What did you do rocket wise today?

The Rocketry Forum

Help Support The Rocketry Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
We went to the park with 3 rockets loaded with A, B, and C motors.

View attachment 427296
First up was the orange Wizard with an A8-3. Launch was perfect with a straight flight to 344.3 ft according to my Flight Sketch Mini. The rocket was recovered a few steps away from the pad.
View attachment 427297
View attachment 427298

Next up was my trusty Mach 1 Exiter with a B4-4. This one didn't light, I removed the igniter and found it was charred, but never ignited the BP. I replaced the igniter and it didn't light again. The 2 igniter fizzled weakly outside the motor. I guess this is expected with the new batch of Eates igniters. I only had the one extra with me, so the rocket was set aside for another day.

View attachment 427299

Last for the day was the maiden flight on my Mach 1 Haymaker. I loaded it with a C5-3. It veered off with the wind shortly after launch, but was recovered safely. I think it just needs a longer rail or D motor. The Flight Sketch Mini reported an altitude of 252.3 ft. A Jolly Logic Altimeter 3 showed 239 ft.

View attachment 427300


Nate, you’re bound and determined to get me to buy a Knight Mfg launch pad, aren’t you.

BTW, nice launch area...the trees are some distance away.
 
Nate, you’re bound and determined to get me to buy a Knight Mfg launch pad, aren’t you.

BTW, nice launch area...the trees are some distance away.

I like the Knight pad. It has been living in my trunk this Summer ready to go when we feel the itch to burn BP.

The launch area is almost perfect. It is a huge city park that is within bike riding distance of my house. The area we launch in has a few baseball diamonds and I think 6 soccer fields. There are often games in the evenings, but most mornings and afternoons are available with only people walking or bike riding nearby. The trees are a good distsnce away, there are high tension lines at the other end of the park but most rockets should stay clear.

The park also has a splash pad for kids, 2 playgrounds, plenty of space to fly a kite, greenway access for walking and biking, and river access to go fishing or launch a small boat. I get my tax dollars out of it.
 
Laid down Color on my L’il Thor. Rusto JD Yellow (“Farm Implement“ color). Compared the Arlon vinyl Thor fin decals and the colors match...YAY!

Sanded down the Elmer’s Wood Filler on my VanderBurn Cherokee-H snd Panavia clone tube joins. They are ready for primer. Probably tomorrow.

Trued the the tube joins of my LaserLOC 163 where it appeared the laser cutter “stuttered”. My rocket building tray was involved and worked as intended.

Drilled a few rail button holes.

Browsed the Knight Launch Pad site... thanks, @NateB ...
 
I applied the first coat of primer to my Madcow Twitch. This was a Black Friday purchase from 2014. I guess it was about time to build it!

View attachment 427371

Pffft...
Amateur... I have a Black Saturday WM kit from 2012 still in my build pile. 😜 Now if I can just find the build pile... :rolleyes:
 
Or perhaps I should say which build pile... I have a few... A few too many... Is, is that possible???
I've heard of such a thing, but I ain't never seen it.

Anyway, I worked on cleaning and organizing the rocket desk, i.e. the old metal, battleship grey desk that serves as my build area.
 
Last edited:
What I did this week. I did my first Rocketpoxy fillets on my MAC 3FNC.20200726_223419.jpg
Primed and sanded....Primed and sanded said 3FNC. Then got the first color coat put down. 20200804_203846.jpg
Sanded that. Painted the inside of the pods on my More Rockets Viper flat black.20200804_213101.jpg
Papered the Viper fins since the balsa was super soft. I'm feeling soft balsa is a bad thing. Now I'm putting decals on my LOC starfighter. 15969388508968337813275724590966.jpg
I'm going with a different look on that thanks to Mark at Stickershock.
 
Yesterday I made a dummy 38mm motor and charge well for ground testing my home made 3" AGM33 Pike. It was a bit energetic with the 2.1gms BP and the PML Intellicone got a small zipper from it's wire loop, so I only put 1.9gms BP into the Aerotech DMS J270W for the Level 2 cert attempt at Cedar Grove, QLD today.

IMG_2073.jpgIMG_2073.jpgIMG_2075.jpg

IMG_2075.jpg

Added some Loctite Kintsuglue flexible putty around the wire at the point where it engages the edge of the nose cone shoulder as an anti-zipper protection.

Dad's Army themed 3" home made AGM33 named "Don't Tell Him Pike" readied for it's level 2 cert attempt!
 
Achieved Level 2 certification today at Cedar Grove, QLD!

Flew my home made AGM33 on an Aerotech DMS J270W to about 3300ft (the altimeter died on the pad, so can't confirm that). Only it's second flight after an in-flight motor failure on it's maiden flight in March resulting in it coming in ballistic.

View attachment Level 2 Cert Flight 09Aug20.MOV
 
Today I took a look at the data from my Nike Tomahawk-12 flight. H237-G88. The third flight in this configuration, but the first to stage, as it turned out that I have a bad channel on my Proton.

Whole flight. Note: I would expect the accelerometer to be most accurate during boost and the barometer to be most accurate at apogee.
2020-08-09 (1).png

Boost, with thrust curves and events. Part of the reason my FAlt is always higher then the AccelAlt is that I'm venting the avbay through plastic rivets with rounded heads and Bernoulli bites.
2020-08-09.png

Three flights with the same motors - the first two didn't stage. The third looks like it was a different motor in the booster. The big spike in the first two flights is from the separation charge. The third flight only has a little bump - must have gotten clean drag separation that time.
2020-08-09 (2).png

FAlt and AccelAlt for three flights. For your interest, a sim I made with a mini motor in the sustainer matches the DTL3 red AccelAlt line almost exactly. When I try to add it to the plot, it messes up the smoother line - conflicting source columns i didn't bother to fix.
2020-08-09 (3).png

And the Baro and Accel velocities for the three flights. This really highlights that this baro has a 'tick' that resets about every half second. You can see it in the altitude plots, too. I had thought it was due to damaging the baro with ejection charge soot on the first flight - but I looked back and it's there, too.
2020-08-09 (4).png
 
Watched the contractor assemble my new shop. Tomorrow they will finish the roof and trim and other unfinished today parts.
It's gonna' be sweet to make rocket parts with a well equipped machine/woodworking shop set up just how I need it.
 

Attachments

  • 20200809_175430_HDR.jpg
    20200809_175430_HDR.jpg
    198.5 KB · Views: 21
  • 20200809_181438.jpg
    20200809_181438.jpg
    104.1 KB · Views: 23
  • 20200809_181444.jpg
    20200809_181444.jpg
    83.9 KB · Views: 23
Last edited:
Back
Top