Updates...

[kuririn]

Is that the Rocket Gods I hear?
I think they're saying.....
Ron.....Upgrade
Ron......Upgrade.....
Buy Estes Big Daddy 24 mm Vander-Burn Plywood Upgrade Kit — Launch Lab Rocketry
Buy Estes Big Daddy 29 mm Vander-Burn Plywood Upgrade Kit — Launch Lab Rocketry
Buy Estes Big Daddy 38 mm Vander-Burn Plywood Upgrade Kit — Launch Lab Rocketry
I would go 29mm. Can't fly 38mm until you're certified. You can use the Estes red plastic adapter to fly composite 24mm motors. Might be too heavy for BP motors. Prolly gonna have to add nose weight to bring the CG back forward.
031799 - Pro Series II™ 3" OD Body Tube - Estes Rockets
Check with Estes Customer service if the Big Daddy nose cone will fit the thicker Pro Series II 3" body tube.
Stock Big Daddy has an NCR BT-30 tube at 3" dia., thin wall.
Apogee has a thin wall 3" tube. Kinda expensive.
They also have a slotted tube but it's for 3 fins.
Cutting an unslotted tube is not that difficult.
Make it better, faster, stronger.
Laters.

 

[Back_at_it]

Check with Estes Customer service if the Big Daddy nose cone will fit the thicker Pro Series II 3" body tube.

It fits. There is a small lip but it's almost unnoticeable. If you wanted to you could CA the top edge of the tube then sand a bevel into it to match the nose cone but it's really not needed.

 

[Ronz Rocketz]

Is that the Rocket Gods I hear?
I think they're saying.....
Ron.....Upgrade
Ron......Upgrade.....
Buy Estes Big Daddy 24 mm Vander-Burn Plywood Upgrade Kit — Launch Lab Rocketry
Buy Estes Big Daddy 29 mm Vander-Burn Plywood Upgrade Kit — Launch Lab Rocketry
Buy Estes Big Daddy 38 mm Vander-Burn Plywood Upgrade Kit — Launch Lab Rocketry
I would go 29mm. Can't fly 38mm until you're certified. You can use the Estes red plastic adapter to fly composite 24mm motors. Might be too heavy for BP motors. Prolly gonna have to add nose weight to bring the CG back forward.
031799 - Pro Series II™ 3" OD Body Tube - Estes Rockets
Check with Estes Customer service if the Big Daddy nose cone will fit the thicker Pro Series II 3" body tube.
Stock Big Daddy has an NCR BT-30 tube at 3" dia., thin wall.
Apogee has a thin wall 3" tube. Kinda expensive.
They also have a slotted tube but it's for 3 fins.
Cutting an unslotted tube is not that difficult.
Make it better, faster, stronger.
Laters.

Thanks Gary. You and Ron were already a bad influence on me in the field. (kidding) I would like to try the composites in the Big Daddy, maybe the E26 I recently acquired.

I was thinking about the Launch Lab upgrades. I really only need the forward centering ring. The fins are fine, just a little scratched up. I like the coupler idea for securing the ring. I'll likely use balsa soaked in CA or epoxy.

 

[kuririn]

Couldn't find an E26 in the OR motor database.
Here's what an E30-7 sim looks like:

Apogee 1060 ft.
Might be too much acceleration for fiber centering rings.

 

[Back_at_it]

Here is K'Tesh's SIM with the E26-7. Obviously you would need to adjust to your actual weight. Looks like you are looking at 915ft.

I'd like to recommend the E20-7 as well. Mine flies great on E20, E30 and F44. The F44 really makes it disappear off the pad.

 

[Back_at_it]

I was thinking about the Launch Lab upgrades. I really only need the forward centering ring. The fins are fine, just a little scratched up. I like the coupler idea for securing the ring. I'll likely use balsa soaked in CA or epoxy.

https://www.launchlabrocketry.com/shop/p/vanderburnbt50-3inchcr

 

[kuririn]

Ah, it's one of the new 24mm QJets.
Got it.

