Oct 23rd CMASS LAUNCH

The Rocketry Forum

Help Support The Rocketry Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
And last for today, the maiden flight of the Tri-Glide. Perfect boost on a B4-2 with perfect deployment of the parachute and 3 gliders. They went like a bandit in the wind, but I got them all back.

very kewl :)
 
i think everyone had their downers today. i lost my eliminator after one flight:( and then my brother flew the sizzler on a C6-5(unpainted...against an overcast sky....) and that was gone. then i flew my Aura(maiden flight) on an E9-6 and the flight was AWESOME, even for an E9, that rocket was SWEET. LOC includes a streamer that unfortunately is too short. so that lost two fins when it hit the ground. so i went to hobbytown and got some 5 minute epoxy and a 12 inch chute, put the fins back on, beautiful. then i decided to go for the F20, however, the clouds were about 2000' and when i got to the RSO bill came by and said that i couldnt bust through. so i threw on the E30, man, that has got to be the BEST motor for this rocket. not only was this rocket CRUISING at warp speed, but it just floated after burnout for near 1000'. that was one of the best flights i've ever taken part in. however, the 12" chute got tangled and a shroud line snapped, so it came in sortof hot and broke two fins. one that had been glued earlier, and the other one that hadnt been broken. so i fixed it and threw an E9 in and flew it...whew, it only broke one fin this time. then i got so anxious to toss up an F20, that i approached craig whittaker(sp?) and asked him if he had a model that he'd like to launch with it. (i just wanted to hear the roar of the F20, and it was WELL worth the 14 bucks) and he threw it in an aerotech mustang. what a sweet flight. slightly weathercocked, but that baby had a beautiful apogee. and recovery was a success. im definately going to look into one of those kits. kudos to craig for that finish job. that rocket looked like a million bucks.
all in all it was a fun day, and i should have enough time to glass my aura and get a larger streamer....who knows, maybe if there's no wind next month...G35. muhahahaha

oh yeah...someone had a bunch of apogee E6's...yes, thats right, E6's, man, what i would do to get my hands on one of those....whew. those things go FOREVER!!!
 
here is the coolest flight of the day, and my best picture, I have a bunch but this one came out best.

 
oh yeah, i remember that one...i was in my truck epoxiing my fins back onto my LOC when that beast lit off....was that a J? i heard there was going to be a K there but i didnt hear them announce it, and that definately sounded like it had K potential.
 
That was a K670 Green Gorilla. I am glad that turret system was compatible with Roberts Rail :). While he was checking the laptop computer to see if he was getting data from the rocket, I immeditly noticed a problem though... the rear launch lug fell out of the rail. Good thing I noticed that... for when Westy lifted the rocket.. it went on the outside of the rail... That would of made a scary flight if we didn't notice it....
 
we had a good day nothing lost and only minor damage due to chutes not opening. I think doug won the scary flight of the day with the onyx that went land shark over the RSO table then Jims table not more than 5 minutes after Jim and I had had a conversation about the weather conference that went like "if you or Doug come to help don't bring anything that is unstable we're trying to promote rocketry not scare them away" when I looked over at Jim he was giving me the look so I says "that was doug not me I only safety checked it" to wich he coould only laugh. of course when my dueces wild left on only one motor to the parking area was a bit scary, the bird was unhurt and after replaceing the burnt motor it flew great. :D
 
I285R_I-ROC.jpg

The Yulya's rocket looks great lifting off on a I285 Redline motor... however I was using a plugged closure, and the ejection charge connected to the PET 2 Timer did not go off..

I-ROC-Splat-small.jpg

Lets just say that this rocket is totaled... notice how the motor tube seems to be on the side of the rocket... the motor tube ripped apart on impact right at the motor... The Pet 2 Timer was destroyed.

J450_Magnum_Collage.jpg

My LOC Magnum flew great with an AMW J450... except the drouge charge did not fire... the main did at high speed. The result was a zipper in the parachute tube, and main airframe tube. Also, the impulse of the high speed deployment stripped the chute and gutted the booster. The 54/1050 motor was lost. And to make matters worse...

power-lines-small.jpg

Thats right... it landed in power lines... however... the booseter was hanking low enough that it could be reached if you stood on something... and trucks coult hit it (it was hanging over an intersection). A neighbor already called the power comapny... but when some kits started messing with it (trowing stuff at it), the cops showed up, and a fire truck showed up. The police called the power comapny again... and finally they showed.up. Generally speacking... everything was relaxed. The cops and firefighters new about rocketry and were asking all kinds of question... the fire fighters even drove to the launch site to check out the launch after the ordeal was over. The Magnum's damage is repairable by ordering a couple lengths of tubing.

