stealth6
insert witty tagline here
I have achieved my NAR Level2 certification!
What a great weekend. The stars aligned and I was able to carve out a bit of time off to attend Northern Colorado Rocketry's "High Skies in July" launch this past weekend. Heck, it's only an 8 hour drive right? (this is considered a "local" launch for me). This was a two day event out at their Pawnee North Grasslands site. VERY cool club and launch - I highly recommend NCR to anyone who wants an excellent launch site, great folks, well run logistics, excellent vendor support, and a just all-around great and relaxed flying atmosphere. I met lots of good folk, witnessed some sweet flights and rockets, had lots of support for my own projects, and enjoyed a beautiful place to launch, camp, and hang out. It doesn't get any better.
So, what about that L2? Well, first I took my test - administered by club president Joe Hinton. You might know him as "Moto Joe" from Giant Leap, or "rocketjoe13" here on TRF. Anyone who's met or done business with him knows that he's one of those people that make this whole hobby so great. My experience definitely concurs - as a motor vendor, LCO/club president, NAR/TRA guy, or just one of the guys flying rockets that day, Joe is good people. I got two answers wrong - one that I KNEW was going to trip me up as something of a "trick question" (and it did), and another that I simply mistakenly checked the wrong box (woops). Whatever, I still passed and Joe gave me the green light to fly.
My rocket was one I've been itching to fly for months. It started life as a Wildman Black Saturday special kit - one of those 3" Black DarkStars that were such a screaming deal a couple of years back. I of course changed a few bits, but nothing radical other than different fins. It's name was (blame it on the) BlackStar and here's the thread that announced it to the world: https://www.rocketryforum.com/showthread.php?63305-Blame-it-on-the-BlackStar-(finally!). My motor choice was a LOKI K350 moonburner. Sims showed an altitude of 11,735', which quite honestly I wasn't sure I believed. I had a nagging thought that I had plugged in some wrong factor that threw off the equation. So I kept redoing it and kept coming up with the same result. In the end I decided to trust it (but still had a bit of a nag that something wasn't quite right).
So, the flight. In a word - pretty much perfect. Okay, so that's actually three words but whatever. A gorgeous flight. It was a pretty windy day, with quite a lot of cloud cover, but everything went just great. LONG burn, which I just love. Very cool motor. My tracker lost lock, but there were plenty of watchers and together we saw it come down a little over a half mile away. Altitude? - 11,761'. So, that sim WAS off after all - by 26 feet!! (My backup alt recorded apogee at 11,749' so that was a bit closer). That's definitely a new personal best for me, by quite a bit. Sweet. Recovery was perfect and the rocket had a nice easy landing (on soft dirt/grass which is something of a novelty for me). L2 flight a great success, and Joe has put the paperwork in the mail. I'm now officially an L2.
My pics are lousy. I guess I was so focused on the flight details and prep that I completely failed on the photo front. But for what it's worth, here are a couple of launch photos:
There was a guy shooting much better photos, and he said he got some good shots. I'll post them here when I get access to them.
I flew a couple other virgin flight rockets during the weekend as well. First was my LacSar 2 which I outlined in this thread: https://www.rocketryforum.com/showthread.php?61439-Carbon-Rascal-built. Flew it on a CTI I218 to 3570'. Nice stable flight, but my main chute failed to deploy (was flying drogueless and using a cable cutter) so it came down pretty hard. It dislodged a fin on impact but no other damage. It should be a relatively easy fix.
Next I flew another big project for me - my first "real" HPR two stage. This was my Raspulescent, a scratch build that I featured in this thread: https://www.rocketryforum.com/showthread.php?67228-Two-new-ones-S6-is-going-for-some-altitude. I decided NOT to go big on this flight - due to some winds and my tracker being a bit wonky. I opted for a LOKI H144-W staging to a CTI G125-R for a simmed altitude of 6324'. It was a beautiful flight up - great boost, perfect staging, etc. The booster recovery was perfect (and a nice short walk), but the main chute on the sustainer tangled and it came down on a small drogue-streamer. No damage to the rocket on landing. But my Raven beeped out an altitude of just 88'. Hmmmm. I'll have to look into this later, but it seemed that everything about the flight up was spot on, and I'm guessing my sim altitude was pretty close to reality. Anyway, another great first for me - a successful HPR multi-stage.
I did fly a few more from my fleet (all fine flights), but decided against putting my new 38mm minimum diameter up (Tepes). Winds, available time, my tracker performing a bit less than optimal, etc. - this rocket will have to wait until conditions are better to fly a tiny rocket up to 15,000' plus.
All in all, like I said - a GREAT weekend.
