Traveling Rocket thread

[BEC]

Then, I put in the CTI E22 Smoky Sam motor that I’d brought along to use.

Other than having to friction fit it because the motor block in the Wanderer didn’t let the motor go in far enough to actually use the screw-on retainer, the up part of this flight went MUCH better. However, in hindsight, we realize we should have opened the model up after it’s prior drop and pulled the ‘chute/Chute Release package out, then repacked it, as it apparently got wedged in by the sudden stop at the end of the first flight. As a result, the ‘chute never got all the way out and the model fell sideways from a little over 900 feet, back onto the not-so-firm terra firma again. Since it’s a stout little bugger, no further damage was incurred.

Full flight data is on the FlightSketch online log here: https://flightsketch.com/flights/3222/

Liftoff shot clipped from the video:



@teepot: since I downloaded the FS Mini data before we flew the first time today, I can upload that to FlightSketch log as well, if you don’t mind.

 

[boatgeek]

I met @boatgeek at Sixty Acres late this morning for some flying on a fairly calm and pretty sunny day (quite the contrast from the wind and rain of yesterday). Between us we made two flights of the Wanderer 2.0. For the first one, he used a rather aged F24W reload in a 24/40 case. He’d done some scraping on the propellant in the slot, knowing the reputation of White Lightning to be more than a little reluctant to light.
View attachment 495584

The result was partially successful. After clearing a short in the clips across the stop at the bottom of his rail (a little masking tape for insulation on the rail stop), the motor did light, then go out, then light, then go out, then light, then go out, then light enough to get the rocket moving up the rail, only to go out again just as it cleared the top. Then, it lit once more as the intrepid little rocket started to arc over, spitting the nozzle, taking the aft closure and the screw-on retainer ring with it. The Wanderer then fell back to terra firma, which thanks to rains of late, wasn’t all that firm. It stuck the landing (at a jaunty angle). The FS Mini never got high enough to trigger launch detection, but since it keeps a sort of real-time height log while it’s waiting to fly, we do have an apogee value: 27 feet.

Here’s the flight video I took in slow motion (240 fps) with my iPhone 7+:

It was an exciting flight to be sure! I have one correction--the motor was an E18W-7. Apparently, I need to start writing more stuff down and stop trying to remember it at the field. I think I'm in an enviable position of having the lowest flight, shortest time in the air, and closest landing to the pad!

Here's a picture of the remains of the 24/40 casing. As you can see, the side of the case is burned out and there's a black ring where the anodizing on the outside was burned. I would guess that there was an O-ring failure, but I'm not sure. Off to the Aerotech thread and then to a MESS report.


A minor word of warning--if you use reloads or the red 18mm-24mm adapters in this rocket, you'll need to either friction fit or shift the thrust ring a little forward. I just barely got the cap on with the 24/40 case, and the cap blew off in the CATO.

 

[BEC]

Fixed the motor callout in my post....fortunately we are still within the edit window

....and I'm glad we did this yesterday. It's snowing at my house at the moment!

 

[boatgeek]

Fixed the motor callout in my post....fortunately we are still within the edit window

....and I'm glad we did this yesterday. It's snowing at my house at the moment!

You gotta fly when you get a weather window in the PNW in December!

Oh, one more thing--the ejection charge on @BEC 's flight burned a hole in one of the chutes. It still looks usable, but I'll put together a new one here before I send the rocket on. We have a few days before the next person in line is ready to receive.

 

[boatgeek]

The Wanderer arrived in the rain, flew in the sun, and leaves in the snow. Seattle got about 4" of snow on Boxing Day, which is enough to bring a hilly temperate city to its knees. Fortunately, nothing stops the mail, so we should be good with mailing it out today. I've filled in data in the Google sheets, including adding @BEC's flight. The red, white, and blue chute got a little scorched, , so I made an orange and navy semi-elliptical chute to replace it. The sewing won't get me into the Parachute Sewer's Hall of Fame, but it still looks pretty good.

 

[tsmith1315]

I'd be proud of that 'chute!

 

[boatgeek]

I'd be proud of that 'chute!