My other bad flight Bill already mentioned. My Onyx took off with a F37-6W, as soon as it cleared the rail, it made a sharp turn towards the crowd. Very scary... I am sure that Jim thought that a missile was incoming.

I do have good news though... The Super Glotova had a PERFECT FLIGHT!!!

super_glotova_collage.jpg

H242-6T in the booster, H128-10W in the sustainer. Somehow the fwd Rail Button got ripped off, but that is easily fixed.

Oh... and as an aditional perk... Brooks Pharamsy gave a roll of film away for every roll I developed ;).
 
yeah doug, that onyx was about 75 feet from me and going at a HIGH rate of speed when it impacted. lol. i was heading to my truck on my way to hobbytown for some epoxy and WHOOOSH, "INCOMING!" lol. when did you shoot the superglotova off? i missed it....i had to get to work so i left at around 3:30. arg. boy, that rocket that speared the ground...that was by far one of the better flights ive seen. too bad that chute didnt open. that was a good rocket.
 
Man Doug, what is up with all these mishaps???

Seriously, I offer my condolences and I bet losing your 54/1050 casing was a mega ouch. Sorry that I wasn't here for you to talk to.:(
 
Sorry I missed all the fun - two sick kids when we woke up put a damper on flying.....
 
Great pix Doug. I think you should just retire that stinkin' Magnum after all the poor thing's been through! You got some absolutely AWESOME pix there, man! I love the I285R shot...can't wait to fly one of those!

Jason
 
Originally posted by r1dermon
yeah doug, that onyx was about 75 feet from me and going at a HIGH rate of speed when it impacted. lol. i was heading to my truck on my way to hobbytown for some epoxy and WHOOOSH, "INCOMING!" lol. when did you shoot the superglotova off? i missed it....i had to get to work so i left at around 3:30. arg. boy, that rocket that speared the ground...that was by far one of the better flights ive seen. too bad that chute didnt open. that was a good rocket.

The Super Glotova took off right after the Onyx... so you were probabily at Hobbytown when I launched it :(. Don't worry, you can download the vids. Those should be posted soon :).
 
best quote of the launch

"Doug is going to have to get his own liability insurance"
 
Originally posted by Ryan S.
best quote of the launch

"Doug is going to have to get his own liability insurance"

Don't you think that's a bit negative???

This is rocketry, these things have a tendency to happen.
 
Jeez doug, thats the second I roc you have done that too! Seeing a pattern form here...

You crash an Iroc early in the year, you crash an Iroc later in the year

You land your Magnum in a tree, you land your Magnum in the power lines...

Learning any lessons? Such as.........

"CMASS is not a good field for highpower two-stagers or J motors, due to the lack of space, and population density. Cherryfield, Maine would be a much better choice for my next complex/high flying rockets" ;) :p

To drive the point home, heres a few pictures I took at the launch earlier today... You wouldent have any of those problems at Cherryfield even on the windiest days! I had some EXELENT flights today. I flew my LOC legacy on an F25, catod another F25 in my ASP (I have a bone to pick with Aerotech now, btw. Second one this has happened to), a perfect flight of my Nike Smoke on another I357T, and a perfect flight of my Forte on an H242T. And my dad shredded his Hydra on an I357T. What fun! :D
 
Sounds like it was a great launch, other than your mishaps... Was anything salvageable this time?

Good luck with the repairs.
 
Well, I guess this is rocketry and these things do happen...

We will just have to put you on the "luckless" list along with Bill Spadafora and Craig Whittacre... Crashes just seem to follow you three around...

We really need to find a better launch site so we dont have rockets hanging up in trees, though...
 
Look at all that red! What is that stuff?

Actually Niel... I launched many rockets this year, and I only had 4 mishaps (and a shred, but I knew the Praetor was going to shread on a D13 ;)). 4 out of the many I launched is not bad... especially with the complexity of some of the rockets I launch...
 
Doug's not the only one with a mishap day. Of the three rockets I launched, two will need major repairs before further attempts. Engines were running weak, delays were miscalculated, chute lines let go, and - for my first time ever - one engine misfired in the SS324 cluster, causing it (the SS324) to snap in two when it hit the ground (insufficient altitude for full deployment).

