What did you do rocket wise today?

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Lots of thumbnails. Bear with me...

Fins are rough cut before bending.

Ready to bend and cut.jpg

Funky lines are a fold guide.

Fold before cutting.

Bent.jpg

Then a trim...

Bent and cut.jpg

Attached. Leaves a small gap that needs sharpie attention.

Gap for sharpie.jpg

A little pinstriping and we're done.

Apart from a swing test.

Kinda finished.jpg

Close up...

Funky fins.jpg

Nice rear end...

Money shot.jpg

I declare Project Lila kinda ready for testing. There are another four 'Lila inspired' drawings in the notebook already. Golly gosh, Lamington. I hope this thing flies straight...
 
New TeleMetrum 4.0 arrived, woot!
Got a gallon of 2-part automotive clear for rockets.
Took apart and went through the paint gun since I haven't touched it in 10 years.
Made some progress cleaning the workbench area of the garage.
Dewinterized and sanitized the RV water system (it will be used for 2 or 3 launches this year).
 
Finished the Broadsword construction. Awaiting painting weather for priming the gussets and lugs, then sand as necessary and color.
Tinkering with the Interceptor.
 
Used the article in Peak of Flight issue no.449 to calculate the Cd of my 30inch Apogee chute. Based the calc on Micropeak Altimeter data from a flight of "The Dart"on 12Feb23. Result was a Cd of 0.848.

Updated the Cd into the sim for the finished "Fluster Cluck", a 3 x 24mm motor mount scratch build to fly both three composite E20s up to three Pro24 6grain Gs.

Finished with 3 x Pro24 6G Cases.jpg
 
Today I went to our launch. Took all odd Rocs except for two regular rockets. Not too cold. A little breezy. Put a 3" rocket up on an I 175 to a couple thousand feet. Chute tangled up and didn't open when the chute release went. I'll have a little shorter rocket. The Pringles rocket flew great. Went a lot higher than I thought it would go. The chute tangled on a campers trailer about 3/4 of a mile away. I drove by them on the way to the edge of the lake bed. When I couldn't find it I headed back. The campers were waving a chute at me. They asked about the flying Pringles cans and rockets in general. I was going to fly the USPS mailing box. But thought with the wind and the flat sides of the box it wasn't a good idea. I flew it on a day with no wind and it flew fine. But with the wind, no. Same thing with a lander. Too windy. I flew a spider rocket. A small spider rocket. About a foot tall. 1/4" drip tube for legs. After 4 unsuccessful launch attempts. 2 bad igniters and 2 spit out. I put a HPR igniter in . The motor was an F15. It lit. Rocket got to about 50' and blew up. That motor had been sitting in that rocket for a couple of years. The spider came down in two pieces. The lower BT started to burn. People were taking pictures of my burning rocket. I'm thinking, where is a fire extinguisher. So before the plastic tube lit I stomped on it and put it out. The only salvageable part was the retainer. Saved the chute too. I'll build another one. Sure was something to see when it blew up. Flame and smoke and noise. Just regular rocket stuff. Spent more time talking to people than flying. I had some extra 4F BP with me. Sold three pounds to some other club members at my cost. Now I only have 3 and a half pounds left.
 
Another launch day scrubbed due to weather.

Might as well build another motor.

AeroTech L1090W : 54mm & 2800 case, with 75mm adapter.

AT-L1090W-54mm2800case-01.JPG AT-L1090W-54mm2800case-02.JPG

Weighs in at 5 lbs. 2 oz. Within 1 oz. of factory specs for an assembled motor. Pretty cool.


AT-L1090W-54mm2800case-03.JPG
 
Lots of thumbnails. Bear with me...

Fins are rough cut before bending.

View attachment 569583

Funky lines are a fold guide.

Fold before cutting.

View attachment 569584

Then a trim...

View attachment 569585

Attached. Leaves a small gap that needs sharpie attention.