 

[user 35280]

Thanks Gary. You and Ron were already a bad influence on me in the field. (kidding) I would like to try the composites in the Big Daddy, maybe the E26 I recently acquired.

I was thinking about the Launch Lab upgrades. I really only need the forward centering ring. The fins are fine, just a little scratched up. I like the coupler idea for securing the ring. I'll likely use balsa soaked in CA or epoxy.

Ron,
You might like the BMS 3” diameter school rocket.

 

[BABAR]

A very busy day with two park launches including one E12-6 Cato

A very busy and exciting day of model rocketry. A tropical storm is approaching Sunday/Monday so decided to head to the park on Saturday. I didn't think the crew would join me but was happy to have Gary (@kuririn), Mike, and Ron L there. All told, we launched 20 rockets. Later with the student launches, there was a total of 58pts so a productive day indeed.

Mike's Comanche-3 just barely caught the edge of the tree and was able to get it down using his Mean Machine. The Thomas Viking 2-cluster on the 2x B6-4 went twice as high as the 2x A8-3. The obvious next step is 2x C6-5 during a low wind day. Afterwards, we were able to drive into the back of the library and retrieve Ron's DRM from the parking lot. Mike tried the Door Knob but appears that the E16 motor wasn't going to ignite. Fortunately, Gary's LOC IV landed outside of the small substation barbed wire fence, so he didn't have to call HECO to retrieve it. I'm not sure how friendly they are about rescuing rockets.

The Trifecta worked so well last time, I decided to try it again to see if it was a fluke. I decided to use a 1/4A3 in the 3rd stage which apparently was a mistake because this affected the stability. I think the 2nd and 3rd stages didn't separate because I used too much tape, even though the 2nd motor fell out.

I filed a MESS report and will contact Estes about the E12-6. I'll likely be able to repair the Big Daddy. The Flightsketch altimeter survived. What was really amazing is that the nylon chute was untouched despite the nose cone having a crack in the bottom. This was probably from the fire protective spray I applied to the chute a couple months ago.
https://flightsketch.com/flights/2730/

Before I tried the Big Daddy, I was about to launch the Honest John with an E12-6, JLCR, and Estes altimeter. I noticed the JLCR was doing this weird thing where the light started blinking after a minute of waiting to launch. I never noticed this before. Later I couldn't find anything in the instructions about it. Finally, I pulled out the new JLCR I recently bought and the light started blinking also after a minute or so. In addition, the Estes altimeter was being weird so decided to switch to the Big Daddy. The E12-6 was different than the one I was going to use in the Honest John.

Later, I realized that the WCC launch was today. I grabbed some rockets, picked up my son from work, and headed out. I've been emailing with Jacob who runs the WCC NASA program and Helen who runs the HCC NASA program, which my son was a part of briefly when he went to school there. There were two students who are building payloads to launch in the mainland. Helen tried out her large rocket for a large payload later and used the new E26-4 motor to test the rocket. Afterwards, she gave me the second E26 which was very gracious of her. I'll have to try it in the Spacemonkey V2 someday.

00:00 Intro
00:05 Mike's Mean Machine
00:32 Mike's Comanche-3
01:14 Thomas Viking 2-cluster 4pts
02:11 Ron's Astrocamish
02:40 Ron's Old Honest John
03:36 Superneoncam 5pts
04:41 Gary's Solo
05:08 Ron's DRM 3D printed
06:28 Mike's Starship 3D printed
07:29 Little Joe I 5pts
08:30 Ron's Astrocamish
08:54 Mike's Door Knob
09:03 Gary's LOC IV
10:22 Ron's Astrocamish
10:41 Mike's Jetliner
11:43 NOMAD 4pts
12:55 Gary's Iris
14:01 Trifecta 4pts
14:39 Gary's HyperLOC
15:18 Big Daddy Cato 2pts
17:03 WCC Intro
18:01 Thomas Viking 2-cluster 4pts
19:42 Cobracam 5pts
20:28 Flight video
21:51 Big Bertha updraft
23:50 Little Joe I 4pts
24:44 Spirit 5pts
25:46 Helen's Cargo Rocket
26:31 Total 38pts + 20pts = 58pts

