Rich's GLR Nuclear Sledgehammer...continuation of original build thread

[rharshberger]

Video courtesy of Frank Burke



Flight was as expected, with the exception of the main at apogee. Main at apogee was about 80% anticipated so I had tracking on all sections of the rocket. Actual altitude, if I counted beeps correctly was 5491', will download and post RRC3 data later. Only real hiccup in the whole flight was the damn cornfield, and battery issues with my Eggfinder base unit (needed larger capacity batteries). It took about an hour to recover just the nosecone which was 600' inside a field of corn 8-10' tall, and naturally the irrigation had just hit the area where I found the nose cone.
Big shout out to Cris Erving for his Eggfinder Mini with all the upgrades, in order to find the nosecone I had to be within 10' of it to find it and the Eggfinder got me there, the second person is Jim Amos of Missleworks as his RRC3 Extreme and a RRC2 25K (old one) were the altimeters for this flight and both performed flawlessly, also not to be left out was Steve Thatcher of SMT Design as one of his custom nosecone tracker sleds was used for the Eggfinder (originally the sled was made for my Rabid Weasel but was easily adapted for this flight.

Photo is myself (left side) and Brett Simpkins the kits designer.

 

[Wayco]

Congratulations Rich! I would like to see this rocket, where are you located?
We are on the back row, South of the vendors about 100 yards.

 

[burkefj]

Beautiful flight dead straight, neat how the rocket was enveloped in smoke, then rose out of it.

 

[Theory]

Perfection!!!!

Absolutely perfect conclusion to this thread

 

[neil_w]

Awesome flight, picture perfect.

 

[cwbullet]

Beautiful flight.

 

[rharshberger]

Washington state, this flight was at our annual SodBlaster event.

Congratulations Rich! I would like to see this rocket, where are you located?
We are on the back row, South of the vendors about 100 yards.

 

[g.pitts]

Man, what a beautiful flight! Congratulations!

 

[rskiba]

Rich, I was able to get these shots yesterday of the flight....

 

[krislhull]

Very nice, Rich! Congrats! I believe that this was the first M flown at the Sod Farm, if I am correct.

 

[mpitfield]

Very cool first pic. It looks like hell opened up and spat out a rocket.

 

[rharshberger]

Third M, Tim Dahl flew a Saturn V on a M1297 and Dave King flew an M right before this one.

Very nice, Rich! Congrats! I believe that this was the first M flown at the Sod Farm, if I am correct.

 

[krislhull]

Third M, Tim Dahl flew a Saturn V on a M1297 and Dave King flew an M right before this one.

Well, it was an impressive flight from the looks of it!

 

[rharshberger]

Definitely!

Well, it was an impressive flight from the looks of it!

 

[roc_boy]

Man, that was awesome!! Thankful I was able to be there to see it [emoji2]. Congrats Rich!!

Tony

 

[mcderek]

Sweet flight Rich. Awesome!

 

[rharshberger]

Some of these pics are from earlier and some are new, I am attempting to get them in chronological order for this post.

Brett Simpkins (right) and myself (left), Brett is the gentleman who not only designed this rocket, but also started building it many years ago before turning it over to me to finish.

Ready for launch



Ignition, can't say I wasn't pleased with the BKNO3-V igniters, this is the only frame of motor ignition as it was nearly instant on!








Looks more like a ICBM launch than a cruise missle with all the dirt flying!

 

[rharshberger]

More pics and the rest of the sequence.






Motor shutdown, perfect timing just catching the last of the flames.


Post motor shutdown.



Post nose cone recovery, the rocket ended up in a freshly plowed field so it was only a bit dusty...
the nose cone on the other hand was 600'-ish inside a circle of 8-10' tall corn, I found a small mudhole on the edge of the field and made my truck happy!


All pictures are courtesy of myself, Rob Skiba and Bill Barnes.

 

[rharshberger]

Final numbers from the RRC3 were 4917' altitude and 736mph. RRC3 file attached for those interested, the mDacs software from Missleworks will open it.

 

[BEC]

Anybody take a picture of the hole in the ground out there after Dave's and your flights?

It sure did almost look as if it was coming up out of a silo.

 

[rharshberger]

Guess I need to do a full shout out to the companies that made the flight of this rocket so successful.

Aerotech: Late as usual, but still just in time...the motor reload arrived in my hands on the morning of the flight, after having arrived in my vendors hands on Wednesday, having shipped from Utah Monday morning.

Giant Leap Rocketry: For the awesome kit known as the Nuclear Sledgehammer, its definitely a skill level 5

Eggtimer Rocketry: Cris Erving makes some great products, and if not for the Eggfinder Mini riding in the nose cone it would have been lost to the corn.

B2 Rocketry/Skyangle: maker of the main parachute a Cert 3xl, great chutes and both of them I have used have deployed very reliably.

OneBadHawk Recovery: what else needs to be said, when I want harnesses I can trust Teddy is the best! All recovery harnesses were made by Teddy.

RouseTech: maker of the Rousetech CD3 CO2 ejection system used in this rocket, I know they are no longer making the system but similar ones are on the market and they work.

Missleworks: Jim makes some great products, the RRC3 Extreme used as primary altimeter has ridden on many a flight from my first HPR motor and L1 cert to my L3 cert and beyond. Backup was performed by an older but still very functional (first flight afaik) RRC2 25K altimeter. Both performed as expected.

Spherachutes: a Spherachutes 48" chute was intended to be the drogue chute on this flight but with the main out at apogee it was superfluous, however the chute has ridden on a number of HPR and MPR flights and performed superbly.

Giant Leap Rocketry (again) for the Slimline 75mm retainer, it performed as expected.

Soller Composites: supplier of the carbon fiber twill used on the tip to tip of the fins...all 5 of them, uggh!

US Composites: adhesive and laminating epoxies were the 150 and 635 respectively both with medium hardener and various as needed amendments (fumed silica, phenolic microballons, milled fiber and chopped fiber).

 

[rharshberger]

Anybody take a picture of the hole in the ground out there after Dave's and your flights?

It sure did almost look as if it was coming up out of a silo.

You must be talking about this hole....its almost deep enough to swallow a 4 year old...and no I didn't try my 4 yo daughter to see if she fit .
Actually the hole only got a tiny bit wider with my flight and not deeper afaik, also all the roots around the edge were gone. Daves XRAAM-75 Diamondback jumped off the rail so quick it didn't get obscured by the dirt being thrown up.

 

[Nytrunner]

Awesome shots!

So....blast deflectors optional?

 

[Rocket86]

Super impressive flight, Rich. The nuke flew as good as it looked, well done!

 

[Mugs914]

Congrats Rich! Absolutely spectacular! Thanks for sharing, it was fun to follow along!

 

[Tim51]

Expert build, expert flight, excellent images.

 

[Tim51]

Awesome shots!

So....blast deflectors optional?

I suppose at an event called 'SodBlaster' at least someone is expected to blast the sod.. ; )