View attachment 569586

A little pinstriping and we're done.

Apart from a swing test.

View attachment 569587

Close up...

View attachment 569588

Nice rear end...

View attachment 569590

I declare Project Lila kinda ready for testing. There are another four 'Lila inspired' drawings in the notebook already. Golly gosh, Lamington. I hope this thing flies straight...

:headspinning: Swing test it ... :headspinning:
 
Got a nosecone that my manager at work printed for me. Going on a 3" mailer Kraken.

Stepped bulkhead goes on the shoulder, then into the cone. Will tap a hole for adding weight if needed. So far sim says it isn't needed.
 

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Too cold for todays launch, so I sent an email to the vendor to see if he can just ship me some small parts to keep the building process going.
 
It was at the wrong house… classic usps…
Yup. Deliver hundreds of thousands, probably millions of items per day, and occasionally get one wrong. Classic.

Will tap a hole for adding weight if needed. So far sim says it isn't needed.
Would it be any easier to tap now just in case, or do you not think it'd make a difference?
 
Working on my Vehicle Assembly Room, which doubles quadruples as
-home office,
-"storage of things to be useful later" (junk) room,
-tiny stereo room,
-TRFCF, etc
10' x 12' or so...

Hopefully, there will be a desk for Cricut/rockets, and an old giant Magnavox console TV case converted to audio rack use.
 
Working on my Vehicle Assembly Room, which doubles quadruples as
-home office,
-"storage of things to be useful later" (junk) room,
-tiny stereo room,
-TRFCF, etc
10' x 12' or so...

Hopefully, there will be a desk for Cricut/rockets, and an old giant Magnavox console TV case converted to audio rack use.
just make sure the speakers fit well in the space 👍
 
This was not my most successful launch. It boosted OK but failed to deploy. It then managed to find the only pile of farm waste on the site. The only good news is that the pile was so soft that the rocket survived intact, but rather fragrant.
 

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This was not my most successful launch. It boosted OK but failed to deploy. It then managed to find the only pile of farm waste on the site. The only good news is that the pile was so soft that the rocket survived intact, but rather fragrant.
S-h-i-t Happens... makes for an awesome story.
 
We moved the QCRC club launch to today for better weather and were actually rewarded. Plenty of flights and a couple of successful certs. I even flew a rocket!
My Wildman AAD98 Interceptor on a AT K560w. Man I love that motor.
Roughly 7100 feet for a easy recovery.
 
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Got some goodies from Ken today!
And flew some stuff!
Gearing up for my L1 in may down at Dalzell!
 

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Lots of thumbnails. Bear with me...

Fins are rough cut before bending.

View attachment 569583

Funky lines are a fold guide.

Fold before cutting.

View attachment 569584

Then a trim...

View attachment 569585

Attached. Leaves a small gap that needs sharpie attention.

View attachment 569586

A little pinstriping and we're done.

Apart from a swing test.

View attachment 569587

Close up...

View attachment 569588

Nice rear end...

View attachment 569590

I declare Project Lila kinda ready for testing. There are another four 'Lila inspired' drawings in the notebook already. Golly gosh, Lamington. I hope this thing flies straight...

Got that "Wankle" vibe going... ;)
 
Got that "Wankle" vibe going... ;)

I was meditating. It's meant to be a lotus blossom upside down.

It could also be a 13B bridge port rotor, but let's be peace, love and mung beans here. #namaste

<Starts body wrap with rotary motifs a la Suzuki's original RE-5 or possibly the back of the seats on an RX-8>
 
Worked on one new build and two rebuilds for Seymour next weekend. Soldered some switches. Branded my thumb with the soldering iron. Tip-to-tip glassed one fin set each on two rockets. Added a cleanup layer of glass to a rather rough glassed tube. Cut fin slots and epoxied fins on a heavily-glassed rocket built mostly from Der Big Red Max wreckage.
 
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