Never thought I'd become a BAR...

[hybridfreak]

... but here we go! After a ten year break I visited a launch on sunday, flew two of my rockets and just had a great time overall (see pics)!

I'm from Germany and developed some hybrid motors "back then", got sidetracked during university and due to other interests but want to get back into it now!
The rocket you see in the pictures was built as a test bed for those hybrids and can take 54mm motors/burn chambers with tanks up to 64mm in diameter, maximum would be somewhere in the high J-range. Was great to get it in the air on a AT H180W

Cheers,
Roman

 

[Huxter]

Welcome to the forum. Sam story here - flew rockets till I got my drivers license, then off to college.

Very impressive rocket! Please post more pics of your work.

 

[hybridfreak]

Yup, driver's license, girlfriend, got into rockclimbing, studied mechanical engineering... too many interests, too little time! But now I have a lot more knowledge and possibilities and can approach projects very differently

I posted a few videos years ago here:

Hybridfreak on YouTube

It's actually super interesting to have a look at stuff I did 10-20 years ago as a teenager or young adult. I would do a lot of stuff completely different nowadays (I did change the cabeling on the rocket I posted above before the flight e.g.) and can tell I progressed a lot as a hobbyist and also working as a mechanical engineer. Without taking a break and a step back a lot of times you don't notice a change like that, frog in boiling water kinda situation

Next steps are to get my lathe running again, sort through all my rocketry stuff and keep only what's needed, restore a rocket or two and go launch them in the spring!
I built a 2,5" two stage Nike-Black Brant back then and only ever flew it single stage and did one test-flight including stage separation but without a motor in the sustainer. That one is high on my list to get it flying in full

 

[John Brohm]

Welcome back to the hobby.

I wrote about my design and construction of a Nike-Black Brant (Black Brant VIII) in this article https://tinyurl.com/yc4zt7wn

Hope this might be helpful to you - good luck with your project!

 

[hybridfreak]

Welcome back to the hobby.

I wrote about my design and construction of a Nike-Black Brant (Black Brant VIII) in this article https://tinyurl.com/yc4zt7wn

Hope this might be helpful to you - good luck with your project!

Great writeup and beautiful scale model you built there! Thanks a lot, that will make it much easier for me to redo some of the stuff on mine

 

[NTP2]

I am at the age where all you BARs left and I don’t see myself leaving for anything. Maybe you never fully worshipped the rocket gods…

 

[hybridfreak]

I am at the age where all you BARs left and I don’t see myself leaving for anything. Maybe you never fully worshipped the rocket gods…

What age would that typically be?

 

[NTP2]

What age would that typically be?

It appears to be mid to late teens.