Traveling Rocket thread

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DID Fly today.. for being calm and no winds per the forecast...it was Breezy and HIGHLY variable. Each launch that would weathercock went a different direction, and wind direction changed 360 deg, with altitude. Made for random revovery walks.
That being said it was a good flight landed closer than we thought it would at first. It took a few degrees left turn about 50ft up. Then went straight. Motor was Quest D22-4W.
Data uploaded to flightsketch.com

https://flightsketch.com/flights/2607/

It is my son Oliver's 9th birthday today, so we flew it under his name.
20210710_125101.jpgVideoCapture_20210710-141446.jpgVideoCapture_20210710-141504.jpgVideoCapture_20210710-141525.jpgScreenshot_20210710-145348_FlightSketch.jpg
 
Yes I have his info. Will get it packed up, and to post office after work Monday.

I will update sheet and get the video up to my youtube account shortly. ( Anyone know a good video editing program that allows dynamically zooming to make it look like "tracking" and see more detail, by being zoomed in? )
 
Saw the data up on the FlightSketch online log. Eric (@boatgeek), when it gets to you, I'd love to join you in flying it. Depending on the order, maybe at Sod Blaster over Labor Day weekend?

I have some E28 and F39 loads for the 24/40 case if you'd rather go Blue Thunder than White Lightning. Heck by then (or from Sunriver Bob) we might be able to get Q-Jet Es.

Some years ago I participated in what was envisioned to be a one-year trip around the country for a small electric RC airplane. The twist was it traveled in a lovely wooden box and was not shipped, but passed on face-to-face between pilots as it moved around the country. In the end it took nearly 5 1/2 years. The airplane spent one Christmas here at my house and got handed on to the next pilot very early the following year. It is now in the AMA Museum in Muncie. Here is the saga - over 8000 posts. https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/sho...s-America-2008-(WAA-08)-History-In-The-Making! And a little blurb on the AMA web site: https://www.modelaircraft.org/wing-across-america-2008
 
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Does anyone know if the FS Mini records the weather data at the time/location of the flight, or at the time/location of the upload to web? If the weather data is based on when it gets uploaded, then it likely did not record jbrracer's flight. The weather I uploaded is eerily similar to my local weather when I uploaded it. I want to think it is recorded along with the flight, but I truly wonder... 🤔
The FS app gets its weather data from the connected device's location at the time the data are either saved locally to the phone/tablet or uploaded to the online log. The Mini itself doesn't know anything about the weather except for the temperature of the onboard pressure sensor.

See page 8 here: https://flightsketch.com/media/FSMiniGuide3.pdf
 
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I can't get the google sheet to open in a way that I can edit it. ("It" being my page, not the main page.) I will try it again tomorrow on my work computer if I get a chance.

Here is the actual launch video. Glad the Quest motor had good tracking smoke just before ejection charge fired. Let us get good eyes on it for deployment and return to earth.

I was right, it landed in the corn. Watching when the FlightSketch App could reconnect. Then if signal power was "generally" increasing or decreasing, helped us home in on it quickly.
20210710_125705.jpg


Here is the video cut down to only boost phase, and slowed down as much as I could. (I forgot I was filming kids last time, and didn't turn my frame rate back to max. So it's a little "stop motion" at this rate. Oh well I think it still looked interesting. ) *** Edit : turn down your volume !!! ***
 
Saw the data up on the FlightSketch online log. Eric (@boatgeek), when it gets to you, I'd love to join you in flying it. Depending on the order, maybe at Sod Blaster over Labor Day weekend?

I have some E28 and F39 loads for the 24/40 case if you'd rather go Blue Thunder than White Lightning. Heck by then (or from Sunriver Bob) we might be able to get Q-Jet Es.

Some years ago I participated in what was envisioned to be a one-year trip around the country for a small electric RC airplane. The twist was it traveled in a lovely wooden box and was not shipped, but passed on face-to-face between pilots as it moved around the country. In the end it took nearly 5 1/2 years. The airplane spent one Christmas here at my house and got handed on to the next pilot very early the following year. It is now in the AMA Museum in Muncie. Here is the saga - over 8000 posts. https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/sho...s-America-2008-(WAA-08)-History-In-The-Making! And a little blurb on the AMA web site: https://www.modelaircraft.org/wing-across-america-2008
I’m not 100% sure I’ll be at Sod Blaster, but I’ll definitely let you know when I’m flying. If not at SB then most likely at an informal launch at 60 Acres. It would be nice to have someone there who is already on the FS ecosystem.
 