Now for my Oscar speech moment: thanks to lots of great folks who helped make this weekend a success - Tim Lehr for offering up that 3" Darkstar kit at such a great price, Scott Kormeier for the superb motors and hardware and for a great deal on them, Adrian Adamson for sweet electronics and for the assistance with my two-stage configuration, Jim Amos as well for great avionics, Jim Hendrickson & Larry Johnson for help and guidance with lighter/starters, and definitely Joe Hinton & NCR for putting on such a great event, support and encouragement on my L2 quest, and just being such good folk. THANKS!
s6
What a great weekend. The stars aligned and I was able to carve out a bit of time off to attend Northern Colorado Rocketry's "High Skies in July" launch this past weekend. Heck, it's only an 8 hour drive right? (this is considered a "local" launch for me). This was a two day event out at their Pawnee North Grasslands site. VERY cool club and launch - I highly recommend NCR to anyone who wants an excellent launch site, great folks, well run logistics, excellent vendor support, and a just all-around great and relaxed flying atmosphere. I met lots of good folk, witnessed some sweet flights and rockets, had lots of support for my own projects, and enjoyed a beautiful place to launch, camp, and hang out. It doesn't get any better.
So, what about that L2? Well, first I took my test - administered by club president Joe Hinton. You might know him as "Moto Joe" from Giant Leap, or "rocketjoe13" here on TRF. Anyone who's met or done business with him knows that he's one of those people that make this whole hobby so great. My experience definitely concurs - as a motor vendor, LCO/club president, NAR/TRA guy, or just one of the guys flying rockets that day, Joe is good people. I got two answers wrong - one that I KNEW was going to trip me up as something of a "trick question" (and it did), and another that I simply mistakenly checked the wrong box (woops). Whatever, I still passed and Joe gave me the green light to fly.
My rocket was one I've been itching to fly for months. It started life as a Wildman Black Saturday special kit - one of those 3" Black DarkStars that were such a screaming deal a couple of years back. I of course changed a few bits, but nothing radical other than different fins. It's name was (blame it on the) BlackStar and here's the thread that announced it to the world: https://www.rocketryforum.com/showthread.php?63305-Blame-it-on-the-BlackStar-(finally!). My motor choice was a LOKI K350 moonburner. Sims showed an altitude of 11,735', which quite honestly I wasn't sure I believed. I had a nagging thought that I had plugged in some wrong factor that threw off the equation. So I kept redoing it and kept coming up with the same result. In the end I decided to trust it (but still had a bit of a nag that something wasn't quite right).
So, the flight. In a word - pretty much perfect. Okay, so that's actually three words but whatever. A gorgeous flight. It was a pretty windy day, with quite a lot of cloud cover, but everything went just great. LONG burn, which I just love. Very cool motor. My tracker lost lock, but there were plenty of watchers and together we saw it come down a little over a half mile away. Altitude? - 11,761'. So, that sim WAS off after all - by 26 feet!! (My backup alt recorded apogee at 11,749' so that was a bit closer). That's definitely a new personal best for me, by quite a bit. Sweet. Recovery was perfect and the rocket had a nice easy landing (on soft dirt/grass which is something of a novelty for me). L2 flight a great success, and Joe has put the paperwork in the mail. I'm now officially an L2.
My pics are lousy. I guess I was so focused on the flight details and prep that I completely failed on the photo front. But for what it's worth, here are a couple of launch photos:
There was a guy shooting much better photos, and he said he got some good shots. I'll post them here when I get access to them.
I flew a couple other virgin flight rockets during the weekend as well. First was my LacSar 2 which I outlined in this thread: https://www.rocketryforum.com/showthread.php?61439-Carbon-Rascal-built. Flew it on a CTI I218 to 3570'. Nice stable flight, but my main chute failed to deploy (was flying drogueless and using a cable cutter) so it came down pretty hard. It dislodged a fin on impact but no other damage. It should be a relatively easy fix.
Next I flew another big project for me - my first "real" HPR two stage. This was my Raspulescent, a scratch build that I featured in this thread: https://www.rocketryforum.com/showthread.php?67228-Two-new-ones-S6-is-going-for-some-altitude. I decided NOT to go big on this flight - due to some winds and my tracker being a bit wonky. I opted for a LOKI H144-W staging to a CTI G125-R for a simmed altitude of 6324'. It was a beautiful flight up - great boost, perfect staging, etc. The booster recovery was perfect (and a nice short walk), but the main chute on the sustainer tangled and it came down on a small drogue-streamer. No damage to the rocket on landing. But my Raven beeped out an altitude of just 88'. Hmmmm. I'll have to look into this later, but it seemed that everything about the flight up was spot on, and I'm guessing my sim altitude was pretty close to reality. Anyway, another great first for me - a successful HPR multi-stage.
I did fly a few more from my fleet (all fine flights), but decided against putting my new 38mm minimum diameter up (Tepes). Winds, available time, my tracker performing a bit less than optimal, etc. - this rocket will have to wait until conditions are better to fly a tiny rocket up to 15,000' plus.
All in all, like I said - a GREAT weekend.
Now for my Oscar speech moment: thanks to lots of great folks who helped make this weekend a success - Tim Lehr for offering up that 3" Darkstar kit at such a great price, Scott Kormeier for the superb motors and hardware and for a great deal on them, Adrian Adamson for sweet electronics and for the assistance with my two-stage configuration, Jim Amos as well for great avionics, Jim Hendrickson & Larry Johnson for help and guidance with lighter/starters, and definitely Joe Hinton & NCR for putting on such a great event, support and encouragement on my L2 quest, and just being such good folk. THANKS!
s6
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I'm looking forward to getting one of those new Aerotech L1000's into my 3" DS, wish the'd get them out here!
