anyway, thanks for having this community available so that I can learn from the knowledge and mistakes of all of you more experienced rocketeers