I'm actually quite pleased with it, especially since it was only about 4-6 hours of work including creating the templates. Like my rocket paint jobs, it looks great from 5 feet away. Once you get closer than that, you see all of the little imperfections. The top of the canopy as shown also is a lot cleaner than the bottom. In some ways, a small chute is harder than a big one since the curves are a bit tighter. The semi-elliptical ones especially have a fairly tight turn right at the canopy edge.

 

[tsmith1315]

I'm actually quite pleased with it, especially since it was only about 4-6 hours of work including creating the templates.

I don't sew, but have been eyeballing machines at the nearby Goodwills. 3 just before Christmas in the $10-$20 range, good quality machines.

My son got a Cricut Maker for Christmas, I bet I could cut panels with that!

Maybe it's time to learn...

 

[boatgeek]

I don't sew, but have been eyeballing machines at the nearby Goodwills. 3 just before Christmas in the $10-$20 range, good quality machines.

My son got a Cricut Maker for Christmas, I bet I could cut panels with that!

Maybe it's time to learn...

IMHO, one of the best measures of sewing machines quality is weight. If it's heavy, it's got steel where it matters. I'm a fan of mechanical machines, since you can fix nearly anything with cleaning, lubrication, and correct thread tension. Electronic machines are easier to break and harder to fix. I would much, much rather have a machine from 1955 than one from 2005, especially if they're cheap. The only features that you really need are forward, reverse and a zigzag stitch. Anything else is gravy. If you have the room, a sewing machine table makes your life easier in feeding fabric in evenly.

In other news, I sew on my mom's machine, which dates from the early 1960's and is all steel except for the knobs. It's made to sew a lifetime of clothes for a family, and it shows. That one's a little modern for my younger child's taste--she mostly sews on a treadle-powered machine from circa 1899. Our family passed down generational wealth in the form of sewing machines, thread, and cast iron cookware. There are worse things.

 

[tsmith1315]

IMHO, one of the best measures of sewing machines quality is weight

That's funny, the only things I've used to judge them so far are weight and apparent age! I've been looking for something about the age of my mother's machine, 50's-60's, and judging that by color and style.

 

[Culprit]

The red, white, and blue chute got a little scorched, , so I made an orange and navy semi-elliptical chute to replace it.

That’s a good looking chute - I look forward to flying it! The tracking number says it should arrive here in Virginia on Thursday.

 

[Culprit]

Wanderer 2.0 landed in Virginia yesterday, safe and sound.

 

[Culprit]

Wanderer 2.0 is hanging 80 feet up in a tree. I'm so sorry! I'll do everything I can to recover it, and if not, I'll pay to replace it.

Friday, New Year's Eve, was a beautiful 60 degree day here in Virginia, so three of my kids and I headed out to fly.

Flight 1 Launch:


Flight one was absolutely picture perfect. 417 feet up and landed 60 feet from the rail. Estes D12-5, Flight Sketch Mini, my AltimeterThree, Jolly Logic Chute Release set at 200 feet, and boatgeek's new parachute that he made. I swapped out the quick link for a fishing swivel that is lighter, packs smaller, and well, swivels. I downloaded the Flight Sketch app to my iPhone, connected via BlueTooth, and armed before launch, but the data it recorded was jibberish. I've not used a Flight Sketch Mini before so I may have done something wrong. It recorded the apogee as 195, max speed as zero, time to burnout as zero, time to apogee 176, time to eject zero, apogee to eject -176, etc. The AltimeterThree data is below.

Flight 1 Descent:


Flight 1 data from the AltimeterThree:


The second flight was the same configuration except we swapped the Estes D12-5 for an Aerotech E20-7W. Armed the Flight Sketch Mini, started recording on the AltimeterThree, and the Chute Release was set for 200 feet again. The liftoff and boost was perfect.

Flight 2 Launch:


Then the problem happened. The chute deployed at the apogee of 1264 feet instead of the 200 feet the Chute Release was set for and consequently drifted into the trees. I was able to download the AltimeterThree data via BlueTooth standing at the base of the tree. I tried three times to download the FlightSketch Mini data, but it stalled each time.

