Skylark sounding rocket

[Ez2cDave]

pics

 

[Ez2cDave]

 

[wrad]

Some great pictures. The one skylark pictured in the with the orange paint scheme is at the national space centre in Leicester UK, which is only a 30 min drive from me. I rely should have visited it by now!

 

[wrad]

Finally flew my skylark again, almost a year since its last outing.

She flew great and was my first successful electronic 2 stage flight!



Got some great data of the computers as well and comparison to last years flight/sims.



There were only 2 negatives from the flight. The second stage ejection charge was early by 3 or 4 seconds (estes dont make a D12-12 unfortunately), and the booster parachute didn't fully unfurl resulting in the boosters motor retainer being damaged, however it should be an easy fix.

Also interestingly the f51 this year underperformed compared to last years with lower acceleration and a slightly longer burn time.

 

[Tim51]

Finally flew my skylark again, almost a year since its last outing.

She flew great and was my first successful electronic 2 stage flight!

View attachment 432970

Got some great data of the computers as well and comparison to last years flight/sims.

View attachment 432967View attachment 432968View attachment 432969

There were only 2 negatives from the flight. The second stage ejection charge was early by 3 or 4 seconds (estes dont make a D12-12 unfortunately), and the booster parachute didn't fully unfurl resulting in the boosters motor retainer being damaged, however it should be an easy fix.

Also interestingly the f51 this year underperformed compared to last years with lower acceleration and a slightly longer burn time.

Looks superb. Interesting data too. Really sorry I missed this flight (assuming it was at Midland Sky last weekend..?) I must have been prepping or walking to/from the range. Did it weathercock at all? I'm wondering if the winds affected acceleration..?

 

[wrad]

Looks superb. Interesting data too. Really sorry I missed this flight (assuming it was at Midland Sky last weekend..?) I must have been prepping or walking to/from the range. Did it weathercock at all? I'm wondering if the winds affected acceleration..?

Yes it was at sky. It was one of the first launches of the day as I wanted to go before the wind picked up so there weren't many people at the flight line.
The flight was straight as an arrow, it rely shifts of the pad so weathercocking is not an issue. I have been playing with the flight data a bit and the performance difference was all in the fist 0.25 seconds of the flight, after that the data matches pretty close so it looks more like the motor was just a bit slow coming up-to full power.
With the slight drop in performance the rocket only barely made it to the second stage ignition lockout altitude which was lucky. I had set it to 500ft at 2.5 seconds and it made 500 at 2.45 seconds so pretty close,

 

[WillMarchant]

On page 477 of Brand's book is a picture of my former boss, Stu Bowyer. Sadly Stu passed away last week from complications of COVID-19. A memorial page is at https://www.ssl.berkeley.edu/stuart-bowyer-1934-2020/ and I'll see if the picture can be added to the memorial.

 

[Tim51]

Yes it was at sky. It was one of the first launches of the day as I wanted to go before the wind picked up

Well done for getting it launched first thing. That Sunday morning I actually woke around 5am and realised the wind had completely dropped, but by the time I'd got my 4" (see avatar) prepped with the K motor I'd brought it was blowing hard again and RSO approval was completely out of the question. Frustrating weekend for me, but pleased it worked for you.

 

[wrad]

The skylark flew again this month beautifully. F50 Skidmark to F24 white lightening. The largest motor combo yet, and the first fully midpower and composite launch! flying with a 1.5 second delay between burnout and ignition she flew to 2809 ft.

Was a perfect flight although it would have broken 3000ft if it wasnt for a small wiggle under thrust for the sustainer but she straightened out after burnout and recovered very nicely, only a 100m or so from the pad.

I didnt get any pictures, however finally got a video, it rely is hard to keep a track of small fast moving rockets though, so excuse my camera work!
View attachment NWOG5632.MP4

 

[wrad]

Thought I would share the picture of the booster post flight, this was the first flight i didn't have any issues with recovering the booster, I made it 2cm longer than scale when I repaired it from the previous flight and that made all the difference for the recovery. The parachute was a much better fit this time and deployed well.

Best thing is I now have some authentic, SpaceX style, reusable booster soot.

 

[jqavins]

(I'm just starting on this thread, so I'm sure I'll have more comments to come.)

Hi everyone

Thought I would start a thread for my latest build project.

I have been looking for my next build for a while since finishing my Soyuz build last year, and wanted to do another scale project. As a Brit if finally settled upon building a skylark sounding rocket.
View attachment 342031

That looks like it's going to be it was a great project. But it does look a bit like the largest rocket ever to use CHAD staging.

There were also many flown rockets piled up in the "grave yard".

Holy cow! What do they keep all those for? It's really cool to see, but it's like a space program run by hoarders.

EDIT: I just noticed that the original post was on April 3rd, but not this April 3rd. I'll be reading the thread, but I guess "following the build" is a term that doesn't really apply when following by a three year gap.

 

[jsdemar]

jsdemar said:
There were also many flown rockets piled up in the "grave yard".

Holy cow! What do they keep all those for? It's really cool to see, but it's like a space program run by hoarders.

The land north of the ESRANGE launch site is native land. The rockets have to be recovered according an agreement with the aboriginal people. There are also alert sirens in the remote villages for pending launches.

 

[jqavins]

Recovering them, sure. But keeping them? Why not send them off as scrap metal? If it's a matter of residual haz mats, that would be all the more reason not to just leave them stacked up.

 

[jsdemar]

Recovering them, sure. But keeping them? Why not send them off as scrap metal? If it's a matter of residual haz mats, that would be all the more reason not to just leave them stacked up.

It's a combination of various metals&alloys, fasteners, fiberglass & resins, insulation, adhesives, and propellant residue. The cost to separate and clean is many times more than the value of the scrap. So, it's a graveyard.

 

[wrad]

EDIT: I just noticed that the original post was on April 3rd, but not this April 3rd. I'll be reading the thread, but I guess "following the build" is a term that doesn't really apply when following by a three year gap.

yeah I keep reviving this thread with each new flight/ repair, however I will probably move over this kind of update onto the general what I did today thread in the future now its flying consistently well.

I will however be starting a new thread very shortly as a part 2, as at the last launch of this rocket I realised it was the last thing I had built and it was about time I build something new. ( I have a couple of slow burner projects but for various reasons they are all on hold or just taking their sweet time for now).

I love this rocket design and the way it flies. I just hate the fiddle of getting everything in the av bay on the launch day as its a real challenge and I have messed it up sufficiently to not be able to fly on at least one occasion. So what better than a fully high power upscale?

The parts are on the way and I have a deadline of September to make a major launch even here in the UK, so a 65mm diameter, twin 38mm motor mount version will be appearing shortly hopefully!