What did you do rocket wise today?

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No, the motor only partially came out, it blew thru the baffles and destroyed them, and most of the upper part of the rocket. What makes me made is this was a brand new model and brand new motor, never stored in heat or cold cycling. Which is usually the excuse I get for why engines CATO.
 
No, the motor only partially came out, it blew thru the baffle system and destroyed it, and most of the upper part of the rocket. What makes me made is this was a brand new model and brand new motor, never stored in heat or cold cycling. Which s usually the excuse I get for why engines CATO.
 
Another example of irresponsible behavior of Estes allowing these motors to be sold and why I will not fly Estes E motors.

Oiy. That's heartbreaking.

I was going to fly my "Purple" Magician using an Estes E motor, but this is the 4th or 5th time that I've heard about their tendency to CATO, so perhaps I will think again and keep that pack of E motors unused.

Does anyone know why the Es have this problem? It sounds like it's a well known and fairly widespread issue.

Is there a less risky alternative from other manufacturers that others have used successfully?
 
I finally put decals on the Black Brant III that I finished building a few months ago. Without decals, it had 2 very successful flights, one of which met the criteria for the Bronze level NARTREK 60 second parachute flight. Using a C engine, it more that met them, it smashed them. I don't know when I'll fly it again, but now it looks even better on the shelf.

IMG_8309.JPG
 
Oiy. That's heartbreaking.

I was going to fly my "Purple" Magician using an Estes E motor, but this is the 4th or 5th time that I've heard about their tendency to CATO, so perhaps I will think again and keep that pack of E motors unused.

Does anyone know why the Es have this problem? It sounds like it's a well known and fairly widespread issue.

Is there a less risky alternative from other manufacturers that others have used successfully?

I'm trying some Aerotech E20's.
https://www.buyrocketmotors.com/aerotech-e20-white-lightning-24-mm-single-use-2-pack/
 
Is there a less risky alternative from other manufacturers that others have used successfully?

If you fly a lot of E motors, it may be worth looking at the 24/40 reload casing. It is my most used casing, and E18 is probably my favorite reload for it. It has the same dimensions as an Estes D motor.
 
Right on! You can use F12 Black Jack, F18, and F24 White Lightning, and F39 Blue Thunder reloads in it. Great motor!
If you fly a lot of E motors, it may be worth looking at the 24/40 reload casing. It is my most used casing, and E18 is probably my favorite reload for it. It has the same dimensions as an Estes D motor.
 
I finally got out to launch for the first time this year! Had to get out before the first snowstorm and it was COLD! My kids came out with me and we froze our fingers off! -15C with the wind, which was 13-15kms/hr.

Rockets launched:
Estes Riptide on C6-5
Estes SkyTwister on C6-5
Estes Crayon on C6-3
Estes Quinstar on C6-5
Estes Goblin on D12-3
Estes SLV on AT E15-4W
Estes QCC Explorer on D12-5
Rocketarium Black Brant IV-B Mod on D12-5
Scratch 24mm MD on E12-4

I also got to finally try the pad I had built and it worked great!

All rockets returned except for the scratch MD. It weather-cocked over pretty hard and ended up falling deep in the woods somewhere. I didn't even bother looking for it.

All in all, I'm extremely pleased I finally got out. The Argent and LOC IRIS didn't go once I determined that I didn't trust the field size after the E15-4W launch, lol. That one had to be retrieved from a tree.20191111_111734.jpg
 
Congratulations. Gee, someone on TRF is also into pumpkin chunkin. Go figure. ;)

Over the weekend, I broke RockSim. In a new iteration of my Triple-Vee design, and all I did was make the fins bigger, now it won't render the fins correctly; I don't know whether it's simulating per the design or with the same bug as the rendering. The root edges won't lie flat on the body tube, either sticking up off of it or down into it as I change the sweep angle. The leading corner stays anchored. And has a little sticky out bit that goes as far aft as the ends of the motor tubes.

