Traffic Cone Caper

[Rktman]

This is going to be a fast build since there isn’t much to it, meaning a short build thread that wraps in a day or so. I just needed something for an upcoming weekend launch in case the forecasted windspeeds go up from single-digit to double-digit ones and I can’t fly my gliders.

I just happened to spot miniature plastic traffic cones being used at my gym and it occurred to me that they’d make a really good oddroc, something like a cross between a spool and pyramid that used base drag for stability. They’d use featherweight recovery and would be unlikely to get lost because they wouldn’t fly too high, drift with any wind gusts, or easily blend in with the landscape because of their bright orange color.

I found these cones on Amazon. I especially like the cutouts on their sides. They don’t just lighten the cones, but it means I can avoid the Krushnic effect and recess the motor all the way to the top to improve stability.

Yes, apparently not an original idea as I subsequently found a link in a post on TRF that took me to FlisKits’ Traffic Cone kit.




It didn’t take much time to throw one together. As it turns out the only time-consuming part was cutting a hole in the top and reaming a hole for the launch lug (didn’t want to thread the launch rod through one of those openings in its side, as it could too easily bind on the launch rod if it didn’t launch perfectly straight, and anyway, those openings are far too large to provide much guidance.

Successful surgery on its noggin.




Next hardest part: determining the angle of the launch lug support standoff. I ended up just holding the lug straight vertical after inserting it into one of the side holes and snapping a pic of it. I took that into Illustrator to trace out the exact angle between the vertical lug and the cone’s sloping sides.




Carved/gouged out a slot for the launch lug. Quite the experience in tedious trial and error.




Centering ring fabricated from matt board.




The assembled 24mm motor tube and CR




To be continued...

 

[neil_w]

I've never seen cones with cutouts like that before. Interesting. Makes them seem like a distant cousin to a Birdie rocket. How much do those things weigh?

 

[Rktman]

I've never seen cones with cutouts like that before. Interesting. Makes them seem like a distant cousin to a Birdie rocket. How much do those things weigh?

Out of the package, 59.5 grams (about 2 oz.). Not as light as cardstock but about an ounce less than the Halloween Candy Basket Saucer. My Basket does fairly well on only a D12 so I'll start with that on the cone. Ready-made objects like these are so great for fast impromptu builds, aren't they? Fun, simple, inexpensive and only take minimal mods to be safely launchable

 

[BABAR]

Hmmm, can you consider this featherweight (eject the motor, if low fire danger), and skip the laundry? Only downside I see is rocket may be hard to find in tall grass without chute or streamer.

 

[Rktman]

Hmmm, can you consider this featherweight (eject the motor, if low fire danger), and skip the laundry? Only downside I see is rocket may be hard to find in tall grass without chute or streamer.

Unfortunately the owner of the farm field we use isn't too thrilled to have empty casings or other rocket detritus littering his fields, so I'll have to retain the spent casing onboard. S'okay, the D12 won't loft it out of sight anyway, and the cone itself is soft and kinda squishy so it shouldn't hurt anything when it lands. That orange color should make it easier to spot against bare ground or against green crops, but you're right, if that crop is something tall like corn it may be problematic.

 

[BABAR]

Unfortunately the owner of the farm field we use isn't too thrilled to have empty casings or other rocket detritus littering his fields, so I'll have to retain the spent casing onboard. S'okay, the D12 won't loft it out of sight anyway, and the cone itself is soft and kinda squishy so it shouldn't hurt anything when it lands. That orange color should make it easier to spot against bare ground or against green crops, but you're right, if that crop is something tall like corn it may be problematic.

59 grams plus tubing , not sure if you are gonna add laundry, on a D? Even with the high drag, that may go pretty high. Will be tough to track especially if you go featherweight (something people seem to forget, and likely a contribution to many if not most Mosquitoes and Quarks being FAF (Fire And Forget) single use rockets, featherweights come in ballistic, they only get by with it because the dump the motor and are lightweight. In any case, the come down fast.

An idea from @lakeroadster that I may steal borrow emulate is rear eject spool. Assuming you planned on a D, I guess you have a BT-50 motor mount. You could make a BT-20 spool with a crepe paper streamer and launch it with a C5-3 to start. There are always the 18 mm Quest Ds if you want more.