Although, one of the "bad" launches was kinda cute. The FFM upscale on a C11-5 (instead of a C11-3) deployed at about 15 feet or so - the rocket snapped to a halt about 2 feet off the ground, about 5 feet from me. I would have caught it except I was trying to video tape it.

I think if it's not too windy at the next CMASS launch, I'll push the envelope on the Maximum Overdrive - it's sim'd to 2400 feet on an F21. Heck, it's the end of the season, I need to clean out the inventory to make room for the winter building season ;-)
 
Doug - ouch, rough rough day. good luck with the next one

Neil - you sound like a recruiter for private schools...pay for my gas and I might head up to cherryfield
 
D13? I heard something about those CATOing alot... Did you mean D12? proabably...

Kinda sucks that your four mishaps were four of your best highpower rockets... Oh well.

Best quote from OUR launch: "thats why god made 5-minute epoxy" :D


Thats the blueberry barren. Its at peak RIGHT NOW. You shoulda come, it was beautiful.

Heres a pic that shows it better (Dave Smith took this one while I was walking for my Nike Smoke)

Aint it purty up here? Got my weeks geographical history today too... Aparantly the highway goes right along a big ridge of gravel stuff that was an underground (or, more apropriately, underglacier) river when the glaciers were still around. Theres HUGE boulders lying around the sides of the road to the field, and even bigger ones in the rivers, all leftover from the glaciers.

Also some strange looking mountains... the glaciers made the northern sides smooth and rounded and not very steep, and then the ice just cracked off bringing rock off, so its a steep cliff off the south side. Very interesting stuff...


lol. Im not paying for yer gas... Its worth the drive, though. Believe me!
 
Originally posted by Neil
Was anything salvageable this time?

I-ROCs P-Chute and shock cord.

Magnum can be fixed (again).... Just need to order new tubing. Both the main and payload section airfraims needs replaced.

Originally posted by Neil
D13? I heard something about those CATOing alot... Did you mean D12? proabably...

Nope. I was talking about the Aerotech 18mm D13 RMS motor. Only seen one cato... my second RMS flight. It was due to a bad motor casing. Destroyed my Estes Saturn V.
 
Originally posted by Neil
Well, I guess this is rocketry and these things do happen...

We will just have to put you on the "luckless" list along with Bill Spadafora and Craig Whittacre... Crashes just seem to follow you three around...

We really need to find a better launch site so we dont have rockets hanging up in trees, though...


Luck has nothing to do with it. All my prangs can be traced back to stupid mistakes. My only prang on Saturday was the R/C glider. I'm sure I figure out what I did wrong with it once I get the dirt out of the body tube.

It's not a matter of finding a better launch site. It would be nice but we've been looking for 10 years without any luck. The trick is to fly with the appropriate motors for the field that we have.

We had more than our share of horrible flights on Saturday. The only good thing about that is that the guy from the FAA is now convinced that no matter how bad we screw up he doesn't need to clear the three mile radius around us.
 
the feild can easily support K motors, flights to 2000 feet. look at the K670 that flew perfectly, and the lob shots are fun sometimes, you can see the whole flight. I wouldnt mind flying my MI up there, or possibly my patriot, if I finish it.
 
My only serious concern is all the condos and houses scattered around the field's boundaries. We get at least twenty-five or fifty rockets landing outside the field, usually in the neighborhoods. And if a large rocket were to lawn-dart up there, which isnt impossible, it would be very dangerous...

I also dont like the swamps, but thats just annoying, not dangerous...

It must have been an old Estes D13 that I was hearing about at the launch... There was a bit of a discussion about it after an E9 CATOd in a ricter recter... I had heard of the E15s and thier tendancy to CATO, but the D13s were new to me... But they said something about Estes making D13s way back when and having to replace them with the newer (and supposedly safer) D12s. Go figure. I had never heard anything about such a thing before yesterday...