Another great montage.

for the Jetliner on the 1/2 A, I kept thinking of ”The Little Engine That Could,”, except the Jetliner was thinking, “I think I can, I think I can, I think….. nope, not gonna happen, Nose Dive!”

heck of a Cato.

watching The first Up Video on the CobraCam, I was thinking (And proven right as expected) “This is gonna be one nauseating onboard video!”

nice parachute thermal, glad she got it back. Loved the kids comment, “Is it stuck up there?”

was a treat to see good rocket times in such a beautiful setting.

thanks for sharing. That had to be several hours of editing work.

 

[Ronz Rocketz]

Here is K'Tesh's SIM with the E26-7. Obviously you would need to adjust to your actual weight. Looks like you are looking at 915ft.

I'd like to recommend the E20-7 as well. Mine flies great on E20, E30 and F44. The F44 really makes it disappear off the pad.

View attachment 479248

Yeah, better start with the E20. I’ll have to wait for the rare 0 wind for the E30.

I’m getting close to arranging the farm land for us and the students. I’ll definitely be using up all my E motors then and possibly F motors.

That had to be several hours of editing work.

It was a very very busy weekend. Four launches in one week has drained my motor supply.

 

[BABAR]

It was a very very busy weekend. Four launches in one week has drained my motor supply.

Notice my crocodile tears

 

[Ronz Rocketz]

So I decided to try selling my old V2 on eBay. Someone bought it for $16 plus shipping. The buyer launched it at the Southwest Ohio Rocketry Association (SWORA) launch and said it went well. It's great to see old rockets go to good homes.

 

[Ronz Rocketz]

I inserted a 1 inch coupler in the MM tube and coated the outside with epoxy. I’ll then slide the plywood centering ring over it and glue in place with an eyelet.

 

[Ronz Rocketz]

Many adventures on a slightly windy morning in Hawaii

Another day, another Cato. We're getting at least one Cato per launch day. MESS filed. The problem with the Trifecta is there's three chances of a Cato per launch. The streamer in the Comanche-2 failed to eject because I used too big of a paperclip on the end of the streamer.

The Sidewinder went cruise missile last time so decided to rebuild the body tube. This time I upgraded with 24mm, baffle, and TTW styrene covered fins. I used plastic wood for the fillets but was too difficult to work with, so I'll stick with Quick&Thick instead. The flight for the new rocket was slightly unstable and needs more weight in the cone.

The Nike Smoke probably needs a little more cone weight also to offset the D12-0. Because it gave a little dog leg in the boost, the rocket landed across the street. I went over to find it and talked to the grandmother I know there. I told her it was probably on her roof which the residents have access to with a key. I asked her to try and retrieve it sometime. Ten minutes later, she walks out to us in the field to tell us she saw the rocket on the other building's roof while going up to her roof, and we thanked her. Ten minutes later, she walks up to us again with the rocket in hand because she knows the neighbors and asked them to give her access to their roof to retrieve the rocket. So in summary, if my son hadn't gone to college, he wouldn't have met Em who got him a job where he met Ash who lives in the apartment whose boyfriend's grandmother also lives at who retrieved the rocket from the neighbor's roof. Like I said, many adventures...

Gary tried his new battery charging station for the launcher. He thinks it wasn't working because there was a short somewhere in the wiring. The LOC-I Nuke was the third rocket to land in the Social Services/Library parking lot in the past couple weeks. We recovered one last week because the Library is open on Saturdays. I offered to climb over the fence to retrieve it, but he declined. We'll try calling them on Monday. Maybe they have my Crossfire too...

I tried to give away the Estes V2 in a previous video, but no one took it, so I sold it on eBay for $16. They launched it in Ohio which are the two photos at the end of this video. I also tried to give away a spare "Try SCE to AUX" shirt I had and someone took it. The shipping was $16, so it all came out even. I guess it's finally time to start a Patreon account.