I’m not 100% sure I’ll be at Sod Blaster, but I’ll definitely let you know when I’m flying. If not at SB then most likely at an informal launch at 60 Acres. It would be nice to have someone there who is already on the FS ecosystem.
Sounds good. At the rate the rocket has been moving, I doubt it would get to you by Labor Day if it's going down the list in the order people signed up anyway.

When I see people having little issues with FlightSketch stuff I tend to forget I've been flying them regularly for over two years now. Other than having the app on the iOS or Android device of your choice and enabling location services if you don't normally, it's pretty straightforward....though I have had MUCH worse luck saving data locally on Android than I do on iOS. But all of this is kind of beside the point in this thread.....
 
@Tractionengines
Sorry, been busy at work and dead tired when I get home in the evenings. I see you are able to edit your page. Looks like everything carried over correctly. Good deal.
 
been busy at work and dead tired when I get home in the evenings.
I know that!.!.!. We have done a "normal years" worth of business already, and it just keeps going at that rate. At the same time I am CONTINUOUSLY "fire fighting" availability and supplier issues. I would rather be busy than laid off; but right now it's rapidly approaching burn-out. Oh well; at least the forums here give me mini-brain breaks.

I was able to update the sheet. And I tracked the package. Looks like it going in the right direction.
 
My friends, I have an awful confession. I lost it. I put it up in light wind, but not windy. I used a Q-Jet E26, figuring it's a pretty heavy rocket, so it won't go too high and this engine will get it off the rail woth good speed.

But that engine got it very high and drifted into a knee high field of soy beans. That field has been the demise of many rockets this week, as somehow even large parachutes manage to sink to the bottom and disappear.

I walked a search pattern for a good hour and a half, and it was hopeless. This was yesterday. Today a member of our club did a fly over with he quadcopter and a camera pointing down, looking for many rockets, and found none.

I can't tell you all how sorry I am, and how terrible I feel to have spoiled this for everyone.

I have been fortunate to receive an offer of a PF Mini to replace MickeyDSlagle's. I'm also contemplating the design of a replacement Wanderer II, if the group would like me to build it.

Once again, I am so terribly sorry.

Thank you n26sb for the offer of the altimeter.
 
Jqavins, it happens. I think most of us have been in that situation many times: standing near but just not able to find it. I had a E26 all lined up and chickened out and went to the D22...had to do the corn field recovery anyhow.

For future reference, too late now...(4 hour timeout to auto power off.)... But I used the Flightsketch app to help find it in the corn. (I had a good line of direction just not distance.) Walk a ways and try to connect to app. Walk some more try to connect. Keep repeating. Once it shows up. Then watch signal as in the kids game of "hot-er/cold-er" to see if generally moving towards or away from signal.

Maybe someone will come across it.
 
Just thought of it....I have a Mach1 Spektor in the build pile... We could use that to make a "Wanderer 2.0" from the build details, sim, and photos, but I don't have time right now.

Anyone up for the build?
 
I can't tell you all how sorry I am, and how terrible I feel to have spoiled this for everyone.

Don't beat yourself up, Joe. That's a part of rocket life. Most of us would have probably done the same thing in the situation.

FWIW, I had an E30 waiting for it. That would be more risky a flight here than an E26 was there.
 
Don't beat yourself up, Joe. That's a part of rocket life. Most of us would have probably done the same thing in the situation.

FWIW, I had an E30 waiting for it. That would be more risky a flight here than an E26 was there.
E30 was an awesome motor in it.
 
Don't beat yourself up, Joe. That's a part of rocket life. Most of us would have probably done the same thing in the situation.

FWIW, I had an E30 waiting for it. That would be more risky a flight here than an E26 was there.
Hear, hear @jqavins no worries. We’ve all been there before. If anything, you saved me from the same report after putting it up on an F51!
 