Overall, I dislike the CMASS field, just because the Pinetree field is so much better. CMASS would be the best club in New England (IMHO) if not for the field, but it still a close second to Pinetree if you ask me... for any LPR or MPR, its more than enough, I guess... but I wouldent fly anything bigger.... I have Cherryfield for that. Better safe than sorry.
 
i would LOVE to go to cherryfield, but i LOATH driving for more than like...2 hours. i drove to the forks ME for white water rafting, man, i loved the rafting, but the drive left my back in shambles. i think cherryfield is about 3 1/2 hours from the NH border. if i do go, it would be a once or twice a year thing, because i cant stand the drive. i'd also make sure i had plenty of rockets and epoxy, and plenty of G35's F20's G80's...etc...lol. and a new chute for my Aura, it broke a fin on every flight. arg.
 
Originally posted by rocketdad0934
we had a good day nothing lost and only minor damage due to chutes not opening. I think doug won the scary flight of the day with the onyx that went land shark over the RSO table then Jims table not more than 5 minutes after Jim and I had had a conversation about the weather conference that went like "if you or Doug come to help don't bring anything that is unstable we're trying to promote rocketry not scare them away" when I looked over at Jim he was giving me the look so I says "that was doug not me I only safety checked it" to wich he coould only laugh. of course when my dueces wild left on only one motor to the parking area was a bit scary, the bird was unhurt and after replaceing the burnt motor it flew great. :D

Lol. Doug needs a hug! He had a bad day.

My other bad flight Bill already mentioned. My Onyx took off with a F37-6W, as soon as it cleared the rail, it made a sharp turn towards the crowd. Very scary... I am sure that Jim thought that a missile was incoming.

My dad had something like that happen. It went up and headed straight for the crowd (and all we heard was "HEADS UP! REPEAT, HEADS UP!") and landed about 6 inches away from his car.

Thats right... it landed in power lines... however... the booseter was hanking low enough that it could be reached if you stood on something... and trucks coult hit it (it was hanging over an intersection). A neighbor already called the power comapny... but when some kits started messing with it (trowing stuff at it), the cops showed up, and a fire truck showed up. The police called the power comapny again... and finally they showed.up. Generally speacking... everything was relaxed. The cops and firefighters new about rocketry and were asking all kinds of question... the fire fighters even drove to the launch site to check out the launch after the ordeal was over. The Magnum's damage is repairable by ordering a couple lengths of tubing.

Very typical of you. Everything is fixable. You speak like a true rocketeer!

I do have good news though... The Super Glotova had a PERFECT FLIGHT!!!

I am so happy for you! You look at the glass has half full, not half empty.
 
One thing I've noticed is what has become the most popular phrase at CMASS (with appologies to Bill Spadavora... :D )

"nice try, Bill."

LOL Sorry, couldn't resist!
 
The first launch we saw, as we were walking in, was Doug's Onyx doing the land shark routine. Still, we kept walking towards the pads and had a great time!

My Traucer (3x24mm cluster 6" saucer with canted engine mounts) had its first flight on E9s. It flew late in the day (when the wind finally died down) but was quite the "WOW" flight. Unfortunately, I don't think anyone got a good photo of it.

My new HPR scratch-built, the upscale "Sprint275", did great on a G79W and a G40W. I was pleased that someone recognized it as a Sprint upscale even without a painted fincan nor a scale nose cone. The G79W-M is AT's new 29/120 reload. I think AT is using the standard H180W-M delay for the G79W-M which results in a 10 second delay which seems too long for a "medium" delay G. I had planned for an H210R launch but it was too windy to recover on apogee deployment.

The Sprint275 flew my PerfectFlite altimeter. The first flight ripped apart the power switch I had just installed. It looked like the leads to the battery were too short. Second flight (with twisted together wires was fine. I'll need a bit more work on my electronics bay before going for dual deployment.

My 14 year-old neighbor came and launched his Triskelion. Somehow he put on the fins such that it has a nice slow spin as it rises. This keeps it going straight up even on a windy day and looks VERY cool with the large fins.

We also had the maiden flight of my 6 and 8 year-olds' Wacky Wiggler. It was one of at least 3 WWs launched that day. That rocket sure is wacky! They all started violent wiggling even before deployment.

My car was a popular target for the rockets with failed deployments. MANY times I cringed as parachutes seemed to fail on those flights arcing toward the car. The closest was a Big Daddy that impaled itself about 4 feet away.

There were lots of overly long delays. I suspect many fliers didn't take into account the shortened time-to-apogee due to weathercocking from the 10-15mph winds.

I took my first turn as CMASS LCO for awhile. Great fun, particularly with the supportive crew to get me started.

Another good day at CMASS!

-- Jim
 
Back
Top