00:00 Intro
00:40 Viking #1 3pts
01:55 Egg Lofter 4pts
04:35 Trifecta 3pts
07:08 AIM-9 Sidewinder 155ft 4pts
08:40 Nike Smoke boosted 4pts
10:13 Gary's MX Hawk
10:38 Mini Comanche-2 3pts
11:17 Gary's HEMV-4 MX
11:44 Gary's LOC-I Nuke
12:15 Gyroc 3pts
12:58 Lil Ivan
13:44 Total 24pts + 5 bonus = 29pts

 

[Ronz Rocketz]

Look what I found…

 

[kuririn]

Mahalo, buddy!
Was it detached from the main body?
Never mind, I see it.

 

[Cape Byron]

Look what I found…

View attachment 479898

I hope that's ejection wadding and not a used Kleenex...

 

[Ronz Rocketz]

I hope that's ejection wadding and not a used Kleenex...

Let’s just say the Dept of Unemployment has not been doing their yard work.

I previously landed a rocket on the roof of the nearby elderly living complex. Finally went there to see if there was a PM I could ask. Didn’t see anyone other than residents, but the place smelled like death so won’t be going there again.

 

[jrap330]

Have you tried Sidewinder on a C6. Twenty years ago before C11 engine, I have to believe my SW went higher than 126 feet but sometimes she would go slightly sideways..

 

[Ronz Rocketz]

Have you tried Sidewinder on a C6. Twenty years ago before C11 engine, I have to believe my SW went higher than 126 feet but sometimes she would go slightly sideways..

I think the aft upgrades needed more weight in the NC for stability.

An alternative explanation is that the Sidewinder radar locked on a passing aircraft but ran out of propellant before reaching the target.

 

[Ronz Rocketz]

Like a doofus, I ordered the 2.6” version of the plywood centering ring instead of the 3.0” for the broken Big Daddy, so I made a cardstock ring and epoxied the plywood on top. I added NC weight.

 

[kuririn]

Looks like the exhaust burned the trailing areas of the shroud. Why it did this on this flight and not on previous flights is a mystery. Used a Quest BP motor instead of an Estes this time. You think that could be it?
View attachment 474495

I salvaged the dented nose cone, motor tube and balsa shaper from the X-24 that burned upon re-entry into the atmosphere. It was resurrected last night.


Just have to add some clay weight to the bottom, a launch lug, and spray with clear coat and she'll be ready for another flight.

 

[Ronz Rocketz]

Someone called the cops on me so I let Hawaii 5-O launch a rocket on spontaneous day

It was a spontaneous decision to launch at the park since the winds were low and had the opportunity. Of course this means I forgot something and that was the cameras so used my cell phone only. Unfortunately, only a few seconds of my police video survived because I was so nervous and excited about having the officer launch my rocket that I may have accidentally turned off the video. I guess I could submit a FOIA request for his video.

After launching the V2, I was getting ready to pack up when I spotted the officer walking toward me. He had already confirmed with the park officials that I was allowed to launch rockets in this park. Apparently, someone called saying I was setting off fireworks. I asked him if he wanted to launch a rocket and he responded with an enthusiastic "could I?" I quickly tried to figure out what to launch because I wanted to impress him so decided on the SS Cestris with a C11-3. He said I made his day and left. I'm giving myself 50 bonus points. If I can get the Mayor or Governor to launch a rocket, I'll give myself 100 bonus points.

The Flightsketch altimeter that was used in the previous Cato was giving me fits and couldn't connect to my phone. It could be residue from the several launches or could be the nobrand battery I'm using. At home, I cleaned it with alcohol and seems to be working again. So far it's been my lucky altimeter and hope it keeps working. In addition, the rubber band on the JL Chute Release broke before I could use it (which was fortunate). I guess I need to replace it more often.

My best guess for why the recovery for the V2 keeps tangling is that the Kevlar cord is too frayed. I have a swivel hook at the tube entrance so will replace everything forward. While I was setting up, a C-17 cargo jet flew overhead with four Raptors flying in formation. I couldn't get my camera out in time. Eventually, the four broke off and arced skyward. My guess is that it was a command sending off flight. The photo at the end is Gary's Big Nuke I rescued from the library parking lot. Overall, it turned out to be a very eventful day.