Flight 2 Descent:


Flight 2 AltimeterThree Data:


I've flown my Chute Release somewhere between 12 and 15 times without a problem until this flight. The two modes of failure I can think of are 1: the band broke, or 2: after wrapping the bundled chute and chute release in the chute protector could I have accidentally pushed the button on the chute release as I was loading it into the body tube? It was set at 200 feet, so I would have had to push the button twice to go past 100 to open. The band was new-ish and looked just fine. On the other hand, the chances of accidentally pushing the button twice are small.

Either way, the result is the same, and I feel bad about it. I'll try my best to recover it and let you all know how it goes.

 

[MikeyDSlagle]

What a way to start a new year aye? Once just wasn't enough was it? You HAD to fly it again. You flew too close the sun sir, too close. I'm joking of course.

That infernal chute release! It has caused me a rocket on one occasion and my pride on several more. I quit analyzing the failures because many are simply inexplicable. The thing simply fails to work properly at times. I will not debate this. LOL. Sounds like yours simply shook loose at apogee, mine has done that at least once.

But oh well. The original hung in a tree on it's maiden flight. I was lucky enough to have a lineman acquaintance assist in it's retrieval. But dang, that is an expensive loss for you. That's a good stretch for a lineman in a bucket truck with a wiggle pole. Can you try the slingshot and fishing rod technique? Or is it accessible to a drone maybe? Looks like you are at a school so shotgun recovery is out. If you can't get it with a slingshot, take the slingshot and shoot out a few of those lights. When they come out to replace the lights ask them to try and get the rocket down since they are already there and all.

Either way. Look like nice flights. The up parts anyway. Nice ground crew as well.

Good luck getting it down.

 

[Culprit]

We had a snowstorm last Sunday/Monday that left us without electricity for over 80 hours last week. Power was knocked out for over 81% of my county. Over 10 trees came down or snapped off 20-30 feet up on my 2.5 acres. I'm working to clean it up, but I'll try to get out to check on Wanderer 2.0 this weekend. I would love to see that the tree it is in came down in the storm.

 

[Danomite45]

I'm late to the dance, and had a great time reading the 17 pages of this thread. I'd like to be part of the Wanderer 3.0!

I used a field behind the a church in Palmer several years back. I had just bought a Jolly Logic Altimeter and the rocket caught a tree. My son and I knocked on the fella's door and he told him of our plight: That we had our rocket, with a $100 payload at the top of a tree in his back yard. He was an old man who needed firewood. So he let us cut the tree down! we ended up spending a few hours cutting his wood into lengths he could use. What a great day!

Now we mostly launch on frozen lake beds...no trees there!
Danomite!

 

[Culprit]

The Lord is gracious!!!

My son and I went out today armed with our arborist throwballs and throwlines, slingshot, fishing pole, and one of those survival kit cable saws to attempt retrieval from the top of the 80 foot tree. We arrived at the scene and Wanderer 2.0 was laying perfectly intact in the remains of the snow at the base of the tree, it's shock cord and parachute still tangled in the one little twig it was hung up on. That twig must have broke off during the snowstorm and made it to the ground without getting hung up in any other branches. Hallelujah! I may have been dancing in the snow like a giddy schoolgirl.

The nose cone was full of ice. I let the ice melt at room temperature back at the house, removed the spent motor, and the rocket is perfectly unharmed. If that isn't an advertisement for fiberglass and epoxy rockets, I don't know what is.

I need to buy a battery for the FlightSketch Mini to see if it survived in it's little fabric pouch. My Jolly Logic chute release took a charge and operates perfectly. My AltimeterThree remains to be seen - it charges till the light turns green, but doesn't power on. I'll take it apart, visually inspect for any water induced corrosion, swap in a fresh battery, and go from there. If that doesn't do it, I'll get a hold of @John Beans to see what my options are.

As crazy as it seems, I believe the failure mode causing chute deployment at apogee instead of the 200' the chute release was set at was me accidentally and unknowingly pressing the down button on the chute release twice (past 100 to open) while wrapping the bundle in the chute protector and fitting it in the body tube. It was a tight fit - the smallest tube you would want to use a chute release in. The pictures I took of the rocket under chute, well above 200', show the pin was released already indicating that the chute didn't slip out of the rubber band at ejection. Recovery of the rocket shows the band is intact, the pin is attached to the band, and the pin is released. Lesson learned - I'll pay closer attention to not accidentally press buttons through the chute protector while loading the bundle in the airframe.

