The Flying Disc Golf Basket of Death and Distruction

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DAllen

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So I play disc golf (badly) and also fly rockets. How do I combine the two hobbies? I know! I'll make a flying basket that meets the Professional Disc Golf Assoc. (PDGA) technical standards for dimentions - or at least get it close. Obviously, my first goal is to have it fly safely, the second is the PDGA dimensions and a distant third is that it actually catches discs. It may or may not meet that last requirement - we'll see.

I figure it should fly akin to our beloved spools. The center tube is 38mm and all the rods you see are 1/2" dowels. The lower section has 1/4" thick balsa that should act as fins and thus increase the stability. First flight will be this coming weekend on a H100. The only thing I have not done yet on it is figure out the motor retention and drill out holes for the 1/4" rod I am going to fly it off of. Other than that I will let the photos speak for themselves. I think most of you can figure out whats going on here. If not, don't hesitate to ask!IMG_0844.JPG IMG_0835.JPG IMG_0818.JPG IMG_0820.JPG IMG_0823.JPG IMG_0825.JPG IMG_0831.JPG
 
Love it! Gotta feeling you'll need to take a garbage bag with you on the recovery though.
 
Love it! Gotta feeling you'll need to take a garbage bag with you on the recovery though.

I look at it as a learning experience. Right now, my push is to make it as light as possible. I was originally hoping to keep it low enough to fly as a class I rocket but that idea went out the door a long time ago. But if parts fail I'll just have to make repairs and adjustments accordingly.
 
If the bottom could be made solid somehow it might make it stable via base drag.

I think I will pass on that option for now. To do that it would be a 26" diameter plate. I'd go from needing a H to fly it to a J. The spokes on the bottom stick out 2" wider than the top and coupled with the fact that I have the balsa "fins" lining the outside of the lower spokes I think the CP far enough back to be completely safe. I equate this to flying a spool where the lower plate is larger than the forward one.

Of course...I'm still flying it out at the away pad of course the first time. :)
 
Looks fantastic! Love the creativity. Good luck with the flight.

Oddrocs help make rocketry interesting.
 
Awesome! I bought a few discs as there is a course 3 minutes from my house but haven't been yet.

Love this rocket - we need video!
 
That is pretty cool! But if Doug "rocket golf" Frost (aka Frog Dust) ever gets hold of this, he'll be trying to launch rocket-powered discs into it. You have been warned. I'm half tempted to tell him.
 
Begs the question ... are people going to be tempted to lob discs at it while it's on the pad? I know I would. :cool:

Very cool. Please get flight video!
 
That is pretty cool! But if Doug "rocket golf" Frost (aka Frog Dust) ever gets hold of this, he'll be trying to launch rocket-powered discs into it. You have been warned. I'm half tempted to tell him.

Lol...Good luck getting that concept past our RSO. ;)

Begs the question ... are people going to be tempted to lob discs at it while it's on the pad? I know I would. :cool:

Very cool. Please get flight video!

On the pad? Oh no...you can't throw at it until it's in the air either under thrust or under chute or somewhere in between.

-Dave
 
Dave, awesome project!

Looking forward to throwing some frolf discs at it while in flight at a Three Oaks launch this coming year!

I too am a disc golfer; have played it in many locations in many states....but not in Michigan yet. Hmm. Gotta fix that in 2019!
 
Dave, awesome project!

Looking forward to throwing some frolf discs at it while in flight at a Three Oaks launch this coming year!

I too am a disc golfer; have played it in many locations in many states....but not in Michigan yet. Hmm. Gotta fix that in 2019!

Duuuuudddddeeee! No kidding you gotta fix that! You come to Three Oaks let me know and either the day before or after the launch I can show you around some of the courses we have in Berrien County. Lake Township was just redesigned and there's a completely brand new one near Benton Harbor and both of which are about a 20-30 min drive north of Three Oaks.

I also run a disc golf club in the area and occasionally TD some tourneys:

dgscene.com/SRDGC

-Dave
 
Fun was definitely had. Watching that video I giggle every time I hear the basket hit the ground. Sounds like someone spilling a bunch of Lincoln Logs on a tile floor. I slapped together an edited video that includes the crappy 808 onboard footage. For some reason the lens is not orientated correctly. It is pointing down and to the right so even though I thought I had it pointing straight down the side of the basket its off. Anyways...enjoy:

 
Nice flight, well the up anyway. Delay seems to be a little bit on the long side. :)
 
Congrats on getting it to fly stably.

FWIW - There's been rocket powered Frisbees for decades. Most of mine have had one main engine (C6 or D12) in the center, and a single spin motor (A3) horizontally at the rim. Here's a pic of a different approach, two C6 clustered but angled in such a way as to make it spin.

IMG_1131.jpg


IMG_1152_crop.jpg
 
So I just bought a Pet2 timer which can work off of a G switch or break wire. Looking at the video posted earlier...is there a way I can calculate the number of G's the basket pulled with that set up? I ask because I would really rather not deal with trying to feed a break wire down to the nozzle or whatever and just rely on the G switch which as I recall requires at least 2.6 g's for half a second. I mean, is it really as simple as my thrust to weight ratio is about 4:1 therefore it was 4g's?

-Dave
 
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