Launch photos from today

[TheRadiator]

Went to the launch field early this morning with 5 rockets in tow. Below is the lineup for today. Going from left to right, the first one is a vintage MPC Pioneer 1, then a Quest Nike Smoke and Nike-K, with the Merc Redstone and the BT80 V2. As always it's a blast to fly whenever I can, but the fins on a few of these rigs took a beating today.

 

[TheRadiator]

I was too slow with the camera to get a photo of the Pioneer, sorry vintage guys, so this one is of the Nike Smoke on a B6-4. The boost was perfectly straight up, although this thing always looks funny coming down. The BT stays vertical, but the hose cone and parachute are all over the place. One of the fins was chipped on the way down, so next time I'll try a 16 or 18 chute to see if the cures both problems.

 

[TheRadiator]

Third flight was the Quest Nike-K, close (Quest) cousin of the Nike Smoke. It didn't fly as pretty as the smoke, it sort of did the arch thing, where the parachute deployed well after apogee. For once, those miserable Tuff-Chutes from Quest finally worked for once. Albeit, the rocket fell a couple hundred feet before the chute deployed 30 or 40 feet above the ground.

 

[TheRadiator]

I finally brought out the Merc Redstone for it's first flight. I used a C6-3 and it was quite a flight to behold. Rather than use two different chutes, I put a 18" silver mylar chute on the capsule and tied it to the body. It descends slow enough, but I'll probably use a 24" next time in case I don't catch it. Scale rockets just look a little cooler than sport rockets when leaving the pad. Kinda get a sense of awe.

 

[TheRadiator]

The grand finale was my Estes V2. Used a D12-3, which is a bit of a short delay for it, but the last flight was a true V2 flight with some horizontal action. It turned out to be a good call as this flight was almost a mirror image of the last one. The worst part was NC seperation. The BT landed on the road, and miraculously only a single fin was boogered up from the rough landing. It didn't even break loose from the motor mount. The NC danced perilously close to the tree line, but by a miracle floated away from the trees just in time and I jumped and caught the NC before it changed it's mind again. Any ideas on cleaning the inside of the BT? I'm putting in a LOC style shock cord mount. Reasons like this are why I will not use a paper mount for shock cords anymore.

 

[Karl]

Congrats, looks like you had a great time!

Shame about the V2, but you have inspired me to finish my Big Daddy to V2 kit-bash What alt do you predict that yours got on the D12-3?
Could you post a pic of the fin please? If it's cracked the fillet, put a bit of CA in the crack, push the 2 halves togethor then add a thin fillet of Epoxy over the top

If the balsa / ply has been damaged. Nothing abit of woodfiller can fix

Karl

 

[TheRadiator]

Glad my photos have inspired someone to finish a project!

If I could guess at the altitude, I would say 450-500 feet tops. When it flies straight up, it can probably hit roundabout 800 feet.

The fin damage is almost negligable. The damage looks a bit ugly, but since this V2 is one of my earliest efforts the finish already looks ugly in the first place. This will be a wood filler kind of repair, nothing bad at all, which is amazing as hard as it hit the ground.

Can't wait to see your Big Daddy to V2 kitbash!

 

[Karl]

Thanks for the pic! My V2 will meet a 24/40 casing when I find one

I would say cut just above the damage on the fin, cut out another section matching it (traced from another fin) and CA it back into place. Then woodfiller over the joint.

Failing that, Just cover the damage with woodfiller and sand it until its flush with the rest of the fin.

The 1st idea would work best if you have sealed your fins. If you just coverd the whole thing with woodfiller and sanded it down, the corner of the fin would have no grain marks in it due to it being woodfiller and not balsa, and would make it stand out. So if the fins arn't sealed, cut another section out like I described.


Hope this helps,

Karl

 

[gerbs4me]

very nice pics
thanx for sharing them

 

[kelltym88]

Nice pictures!! Looks like your weather today was as good as mine.

 

[rbeckey]

Nick,
I have cleaned the inside of a V2 BT with a little 90% alcohol on a rag, then roughened the inside of the tube a little after it dried. The alcohol doesn't seem to damage the tube. I didn't soak the rag, just dampened it enough to pick up the crud. I used polyurethane glue to mount a piece of kevlar string, then attached elastic to that. The poly glue doesn't seem to mind the dirt as much, and the mount is very permenantly attached.

 

[TheRadiator]

Originally posted by Karl
The 1st idea would work best if you have sealed your fins. If you just coverd the whole thing with woodfiller and sanded it down, the corner of the fin would have no grain marks in it due to it being woodfiller and not balsa, and would make it stand out. So if the fins arn't sealed, cut another section out like I described.


Hope this helps,

Karl

Karl,

Thanks! That'll help a lot! Nope, the fins are not sealed, as I was still using my rocket building techniques back from the age of 12. Since then I seal my balsa before shooting the paint. I probably won't seal the new bit either, so the fin will look uniform. Another repair project for me to get cracking on.

kelltym88,

The weather was beautiful and the wind was calm, but it was 40F which is nothing for the fellas up north, but its considered cold here!

Bob,

I've got some Gorilla glue here, but I think I'll clean up the mounting area with alcohol anyway. Thanks for the tip on cleaning the inside of a dirty BT! The original mount was the piece of elastic knotted on the backside of the forward CR. A LOC mount should be superior to the stock mount.

Thanks for the tips everyone! I hope this V2 will be flying again very soon!