Is @n3tjm still next on the list? Send me your mailing address, maybe an email I can enter in the tracking number notification field, and I'll get the box in the mail to you.

 

[boatgeek]

Hurray for small broken twigs!

I just discovered a stray chute that wandered out of the box and on to my workbench. I can get it into Mondays mail to you or I can send it on to the next person. Either way is fine with me.

 

[Culprit]

Go ahead and send it to me. It’ll take me a few days to get a replacement battery for the Flight Sketch Mini, op check it, and order a replacement if necessary.

 

[teepot]

I'm glad the Rocket Gods smiled at the Wander. Little sprites gently brought it to the ground to bring joy to you.

 

[BEC]

I'm glad you got it back without having to wield a chainsaw or axe.

This is the cell you want: https://smile.amazon.com/CR1225-Renata-Watch-Batteries-5Pcs/dp/B00478PKZ6/

I don't know how well FS Minis take to being wet...it's never actually completely turned off unless the cell is out of it. Hopefully it'll be OK after drying out fully. I have gotten a couple of them damp before with no long term ill effects.

Likewise your A3. I've never dunked one of them in water...but I did kill a first generation AltimeterOne that way once. The current ones are more serviceable by the user, though.

 

[smstachwick]

Not sure if this is the right thread for this post but I gotta say, I love this concept and I’m really excited to possibly be part of it.

Would it be alright for me to enter the running? I could take it out to fly with Tripoli San Diego or ROC, put a request on the flight card to have it credited to the participants of TRF as a whole or however we want to make the project known. Both prefectures have good recovery areas, I’m certain I can get it in the air without feeding a tree.

I fly pretty often during the season, too, so I don’t think I’ll have to wait too long to fly it unless my (hypothetical) turn pops up during SoCal’s summer hiatus. I’d gladly ship it off to the next person and take a later slot if that is indeed the case.

 

[GlenP]

Late to the party, but wouldn’t a good candidate for a traveling rocket, you know that sends postcards of itself of all the places that it has been, be the Gnome?

 

[smstachwick]

Late to the party, but wouldn’t a good candidate for a traveling rocket, you know that sends postcards of itself of all the places that it has been, be the Gnome?

I had one of those. Two actually, with the first cut up for a booster. I’m sure you could find the “Super Gnome” thread.

Sadly the sustainer ended up in a tree and I never saw it again.

 

[MikeyDSlagle]

@Culprit
Holy Cow!! That's awesome. I was literally popping in for an update that would help me decide whether or not to pull the plug on the project altogether; or at least take my leave from it. But it looks like we get another shot....

So yeah, @n3tjm is next.
Then @tsmith1315 if he hangs around this time.
Then it looks like maybe a few newcomers :
@Danomite45 ... I replied to the Conversation, glad to have you aboard. Did you read through the entire thread?! WELL DONE SIR!! Lol
@smstachwick ... if you want to join in, send me a Conversation with your mailing address and email and I will add you to the list.

Late to the party, but wouldn’t a good candidate for a traveling rocket, you know that sends postcards of itself of all the places that it has been, be the Gnome?

Sir.... I had to read that a few times to understand what you meant. And then again to get the joke. LOL

I went into the Google sheet and added a few lines and such. I think I got most of the fields right. I'll get back to it later and root around to see if I need to fix anything else.

Thanks to all still participating in this project. I haven't really done anything rocket related outside of this project since last spring. I just can't get motivated to do much rocketry. Hopefully that will change soon.

Mikey D

 

[smstachwick]

@smstachwick ... if you want to join in, send me a Conversation with your mailing address and email and I will add you to the list.

Done! Check your conversations inbox.

Do we have a count of total flights, launch sites, and recipients for this latest incarnation?

 

[MikeyDSlagle]

Done! Check your conversations inbox.

Do we have a count of total flights, launch sites, and recipients for this latest incarnation?

Gotcha. You should receive an invitation as an editor to the Google sheet.

