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Season's Yeetings ornament on the DBOM and successful Tomahawk drag race

After the New Year's, I noticed that Xyla Foxlin and Joe Barnard were selling the 50 ornaments they launched on their Christmas tree for $150. It's for charity so decided why not. The Joe and Xyla Christmas tree rocket video can be found at https://youtu.be/AlLquMhQiz4. Meanwhile, there's no stream because my son borrowed the holder.

The fins on the each of our FLVs keep popping off so decided to race our Quest Tomahawks instead. We tried the spliced wiring we used last time. This time, Gary's rocket didn't launch, so we quickly determined one of the splices isn't working. We tried again from separate controllers which worked great. My first attempt went 198ft and second went 173ft. The difference is probably due to differences in the motor performance.

Gary was worried that his Little Joe II would lawndart on an E12 like what happened with another forum member. The E30-4 was the recommended motor in the 2019 Estes catalog. I saw it landing in the parking lot, and Gary immediately left to retrieve but was not able to find it. The rocket reacted just like my Estes Shuttle on an E12 and SMS on D22.

While waiting, I invited a dad with two toddlers over to launch two 13mm rockets, and I gave them the Sergeant. I asked the dad permission to include the toddlers in the video.

00:00 Intro
00:15 DBOM 458ft 6pts
01:35 Flight video
03:00 Quest Cam 48ft 5pts
03:45 Tomahawk part1 198ft 5pts
04:46 Tomahawk part2 173ft&201ft 6pts
05:58 Super Mars Snooper 555ft 6pts
07:09 Flight video
08:09 Honest John 1270ft 6pts
10:02 Flight video
11:46 Generic
12:15 X-30 Space Plane
12:52 Little Joe II
14:24 Sergeant 3pts
15:42 Lynx 3pts 16:15 Total 40pts + 5pts = 45pts

 
I finally obtained the Renata batteries for the FS Mini from eBay. I ordered it on the 27th and got it on the 2nd. The package is marked USPS Ground and Forbidden for Air Transport. It took 3 days to ship the package from Brooklyn to Honolulu by boat? I'm impressed.

IMG_9073.JPG
 
Excellent Bounty Hunter flights on new rail system with the crew at Waipahu

Launching with Gary, Roger, Christopher, and Ron with his son Riley on a sunny, blue sky winter morning. The temperature was initially 62F but didn't feel like it. The winds were 5mph at first, then nothing by 8, then back to 5mph at 10am. I'm having issue with setting the dates on the AC cams. It's worked before but not on the new ones.

I actually launched the F44 before the F67. The flight went great except I forgot to attach the chute to the NC. I used the 29mm adapter with the F44. There was an airplane incursion but was at a safe distance. The Drone Killer was the rocket that Gary spotted in the tree while searching for his Little John II. The unique NC is still in the tree so used a regular NC.

The indicator also had a new tube that had lawndarted at WCC. There was a group of teens in the park playing ball. I invited them closer to launch the Indicator. They are Mormon Missionaries, and the leader was very excited to participate because he used to launch rockets with his dad. The Cobra probably landed on the roof. The Park was able to retrieve two rockets from the roof, so hopefully they can again soon. I've lost two of the four AC cams I bought in the recent 50% off sale.

Ron was experimenting with altimeters and inserted four plus an AC cam into a clone Doorknob with an 18mm mount. It was lucky to lift off the rail with the C6-3. I swapped him a D20 for a C11. I'm not aware of a more powerful 18mm. I think it woulda flown fine except it went unstable halfway up. More NC weight should do the trick.

The C11-3 in Gary's Corporal didn't go off. The clay was still intact. First time I've seen that. The strakes protected most of the tube. He can replace the broken tube like I did with the Indicator. We were joking that we'll know where the Boostoh should be because the last time had a Cato, and we spent 15 minutes looking for the booster only to discover that it didn't leave the pad.

