Super Glotova

[rocketsonly]

Hey! My friend has one of those. I'll ask if he can give me a few strands.

Do you have any pictures of the LEDs appearing through the fiber optics?

 

[n3tjm]

Two of them do not shine bright enough for the camera to pick up. When I have some more time, I am going to machine some special connectors that center the fiber-optics right onto the LED's. That will insure that they get enough light. Right now they are held in place with electrical tape. Good enough for now.

 

[gerbs4me]

very nice Doug
good idea about the fiber-optics

 

[edwardw]

Doug,

I'd try maybe some heat shrink tubing to get the fiber optics on. Would be a nice and tight fit and in the black variant it would work best. If your really inclined you could try this (don't know if you have any spare LED's) but drill a small (1/16) hole into the led about 3/32 into it. Then stuff the fiber optic cable into that hole. I know it's been done before with decent results.

Edward

 

[n3tjm]

The Super Glotova flew on the 2nd . You can read its flight report here. It sustained some damage, so I will post pics of that here, and the pics of its repairs.

Next flight will be with a H242 to H128 most likely... unless someone offers me a H123.

The fiber optic trick did not work that will, the fibers are very fragile, and kept coming off the coupler, and bulbs. So I drilled a peep hole above the led's in the tube coupler, so I can check the LED's by lifting the nose section up by a couple inches.

 

[BobH48]

I saw the Super Glotova flight and it was truely impressive.

Great job, Doug!

Sorry to hear that it sustained some damage but you got all the important stuff back ok.

Hopefully I will get to witness the next flight

 

[n3tjm]

Here are the pics and videos from the flight:

Posing next to the Super Glotova before its first flight.

The H128-6W and 2 F40-4W's Ignite and lift the Super Glotova skyward.

The H128-10W in the Sustainer ignites and lifts the sustainer to about 3000 ft.

The Super Glotova damage:

Super Glotova's Core Sample.
Aida with Damaged Parts of the Super Glotova.

New tubing is on its way, so the sustainer will be repaired in no time. The interstage coupler looks worse than it is, but I do have the parts to build a new one if I decide to do so,

Finally, the videos:
https://n3tjm.crosswinds.net/Oct22004/Flight_of_the_super_glotova.mpg - The prep and flight of the Super Glotova. Very large video, but worth the download. Shows the features of my new SuperPad turret . 48.7 MB.
https://n3tjm.crosswinds.net/Oct22004/14_Dougs_Super_Glotova.mpg - Just the flight of the Super Glotova. 1.71 MB

 

[Donaldsrockets]

Man Doug, you just can't keep anything nice j/k.

Very nice flight, too bad about the mishap.

 

[n3tjm]

The damage to the Super Glotova from its core sample is pretty much complete. When the rocket hit the deck, it implanted itself up to the forward centering ring. The tubing buckled along its seems, the inner layer caving in, the outer layer bulging in. The damage ended just below the fwd centering ring.

So I cut off the body tube a few inches above the centering ring. To get a tube coupler into the tube, I cut and pealed of several layers of the inside tube. Then I glued in the tube coupler. Then I trimmed the tube coupler that the shoulder of the electronics bay can clear, and glued on a 6" length of 3" tubing.

Next I took a razor blade and cut off all the paper that was buldging out of the tube. This left some pretty deep pits to be filled.

Peanut (my younger brother) used up my epoxy bondo on his car's rusted out floorboards, so I decided to use some devcon instead. That stuff dried very hard, and was hard to sand. Anyway, after a couple application of that stuff, and a layer of primer, then bondo putty, primer, bondo, primer... etc, I got out the can of Red Krylon and did some blasting...

I love it when its very hard to tell where the damaged tube is . The only beef I have is the paint was a lighter shade of Red.... Grabbed the Krylon... not the Rust Oleum... oh well. Can't fix it time for Saturday. I need to buy the vynals tomorrow... Saturday is the launch.

The interstage coupler was repaired by cutting off the damaged end of the stiffy tube coupler, and reinforcing it with CA.

 

[MissileDaughter]

wow. You cannot tell that it was damaged! Great job! I am impressed. This is how much I am a rocketeer: I had a small ding in my thumb nail. I was soooooooo tempted to take spackling (putty) to fill it in then paint over it. lol.
But, back to the subject, the rocket looks awesome! Great job! Did an excellent job!
What I cannot figure out is how can you have that much patience to repair that rocket that well. Some of us would go looney (considering 99.99999999 percent of us are already there). Wow. I am speechless!

 

[loopy]

Great repair, Doug! Looks great!

 

[loopy]

Great repair, Doug! Looks great!

 

[marvSRG]

I second loopy. Wait he already did that. I third him! Great job, Doug.

 

[n3tjm]

Last night I went to bed about an hour earlier than usual, so I had a little more pep this morning.... so I corrected the paint mistake before I went to work. I had a half hour to get dressed, paint, eat till I had to go to work.

After work I bought some more vynal decals. When I got home, I applied them.

Time to install the shock cord mount, and reinstall the electronics (took it out for service), Then I am going to prep it for flight.

 

[r1dermon]

niiiiiiiiice, tomorrow is supposed to be a little windy with clouds breaking to sun. chillllly(supposely). hopefully i'll get a good vid of the glotova in all her glory!!