@Danomite45
Got you as well. Same with the invitation.

So far there have been 16 flights. 8 on the Original and 8 on 2.0 Some of us have had better luck than others. And both iterations have hung in a tree.
This rocket flies very well on a D motor, I will leave it at that.

Newcomers:
You can navigate to your respective sheets/tabs within the Google sheet by simply hovering over your name on the main page and clicking the link that pops up. The main page SHOULD BE locked so that you can't edit it but if you can, PLEASE DON'T. All of the fields will populate as you enter you info into your personal sheet. You can change fonts, colors, etc to your personal sheet just don't move any of the fields around, leave the format as is, otherwise it will break the main page. You can use the entire sheet to add pictures, links, commentary, whatever. Just keep it out of the fields I have in place. I encourage you to read through the thread, if you haven't done so, to get familiar with proceedings and the people and what not. Some of us are real pieces of work. And may use too many emojis
We encourage tossing something into the box that represents you, your interests, your club, state, school or some such. Stickers on the rocket and box are allowed as well.
Some simple rules though:
--No free advertising, if Larry Sacks Custard Stand wants his logo on the rocket or box, he kicks in some money, no, you getting a free custard shake doesn't count. This goes for rocketry vendors as well. If a vendor wants their sticker on the box or rocket, or their named mentioned as a sponsor, they can kick in some motors, a chute, shipping cost, something. Why does TRF get their name on the rocket? We are using their platform to organize this and they gave us stickers.
--No pro sports paraphernalia. College and High School will be tolerated.
--Keep it clean.
That's about it.

@teepot and @Sooner Boomer
The details of your flights haven't been entered into the Google sheet. If you could update your sheets or give me all the info and I'll do it for you. Thanks.

So the next Hosts are as follows:
@n3tjm
@tsmith1315
@Danomite45
@smstachwick
Then it will start over.

.....
Would it be alright for me to enter the running? I could take it out to fly with Tripoli San Diego or ROC, put a request on the flight card to have it credited to the participants of TRF as a whole or however we want to make the project known. Both prefectures have good recovery areas, I’m certain I can get it in the air without feeding a tree.
......

You can do this however you would like. Right on the flight card as TRF project Wanderer or however you would like to make it known that it is a group traveling rocket project.

I think I've got everything updated and hit the high points.

**--** EDIT
All fliers states are on their respective sheets. There is a location field so Hosts can put in their address, coordinates or however they want to label their site.
Rough list of fliers and their states:

0 Mikeydslagle --- Louisiana
1 shawn_rocket --- Missouri
2 jbrracer --- Indiana
3 Wally Ferrer --- Virginia
4 Tobor --- Illinois
5 bobbyg23 --- South Dakota
6 Tractionengines --- Ohio
7 jqavins --- New York
8 CPUTommy --- Massachusetts
9 rdrown --- Kansas
10 dhbarr --- Oklahoma
11 sooner Boomer --- Oklahoma
12 tsmith1315 --- Georgia
13 TheTank --- Connecticut
14 tcblightning --- Arkansas
15 DeepOvertone --- Louisiana
16 teepot --- Nevada
17 boatgeek --- Washington
18 Culprit --- Virginia
19 n3tjm --- Pennsylvania
20 Danomite45 --- Alaska
21 smstachwick --- California

 

[Sooner Boomer]

Dave, if you want to enter the data for both of us, that would be fine with me.

 

[dhbarr]

Dave, if you want to enter the data for both of us, that would be fine with me.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet...Yhln6pdfY7KtQn0SSrvha4gI0/edit#gid=1596390762 has the details.

Did we want to clone them to https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet...gYhln6pdfY7KtQn0SSrvha4gI0/edit#gid=578946727 , or just rename the dhbarr tab to Sooner Boomer + dhbarr ?

 

[MikeyDSlagle]

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet...Yhln6pdfY7KtQn0SSrvha4gI0/edit#gid=1596390762 has the details.

Did we want to clone them to https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet...gYhln6pdfY7KtQn0SSrvha4gI0/edit#gid=578946727 , or just rename the dhbarr tab to Sooner Boomer + dhbarr ?

You two only had the one flight between yaw?