Thanks all for being so understanding.
@jqavins Do not beat yourself up over the loss.
Sorry, can't help it. Losing it somewhere along the way might have been inevitable, but it was "on my watch" so there's no flagellation like a self-flagellation, 'cause a self-flagellation don't stop.

For future reference, too late now...(4 hour timeout to auto power off.)... But I used the Flightsketch app to help find it in the corn. (I had a good line of direction just not distance.) Walk a ways and try to connect to app. Walk some more try to connect. Keep repeating. Once it shows up. Then watch signal as in the kids game of "hot-er/cold-er" to see if generally moving towards or away from signal.
I thought of that. Heck, I (am no doubt one of several people who have) invented that, when someone else here lost an altimeter and managed to find it the next day. But...

This actually was my second mishap of the day. The first was with my friend's Estes Super Nova. It had an empty payload tube. Wouldn't be fun to fly the FS Mini in that; get it's altitude and give me a practice run. And the LCO assistant (the button pusher) inadvertantly had two pads enabled, so it was launched while no one was looking, and it too was lost, probably also in the beans. So, what might have served as a beacon was, in fact, lost a few hours earlier. And the tragic Wanderer launch was just supposed to be its own practice run.

That's why the scourge has barbs on it.
 
Wow that WAS a bad day. I've never been to a club launch (well, once when I was a very young person), but I guess you can enable multiple pads for drag racing? To me that should be a special switch, not one that could be activated inadvertantly. It makes the loss no easier (rocket is still gone), but it wasn't your fault. As Lemony Snicket said, "a series of unfortunate events."
 
Rockets get lost, it happens.

So the FS Mini that was donated to accompany the Wanderer was in fact lost in a different rocket altogether? 😞 That strikes a nerve with me. But I can "coulda shoulda woulda" all day. I wasn't the one who donated it though.

But all in all, rockets fly, they get lost, we move on.
This project was cursed from the start:
Pieces missing from kit kit,
Landed in a tree on Maiden flight,
Caught in a USPS loop for weeks.

@Sooner Boomer has offered up a rocket to be used to replace this one. I am busy at work and won't get a break til mid next week so everyone can discuss it here. I'll try to keep up to date on the thread.

Whatever is decided, for ***** sake "fly the field". If only there was a sim accompanying the rocket to help with motor selection. Just a reminder is all.

All good.

Mikey D
 
So the FS Mini that was donated to accompany the Wanderer was in fact lost in a different rocket altogether? 😞 That strikes a nerve with me.
I don't blame you for that. It was a bonehead move. My thinking "practice run" isn't just rationalization, it was a real motivator, that helped motivate a dumb decision.
 
No worries jqavins, we’ve all lost rockets. And I, too, would have flown a practice flight with a make and model altimeter I wasn’t used to before flying it “for real” in a rocket that folks were expecting data from. That only makes sense.

Whoever wants to spearhead Wanderer II, let me know your PayPal address and I’ll chip in $5 or $10 to help cover costs of the kit, altimeter, parachute, etc.
 
Rockets get lost, it happens.

So the FS Mini that was donated to accompany the Wanderer was in fact lost in a different rocket altogether? 😞 That strikes a nerve with me. But I can "coulda shoulda woulda" all day. I wasn't the one who donated it though.

But all in all, rockets fly, they get lost, we move on.
This project was cursed from the start:
Pieces missing from kit kit,
Landed in a tree on Maiden flight,
Caught in a USPS loop for weeks.

@Sooner Boomer has offered up a rocket to be used to replace this one. I am busy at work and won't get a break til mid next week so everyone can discuss it here. I'll try to keep up to date on the thread.

Whatever is decided, for ***** sake "fly the field". If only there was a sim accompanying the rocket to help with motor selection. Just a reminder is all.

All good.

Mikey D

What I've got is a simple but tough little rocket. Sorry, but it only has an 18mm motor mount (but nowdays, you can fit a D20 in there).
see: https://www.rocketryforum.com/threads/low-power-prang-build.165681/
I just ran an OR sim and a D20-7 should take it over 1000'.

I've also got a Flight Sketch mini I can add.
 

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