The Luna Bug was actually easy to spot on the ground. Otherwise, Roger woulda stepped on it when he arrived. This was the second flight of Roger's Obsidian. It has a hinged NC but this time, it looked to me like it opened early and the chute didn't deploy.

00:00 Intro
00:12 Bounty Hunter F67 6pts
01:33 Flight video
02:59 Bounty Hunter F44 6pts
04:02 Flight video
05:17 Drone Killer 4pts
06:33 Indicator 4pts
07:56 Cobra 4pts
08:33 Gary's Luna Bug
08:54 Gary's Star Hopper
09:31 Ron's Astrocam
09:58 Roger's V2
10:22 Gary's Boostah/Super Tooboh
11:26 Ron's Doorknobish B6
11:47 Try again with D20-4W
12:16 Gary's Corporal
12:56 Roger's Obsidian
13:20 Gary's Red Flare
14:15 Gary's Mega Mosquito
14:34 Total 24pts + 10 bonus = 34pts



Live Stream: https://youtu.be/8lNpoW4uUro
One of Roger's 360° videos: https://youtu.be/iJv4C9OP1kY
 
MPR at Aloun Farms with the crew, students, and guests

We're fortunate again to launch mid-powered rockets at the Aloun Farms festival grounds. I played host and RSO so was only able to launch two rockets for myself. It seemed appropriate to assign 30 bonus points all things considered, so an excellent day. The weather forecast was 7mph, then increased to 13mph earlier in the week. So many people committed to attend that we kept the date. We had most of the usual crew, the Assets high schoolers, and guests including Jake's friends Vern and Lisa, Jim from Aero Pack and Becki from NAR. Despite the wind, we were able to launch many rockets. The only one I failed to video was Jake's Big Black Brant II which flew almost exactly like Nikki's Norad that barely missed the power lines.

I realized the problem with the new video editing software, Win Maker is that it can't handle video over 120fps. The GoPro8 films in 240fps so I can create the slomo lift off. I'm going back to the previous software, Crazy Video Maker. I bought the Mars Leaper from the LHS who complained that no one was buying them. I like it but is a bit overpriced.

I called my scratch rocket the Aloun Fad after two names used by my client. I was playing around with OpenRocket and designed the rocket with BT-80 tubes. Afterwards, I decided the tubes were too thin and added strakes to support the walls. It was by the grace of God that a gust of wind blew the rocket past the construction yard and into the bean field. You can see this in the Flightsketch graph. The cam video was a little blurry as it mostly focused on the long rocket instead of the ground. The descent woulda looked more impressive if the redundant Kevlar and elastic cords hadn't tangled with each and fully deployed.

Mike's Dumb Bell rocket used an old motor he tried out. It looks to me like the clay nozzle blew out, so there was no thrust to the motor and burned a piece of the sanding disk (easily replaced). The rocket was fine unlike Helen's Cato later in the day that turned her rocket into a burnt microwaved burrito. Later, I sent an email to the contractor that manages the base yard where Helen's Hi-Tech landed. This was the second Altimeter One that she has lost in the past month.

Nikki's Super Big Bertha separated when the shock cord attachment pulled out from the tube. Gary launched his Mini Cowabunga but couldn't find it in the field of cockleburs. Gary and Roger did find Lily's unicorn rocket that she launched on January 8th with no chute deployment. Later, the high schoolers found Gary's Cowabunga. We have no idea where Mike's Mean Machine finally ended up due to the thermal, hopefully not on the highway but likely landed on the hillside.