It's not the first time this has happened. As I said it was fine until I tried to change the fins' size, and the last time this happened the problem suddenly went away with some other minor change. I've long been a fan of RS, but I'm getting rather frustrated.
I have tried OR and found it wanting, but that was quite a few years ago, and I'm sure it's improved since then. If I remember right what I've read here it still doesn't have RS's pods, so I don't know if I can do Triple-Vee with it.
 
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Launched a few mid power rockets Sunday with the little one. Gallo 24, Recon 1 1/2.

Gallo 24 was setup with a ARTS2 in the payload to get some mid power thrust curve data, AT 24-40 F39-9t. Launch was good nice event at apogee then a long drift, winds aloft were a little higher then I thought.

Headed back to the part the next morning and found it 2500' from the pad, In a tree, then came back with a ladder and tree trimmer, gluing it back together now, this was the 19th flight for this rocket.

~John
 

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The ARTS 2 has a acceloramtor and the ability to log at 200hz. Afternoon the flight download the log, then input flight data: rocket specs, motor specs, and the software gives you the motor analysis, CD calculator vs Mach number and a flight graph with baro and acceloramtor altitude.

It also has the ability to log GPS data, so I plan to figure that out this winter to get the flight path as well.

The F39-9t was about 17.5% short on impulse, thus the 17.5% reduction in altitude, I thought it was going to go 1750'.

The Ozark research company is not longer around, I picked 2 of these up used, Loki Research has the information up on there website still for support.

~John
 
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The ARTS 2 has a acceloramtor and the ability to log at 200hz. After the flight download the log, then input flight data: rocket specs, motor specs, and the software gives you the motor analysis, CD calculator vs Mach number and a flight graph with baro and acceloramtor altitude.

That's really cool data. Did you order from Loki Research? Their web page doesn't seem to have a working "order" link.
 
The ARTS 2 has a acceloramtor and the ability to log at 200hz. After the flight download the log, then input flight data: rocket specs, motor specs, and the software gives you the motor analysis, CD calculator vs Mach number and a flight graph with baro and acceloramtor altitude.
I wonder how their math works. Acceleration depends on the instantaneous mass, which is changing as the propellant burns, and on the drag, which only approximately proportional to speed squared since Cd isn't really constant. Comparing baro altitude to accel altitude might help, but it's not obvious to me just how. To tease all that stuff apart and give accurate thrust data seems like a really neat trick!
 
Last night, I get over the learning curve and cut out some Silver Hawk II sheets on the OMG new laser cutter.

Today, I did something pointless, but long winded, by recreating the three pieces of the Moon-Go PNC in CAD. I had said rocket going into the Bicentennial, but it's long gone. I did what I could with using a Quest coupler and PNC as guides, a scanning from Ye Olde Rocket Shoppe, and a bit of guess work. Now I'm hoping my brain un-fries. Those little cosmetic corrugations were a pain in the profane posterior.

BTW, I am working on a 3D printable , slotted Winnie tail-cone.
 
Recreating the MPC dress up kit and the Moon-Go shnozz, makes me wonder how much time and effort was involved with the original poor guy drafting up that stuff on paper and the other poor guy machining the molds back in the circa '70 day.

The other day I was telling somebody about the old Centuri attitude charts. Their folks had to go downtown and lease some expertise and time on an Univac computer. I'm guessing that somebody came back with boxes full of fan-fold paper full of numbers and had to hand transcribe that into charts. And some of those engines were discontinued shortly afterward.....
 
I was at Runza thinking about rockets. I was thinking about the old Starlight Rocketry Sparrow. It was something I found annoying funny and also just dumb enough to be funny. I was also toying with getting a Quest dealership and a Sig dealership since neither one has any presence in Omaha. I'll probably pass on it since it's probably more hassle than it's worth. Plus that sort of thing has a personal stigma since Capital City, Heroes World, and Fun Rockets.
 
Finally pulled the altimeter data from Hot Bird's first flight.
Not sure how far to trust the velocity data since the sample ports are right behind the nose, but apogee deployment went off and altitude is reasonable.

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