 

[Hobie1dog]

cool, hope you get a video of it

 

[BABAR]

This is going to be a fast build since there isn’t much to it, meaning a short build thread that wraps in a day or so. I just needed something for an upcoming weekend launch in case the forecasted windspeeds go up from single-digit to double-digit ones and I can’t fly my gliders.

I just happened to spot miniature plastic traffic cones being used at my gym and it occurred to me that they’d make a really good oddroc, something like a cross between a spool and pyramid that used base drag for stability. They’d use featherweight recovery and would be unlikely to get lost because they wouldn’t fly too high, drift with any wind gusts, or easily blend in with the landscape because of their bright orange color.

I found these cones on Amazon. I especially like the cutouts on their sides. They don’t just lighten the cones, but it means I can avoid the Krushnic effect and recess the motor all the way to the top to improve stability.

Yes, apparently not an original idea as I subsequently found a link in a post on TRF that took me to FlisKits’ Traffic Cone kit.

View attachment 586692


It didn’t take much time to throw one together. As it turns out the only time-consuming part was cutting a hole in the top and reaming a hole for the launch lug (didn’t want to thread the launch rod through one of those openings in its side, as it could too easily bind on the launch rod if it didn’t launch perfectly straight, and anyway, those openings are far too large to provide much guidance.

Successful surgery on its noggin.

View attachment 586695


Next hardest part: determining the angle of the launch lug support standoff. I ended up just holding the lug straight vertical after inserting it into one of the side holes and snapping a pic of it. I took that into Illustrator to trace out the exact angle between the vertical lug and the cone’s sloping sides.

View attachment 586697


Carved/gouged out a slot for the launch lug. Quite the experience in tedious trial and error.

View attachment 586698


Centering ring fabricated from matt board.

View attachment 586699


The assembled 24mm motor tube and CR

View attachment 586700




To be continued...

Is there a bit of deja vu here?

 

[lakeroadster]

Cool odd roc. looking forward to a launch video.

Based on the swing tests of my Razorback, I'm betting that this cone will be super stable. Those slices in the sides and that ring fin should prove to make this a fun flyer.

I think a small drogue chute for recovery would be neat, just enough to keep the cone from lawn darting. Plus if you could get it to stick the landing you'd get extra points from the judges.

 

[Rktman]

59 grams plus tubing , not sure if you are gonna add laundry, on a D? Even with the high drag, that may go pretty high. Will be tough to track especially if you go featherweight (something people seem to forget, and likely a contribution to many if not most Mosquitoes and Quarks being FAF (Fire And Forget) single use rockets, featherweights come in ballistic, they only get by with it because the dump the motor and are lightweight. In any case, the come down fast.

An idea from @lakeroadster that I may steal borrow emulate is rear eject spool. Assuming you planned on a D, I guess you have a BT-50 motor mount. You could make a BT-20 spool with a crepe paper streamer and launch it with a C5-3 to start. There are always the 18 mm Quest Ds if you want more.

Good idea. I have 3 other cones that I can set up so that it spits the motor pod on a streamer.

 

[Rktman]

cool, hope you get a video of it

Thanks. Working on the video. Needs a lot of editing to make it visible, since I forgot to set the zoom on my GoPro to 2X or 3X.

 

[Rktman]

Cool odd roc. looking forward to a launch video.

Based on the swing tests of my Razorback, I'm betting that this cone will be super stable. Those slices in the sides and that ring fin should prove to make this a fun flyer.

I think a small drogue chute for recovery would be neat, just enough to keep the cone from lawn darting. Plus if you could get it to stick the landing you'd get extra points from the judges.

View attachment 586877

Appreciate that! I like the idea of a small drogue or streamer to keep the nose end topside. I reinforced the open end of the motor tube with a CR and epoxy, but I'd rather it not take the landing impact on its nose.

 

[Rktman]

Finishing up the build.
Turns out I only needed to have a standoff on the inside of the cone. The exit hole in the traffic cone served as the other anchor point. Roughed up the plastic and used a liberal amount of epoxy to secure the lug on.





Detail of lug attachment and standoff on the inside face of the cone.

 

[Rktman]

I had originally entertained thoughts of making this a 2-stager. Unfortunately I ran out of time and went with a single.

However both stages would be separated by the amount shown below. Would this configuration still be stable? What do you all think?




EDIT: Decided a multi-stager isn't a great idea, as it'll loft the sustainer even higher and the whole purpose of the oddroc build was to have something easy to recover and didn't require much of a walk to do so.