00:00 Intro
00:46 Mars Leaper 3pts
01:58 Aloun Fad 855pts 7pts
04:16 Flight video
06:15 Mike's Mean Machine E15-4
07:51 Mike's Dumb Bell
09:30 Mike's Custom 2-stage
10:44 Gary's Mini Cowabunga
11:34 Asset's TARC E30-7
12:13 Found Lily's unicorn rocket
12:26 Helen's Big Daddy
13:07 Vern's Mercury Redstone
14:05 Mike's Mean Machine F15-6
17:45 Asset's TARC E30-4
18:22 Helen's Gradutator
18:52 Tyger's Kitty2 Interceptor
19:22 Nikki's Super Big Bertha
20:18 Lisa's Nike Smoke
21:16 Helen's Hi-Tech
21:58 Asset's TARC F35
22:43 Nikki's Norad
23:17 Total 10pts + 30 bonus = 40pts



Live stream: https://youtu.be/5fO6jSKGizA
Roger's channel with 3D videos of launches: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkHg...
 
Last edited:
Ronz Rocketz said:
Excellent Bounty Hunter flights on new rail system with the crew at Waipahu

Launching with Gary, Roger, Christopher, and Ron with his son Riley on a sunny, blue sky winter morning. The temperature was initially 62F but didn't feel like it. The winds were 5mph at first, then nothing by 8, then back to 5mph at 10am. I'm having issue with setting the dates on the AC cams. It's worked before but not on the new ones.

I actually launched the F44 before the F67. The flight went great except I forgot to attach the chute to the NC. I used the 29mm adapter with the F44. There was an airplane incursion but was at a safe distance. The Drone Killer was the rocket that Gary spotted in the tree while searching for his Little John II. The unique NC is still in the tree so used a regular NC.

The indicator also had a new tube that had lawndarted at WCC. There was a group of teens in the park playing ball. I invited them closer to launch the Indicator. They are Mormon Missionaries, and the leader was very excited to participate because he used to launch rockets with his dad. The Cobra probably landed on the roof. The Park was able to retrieve two rockets from the roof, so hopefully they can again soon. I've lost two of the four AC cams I bought in the recent 50% off sale.

Ron was experimenting with altimeters and inserted four plus an AC cam into a clone Doorknob with an 18mm mount. It was lucky to lift off the rail with the C6-3. I swapped him a D20 for a C11. I'm not aware of a more powerful 18mm. I think it woulda flown fine except it went unstable halfway up. More NC weight should do the trick.

The C11-3 in Gary's Corporal didn't go off. The clay was still intact. First time I've seen that. The strakes protected most of the tube. He can replace the broken tube like I did with the Indicator. We were joking that we'll know where the Boostoh should be because the last time had a Cato, and we spent 15 minutes looking for the booster only to discover that it didn't leave the pad.

The Luna Bug was actually easy to spot on the ground. Otherwise, Roger woulda stepped on it when he arrived. This was the second flight of Roger's Obsidian. It has a hinged NC but this time, it looked to me like it opened early and the chute didn't deploy.

00:00 Intro
00:12 Bounty Hunter F67 6pts
01:33 Flight video
02:59 Bounty Hunter F44 6pts
04:02 Flight video
05:17 Drone Killer 4pts
06:33 Indicator 4pts
07:56 Cobra 4pts
08:33 Gary's Luna Bug
08:54 Gary's Star Hopper
09:31 Ron's Astrocam
09:58 Roger's V2
10:22 Gary's Boostah/Super Tooboh
11:26 Ron's Doorknobish B6
11:47 Try again with D20-4W
12:16 Gary's Corporal
12:56 Roger's Obsidian
13:20 Gary's Red Flare
14:15 Gary's Mega Mosquito
14:34 Total 24pts + 10 bonus = 34pts



Live Stream:
One of Roger's 360° videos:
Click to expand...

Nice T-Shirt, Gary!
 
Busy weekend with two launches, Bounty Hunter goes swimming and TARC attempts at WCC

It was a double whammy weekend with WCC launches on Saturday and low wind launches on Sunday with Gary. The winds were projected to be high both days but suddenly changed so brought out some big rockets for the park. Overall, we didn't lose any rockets.