00:00 SS Cestris 4pts
00:10 Sundancer 4pts
01:01 Laser-X 413ft 6pts
01:45 Flight video
03:01 AMRAAM 5pts
03:58 Flight video
05:04 Biohazard 964ft 5pts
07:05 Spacemonkey V2 547ft 4pts
07:48 Total 28pts + 50 bonus = 78pts

 

[BEC]

Fifty bonus points indeed. Well done!

 

[user 35280]

Someone called the cops on me so I let Hawaii 5-O launch a rocket on spontaneous day

It was a spontaneous decision to launch at the park since the winds were low and had the opportunity. Of course this means I forgot something and that was the cameras so used my cell phone only. Unfortunately, only a few seconds of my police video survived because I was so nervous and excited about having the officer launch my rocket that I may have accidentally turned off the video. I guess I could submit a FOIA request for his video.

After launching the V2, I was getting ready to pack up when I spotted the officer walking toward me. He had already confirmed with the park officials that I was allowed to launch rockets in this park. Apparently, someone called saying I was setting off fireworks. I asked him if he wanted to launch a rocket and he responded with an enthusiastic "could I?" I quickly tried to figure out what to launch because I wanted to impress him so decided on the SS Cestris with a C11-3. He said I made his day and left. I'm giving myself 50 bonus points. If I can get the Mayor or Governor to launch a rocket, I'll give myself 100 bonus points.

The Flightsketch altimeter that was used in the previous Cato was giving me fits and couldn't connect to my phone. It could be residue from the several launches or could be the nobrand battery I'm using. At home, I cleaned it with alcohol and seems to be working again. So far it's been my lucky altimeter and hope it keeps working. In addition, the rubber band on the JL Chute Release broke before I could use it (which was fortunate). I guess I need to replace it more often.

My best guess for why the recovery for the V2 keeps tangling is that the Kevlar cord is too frayed. I have a swivel hook at the tube entrance so will replace everything forward. While I was setting up, a C-17 cargo jet flew overhead with four Raptors flying in formation. I couldn't get my camera out in time. Eventually, the four broke off and arced skyward. My guess is that it was a command sending off flight. The photo at the end is Gary's Big Nuke I rescued from the library parking lot. Overall, it turned out to be a very eventful day.

00:00 SS Cestris 4pts
00:10 Sundancer 4pts
01:01 Laser-X 413ft 6pts
01:45 Flight video
03:01 AMRAAM 5pts
03:58 Flight video
05:04 Biohazard 964ft 5pts
07:05 Spacemonkey V2 547ft 4pts
07:48 Total 28pts + 50 bonus = 78pts

Cool seeing the police officer enjoying rocketry with you!

 

[neil_w]

05:04 Biohazard 964ft 5pts

It's incredible to me that you can fly to 1000' and safely recover on that field. Well done.

Great video as always.

 

[Ronz Rocketz]

It's incredible to me that you can fly to 1000' and safely recover on that field. Well done.

Great video as always.

I was very disappointed when I found out the full video wasn't on my phone. That's the advantage for having multiple people there.

I knew the Biohazard was a straight flier. When the AMRAAM went straight up and down, I asked myself which one needs an E motor. Next time I'll strap the cam to the side.

Did you notice in the altimeter graph that the descent speed increased slightly half way down? (ignore the red dot)

 

[Ronz Rocketz]

Anyone want to buy a used baffle? I pulled it out of the Biohazard.

 

[Back_at_it]

Anyone want to buy a used baffle? I pulled it out of the Biohazard.

View attachment 480153

Qualman baffles. Love those things. Still looks to be in good shape. How many flights are on that one?

Why did you remove it ?

 

[kuririn]

I guess I could submit a FOIA request for his video.

Would be cool if you could integrate his body cam footage in your vids.
Somehow I don't think that's gonna happen.