 

[Rktman]

Had an opportunity to launch and things went better than expected. Fairly straight launch and I don’t think it got much higher than maybe 70’. It ended up eventually coming down nose first but somehow hit sideways. No damage. Perfect for small fields, or at the end of a long day of flying when you just don’t want to have to chase down another glider or rocket that’s drifted a half mile or more from your pad.

I was a little worried that it might bind on the launch rod because of the offset launch lug location so I raised it up about 36” from the pad blast plate. Turns out the paranoia was just that – Egglofters all have to use lug standoffs that put them even farther from the motor’s thrustline and have no problems. Overall a fun project and launch.

Video of the launch to be posted once I can get it edited (forgot to set my GoPro at 2X zoom so the cone is just about invisible once it’s airborne. I’ll have to digitally zoom it in post-production).

 

[BABAR]

Congrats.

70 feet on a D? Somewhere I remember a video of RSO launching a saucer on a fairly high power motor at a high power launch (maybe NSL or one if the big range launches). After watching the saucer climb somewhat painfully into the sky (compared with the “poof” disappearance of most of the standard 3FNCs) the expression was something along the lines of, “Well, that was an entertaining waste of propellant!”

The reality of course is that essentially ALL model rocket launches (except maybe TARC and high school and college projects and competitions, which are a very small chunk of the pie) are for ENTERTAINMENT. If it goes up to 293,000 feet, but you didn’t have fun, you failed. If it gets off the rod, goes 10 feet, and doesn’t hurt anyone or catch the field on fire, and you get a good belly laugh out of it, chalk it in the win column.

Reminds me of a multi-CATO CHAD staged Twin Factor launch with @Ronz Rocketz and @kuririn . Not sure it made it 10 feet, but I haven’t laughed that hard at a rocket launch ever!

 

[Rktman]

Launch video.
Managed to keep most of the flight in frame. Lost it part way down though.

 

[lakeroadster]

Cool build and flight.

You may have a case of "Conengitetis"... make sure to go to 3:29...

​

 

[Rktman]

Cool build and flight.

You may have a case of "Conejitus"... make sure to go to 3:29...

​

Or Madonnaitus.

 

[lakeroadster]

Or Madonnaitus.

View attachment 587069

Funny how art imitates life.

That is actually Madonna on the scooter in the video... even at her age she still loves making videos..

 

[Ronz Rocketz]

At the DARS launch last year, they used a plastic serving tray saucer rocket on a D, or maybe a C. Pretty much same result. Anything can fly given enough thrust (assuming it doesn't Cato).

Here's a screen shot from the Quad Factor Catos. That was memorable, probably the best display we've ever made.

 

[Rktman]

At the DARS launch last year, they used a plastic serving tray saucer rocket on a D, or maybe a C. Pretty much same result. Anything can fly given enough thrust (assuming it doesn't Cato).

Here's a screen shot from the Quad Factor Catos. That was memorable, probably the best display we've ever made.

View attachment 587095

Heh pretty spectacular!

 

[Rktman]

BTW, if anyone's interested in building their own version of this, here's where I got the cones: https://www.amazon.com/Franklin-Spo...03KV79RS&psc=1&ref_=pd_bap_d_grid_rp_0_1_ec_i

 

[BABAR]

BTW, if anyone's interested in building their own version of this, here's where I got the cones: https://www.amazon.com/Franklin-Spo...03KV79RS&psc=1&ref_=pd_bap_d_grid_rp_0_1_ec_i

Looks like one tried to hit Mach!

 

[lakeroadster]

Looks like one tried to hit Mach!

View attachment 587441

Bird Strike... or more probably a Lawn Dart

 

[Rktman]

Looks like one tried to hit Mach!

Definitely not something you'd want to have happen after hitting it off on a blind date.

 

[BABAR]

The thing is 9 inches high. I am looking at the deformity and have come up with following options

1. Hit by a reeealll low rider
2. Hit by skatebiard
3. Hit by an RC car or truck

 

[lakeroadster]

The thing is 9 inches high. I am looking at the deformity and have come up with following options

1. Hit by a reeealll low rider
2. Hit by skatebiard
3. Hit by an RC car or truck

You forgot attack by a Gnome... we've got one in our back yard... Never forget the Gnomes.