At the park, the rockets were going in different directions so was hesitant about launching the Bounty Hunter. After the Odyssey flew well, I decided to go for it and pointed the rail straight up. This was the first rocket to land in the swimming pool. Fortunately, the AC cam landed upright, and very little water got into the tubes. The Estes altimeter was in the payload bay so stayed dry but had an error. Later, the altimeter was able to turn on and show 730ft. I decided to add a point to the score if I can successfully create a RaceRender video from the data. I figured out that each AC cam can go for two flights on a charge.

Gary's Saturn V RTF on the C5-3 and SpaceX Falcon 9 were excellent flights. This was the original Falcon 9 that SpaceX sold from their website years ago and is rare, so Gary was very nervous about the flight. The V2 seemed underpowered on the D22. There was serious chuffing with the E26 so will ask Aerotech if they think I should try it again. I've had to rerun several of my motors and have run out of initiators, but Karl mailed me more along with replacement motors I've had trouble with.

I accidently didn't record the Odyssey flight on the Handycam. I decided to experiment with downloading the live stream and inserting snippets which mostly worked well. The main problem is that I'm trying to edit together footage from several different sources with different codecs. I switched back to the previous editing software that can handle the higher frame rates but is less stable. I spent several hours on Sunday editing the Waipahu footage only for the program to crash and remove my progress. I started over again on Monday and created more backups and two clips that I pieced together. The second rendering seemed to have overexposed the video, so I'll have to watch that next time. I was able to fix it because I discovered I left out a flight video and had to re-render the video.

The Assets High School TARC team had 2.5 successful flights last week at Aloun. They had this week to meet their goals. They got close so was a great effort on their part. My guess is the fins need to be smaller to avoid weathercocking and a bigger motor to push it to the required altitude then hope the stability calculations are accurate with the heavy payload.

00:00 Intro
00:21 Bounty Hunter 730ft 6pts
01:23 Flight video
02:56 Hi-flier 4pts
04:34 Spacemonkey V2 440ft 7pts
06:11 RR Flight video
06:54 Odyssey 391ft 7pts
07:33 RR Flight video
08:15 MX Honest John
08:28 MX Polish?
08:40 MX Interloper
08:57 MX Micro Sandhawk
09:23 MX Buck Shot
09:41 MX WAC Corporal
09:56 Saturn V RTF
10:54 SpaceX Falcon 9
12:09 WCC intro
12:35 Assets TARC 1
15:18 Assets TARC 2 523ft
17:14 Mars Leaper 2pts
18:51 Super Neon 3pts
19:29 Deep Space Transport 4pts
20:12 Exocet 4pts
20:50 DOM Bumblebee
21:32 Birdie
21:53 Sputnik
22:32 MX Scratcher
23:08 MX HoJo
23:32 Nikki's black powder test
23:47 Various student rockets
25:45 Total 37pts + 15pts = 52pts



Live stream at Waipahu park
 
1725443E-A8ED-4B8A-BA1C-1E13C7074202.jpeg
Vapor bought at the recent sale. The packaging said there’s two set of decals but could only find one. We plan to do night launches tomorrow night. Maybe I’ll strap on glow sticks like boosters.

Someone of Facebook really liked my Odyssey with the SST nose cone last week. I said I have an extra to mail him. Went by PO to mail yesterday but had no power so mailed today.
 
Day and Night launches over two days, Park turns on field lights for baseball game

The original intent was to do an evening launch on Sunday. The HNN forecast said winds and skies were favorable in the morning, but the NWS forecast said 8mph and light rain. Turned out the NWS was the correct forecast. We also delayed the night launch until Monday which worked out well. Ironically, it appears that locals attempted a baseball game, and Park turned on the field lights. Didn't look like enough players showed up, kept the lights on anyways until the last launch of the Supernova. The Handycam video was well lit while the GoPro8 was sufficiently dark enough to see the BP sparks. After three flights, the GoPro3 went into photo mode so missed out on great night time shots from the ground.

The E26W motor in the Mega Vortico was the motor with the dramatic chuff last week. I was concerned it would be underpowered in another rocket so tried it in the Cato proof Vortico which worked well. The video doesn't do justice to the power of the motor. I lubricated the rod with talc. The rocket grabbed it regardless and pulled it out of the tripod holder. It was very cinematic. I kept the Vapor with the intended 24mm. I figure a 29mm motor would send it into orbit.

I've been trying to buy a Cato rocket this past year from AC Supply, but they're a pain to get them to ship to Hawaii. Finally bought one from eRockets. It looked like when it reached apogee, the sections separated before the ejection. Needless, it was a well planned Cato. The altimeter in the Bull Pup XL was the one that mostly survived going into the pool last week. The battery's fine so just need to keep an eye on it.

When I asked if we should launch in the morning, Gary said he has many rockets and indeed he does have several notable rockets including the two BB3's, Tie Fighter that he's had for nine years, Saturnian (an old Estes Design of the Month), and Starlight. The SLS worked great on the Super C5.

We bought plastic Easter eggs with LED lights that we used in the replacement Space Crater. The original rocket is still on a WCC roof (with rotten egg no doubt). The Firebolt was the rocket that Gary tried last time with a C11 and broke a fin. The Air Walker worked great on the B6. Unfortunately, I didn't press record on the Handycam so tried it again on a C6. Later, I tried the Supernova single stage on a C6 which went much higher and landed on a roof. Evidently, the winds higher up were much stronger than on the ground.

Gary's 3xA8 rocket worked flawlessly using Q2G2 igniters. My Big Daddy finally lawndarted. I've never had much success with dogbarf and usually ends in failure. Despite placing wadding in the MMT and adding sufficient dogbarf, it still singed the chute. I plan to cut off the tube above the fins and add a longer tube plus insert a bulkhead to the NC. I'll call it the Big Doorknob.

00:00 Day Intro
01:00 Mega Vortico 3pts
03:48 Vapor 4pts
05:03 Wacky Wiggler 4pts
06:20 Bull Pup XL 271ft 5pts
07:34 Gary showing his rockets
08:47 Estes BB3
09:23 Rocketerium BB3
09:49 Tie Fighter
10:33 NASA SLS
11:11 Saturnian
12:12 Starlight
13:00 NewWay Nike Smoke
14:02 Christopher's rockets
14:23 Night Intro
15:48 Orbit
16:37 Space Crater 5pts
17:35 Gamma Ray
18:01 Air Walker B6-4 5pts
18:27 Firebolt
19:20 Air Walker C6-5 5pts
20:16 Astron Cobra cluster
20:52 Big Daddy 4pts
22:47 Supernova 4pts
23:51 Total 39pts + 10 bonus = 49pts



Live stream for 3/27: https://youtu.be/JPBr-LQ2wkQ
 
Cape Byron said:
Loves me a night launch. We just started stocking the Custom Orbit. Looks like a nice little kit.

Great vids as always. Nice to put faces to handles and avatars.
Click to expand...
The weird part about the Orbit is that the 3D printed shoulder is only about 1/4" so a very loose fit. Works great on an A8-3.
 
Ronz Rocketz said:
The weird part about the Orbit is that the 3D printed shoulder is only about 1/4" so a very loose fit. Works great on an A8-3.
Click to expand...

I snugged mine up with a thin coat of runny CA inside the tube. Seems to work OK. I also built it with a screw-on motor retainer to avoid the motor ejection problem. Still haven't braved flying it on a C6 yet.

Custom Rockets has a lot of nice SL 1 rockets, great for a weekend build and fly. Low cost too, which is nice with all the price hikes.
 
JC Hobbies said:
I snugged mine up with a thin coat of runny CA inside the tube. Seems to work OK. I also built it with a screw-on motor retainer to avoid the motor ejection problem. Still haven't braved flying it on a C6 yet.

Custom Rockets has a lot of nice SL 1 rockets, great for a weekend build and fly. Low cost too, which is nice with all the price hikes.
Click to expand...
I got my Orbit to 166ft on an A8-3 and 391ft on a B4-4. I think the Orbit would go into orbit on a C6-3. The payload usually sits a little wonky on the pad but straightens out at ignition.

 
Ronz Rocketz said:
The weird part about the Orbit is that the 3D printed shoulder is only about 1/4" so a very loose fit. Works great on an A8-3.
Click to expand...

I'll make a note of that and pass it on to buyers.

JC Hobbies said:
I snugged mine up with a thin coat of runny CA inside the tube. Seems to work OK.
Click to expand...

Good idea!

JC Hobbies said:
Custom Rockets has a lot of nice SL 1 rockets, great for a weekend build and fly. Low cost too, which is nice with all the price hikes.
Click to expand...

Agreed. I had a lot of enquiries about a Skill Level 1 kit, but we don't make one at present. I'm using a lot of Custom Rocket parts so we added some of their kits to our lineup. Nice people to deal with.
 
Nice rockets, some Catos, some lawndarts, and a windy weekend

I initially tried launching on Sunday, but the wind kept inverting my shade umbrella, so I put those videos at the end. Tuesday was better and met up with Gary in the morning. The two weather forecasts were contradicting, and the truth was somewhere in between. I tried out the Semroc Scissor glider in the park. With Gary's help, we determined it was too aft heavy so will add NC weight and a little on a wing tip to help it circle down. The glider will have to earn it's paint and decal first.

Gary's Vader Tie Fighter worked almost as well as his regular Tie Fighter last week. I was afraid it would lawndart on the C6-5. I wonder if Estes should reissue the rockets now that the C5-3 is widely available. I think the NC in the Green Vortex got stuck from too many lawndarts. The spent motor looked normal, or perhaps it coulda been too weak. The wings are salvageable so just need to replace the main body. I'll put the balsa NC into the parts box and use a new one instead. The altimeter showed gibberish again so replaced the battery. Not sure if this will help or if the altimeter has minor damage from too many hard landings. The Diamondback has been arcing over on BP and composite motors and not sure why. Maybe it's tired...

The C18-6W was a motor that chuffed before. I scratched the insides and tried again in the Goblin. I had extended the rocket and inserted a baffle so just need to replace the extension. The nozzle did crack at lift off, was hard to see in the adapter. This caused the rocket to spin. I realized the altimeter would've landed nearby since the ejection happened just before hitting the ground.

The Mars Leaper had a great flight. I almost launched it on Sunday but realized the Cato had taken out the motor block. This time, the wind made it tip over and land on its head. It's weird that the A10-0T caused so much heat damage. I know this because I inserted toothpicks to secure the head and can now see them. Estes has already replaced the rocket and motors. The Silver Streak and Twin Factors was the first A3-4T Catos I've seen. The Silver Streak burned up but no damage to the Twin Factor. Upon closer inspection of the Queeze Bee, it was spinning, just hard to see with the fast ascent. The MLAS was awesome despite burning the main chute and despite the dogbarf Gary used.

00:00 Scissor rocket tests
00:33 Vader's Tie Fighter
01:27 NOMAD 4pts
02:31 Green Vortex 272ft 4pts
03:53 Diamondback 4pts
04:49 Goblin 211ft 4pts
06:11 Patriot 577ft 5pts
07:12 Mars Leaper 3pts
08:03 Silver Streak
08:19 Twin Factor
08:40 Stinger
09:04 Queeze Bee
09:33 MLAS
10:11 Blue rocket 3pts
10:37 AIM 3pts
10:56 AIM 4pts
11:24 Wacky Wiggler 3pts
11:57 Total 37pts + 5pts = 42pts

 
I have plenty of plugged A10 motors you can use for the Mars Leaper.
Heat and styrofoam don't go well together.
The Diamondback is begging to be kit bashed into a two stager.
No rockets lost so a good day.
😁
 

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