Doug Sams
04-22-2007, 01:14 PM
With kids' volleyball games in the morning, soccer at 1:15 and more volleyball at 4pm, plus a trip to the tire store, there wasn't much time for Dad's nerdly activities, but I somehow made it to Frisco for Windfest I.
Sam took this picture of me. I don't know which button he pushed - I don't think my camera has an UGLY setting - but danged it my handsome features haven't flat out abandoned me! Maybe it's the shadows...
http://home.flash.net/~samily/apogeedx/uglymf2p.jpg
http://home.flash.net/~samily/apogeedx/uglymf2p.jpg
This rocket lawndarted on its maiden flight at NARAM back in 2002 in McGregor. It's been repaired for about a year now, but I just finally got it out for a flight, this time upper stage only, on a D12-3. The wind really carried it after deployment, and it got some character marks being dragger thru the dirt, but overall it was a good flight.
The wind kept picking up, but I just had to fly again. So I put up my Eos on only its second flight. Everything went well - for a while anyway :(
http://home.flash.net/~samily/eos/eos-lo1-2p.jpg
http://home.flash.net/~samily/eos/eos-lo1-2p.jpg
Having found the stock FSI fins to be a little fragile, I upped the chute this time around - not a good thing for windy conditions. In hindsight, I shoulda quit while I was ahead, but launch fever was clouding my vision. As before, I swapped a D12-3 in for the D12-5 to compensate for the wind. When the 24" chute opened, things looked great, but as she descended, she really covered a lot of ground. Then the unthinkable - f#!%&*ng power lines!
Man, oh, man, was I fretting over that. But finally, I headed out, with my one unflown rocket still safe in the van. I'm a responsible adult, and I know not to risk bodily injury trying to recover this bird from the line. For twenty bucks, I can buy enough parts to clone it twice over.
Alas, Sunday morning found a different perspective. What kind of rocketeer would I be if I didn't at least check to see if it had blown down? So at 8:30 this morning, I loaded up the van with my loyal wife in tow. When we arrived at the field, there was no sign of it on the pole. "Oh, no, I hope somebody didn't make off with it!" I thought. After checking the line near the next pole, I came back to the first, then began searching the ground nearby. Hooray! There it was in the dirt, tangled in its chute, but all intact.
After a night out, it was in much better shape than I was after my first night out all those years ago :)
All the fins tips were skinned up from repeated banging against the pole, but, for all the wind, not a single suspension line was torn from the Estes chute. There were some creosote marks on the airframe, but no other scars. The kevlar cord into the transition section was a bit frayed, but I'd say it's still got 500 of its 800 pound test left in it :)
I tried Goo Gone on the creosote, then mineral spirits. Neither worked. Finally, ethanol did the trick. (Don't try this on Krylon or Testors - they don't like alcohol.)
Anyway, after retrieving the Eos this morning, I'm a happy rocketeer again. And I plan to build a clone, too. I was surprised at how bothered I was by the thought of losing the original.
Doug
Sam took this picture of me. I don't know which button he pushed - I don't think my camera has an UGLY setting - but danged it my handsome features haven't flat out abandoned me! Maybe it's the shadows...
http://home.flash.net/~samily/apogeedx/uglymf2p.jpg
http://home.flash.net/~samily/apogeedx/uglymf2p.jpg
This rocket lawndarted on its maiden flight at NARAM back in 2002 in McGregor. It's been repaired for about a year now, but I just finally got it out for a flight, this time upper stage only, on a D12-3. The wind really carried it after deployment, and it got some character marks being dragger thru the dirt, but overall it was a good flight.
The wind kept picking up, but I just had to fly again. So I put up my Eos on only its second flight. Everything went well - for a while anyway :(
http://home.flash.net/~samily/eos/eos-lo1-2p.jpg
http://home.flash.net/~samily/eos/eos-lo1-2p.jpg
Having found the stock FSI fins to be a little fragile, I upped the chute this time around - not a good thing for windy conditions. In hindsight, I shoulda quit while I was ahead, but launch fever was clouding my vision. As before, I swapped a D12-3 in for the D12-5 to compensate for the wind. When the 24" chute opened, things looked great, but as she descended, she really covered a lot of ground. Then the unthinkable - f#!%&*ng power lines!
Man, oh, man, was I fretting over that. But finally, I headed out, with my one unflown rocket still safe in the van. I'm a responsible adult, and I know not to risk bodily injury trying to recover this bird from the line. For twenty bucks, I can buy enough parts to clone it twice over.
Alas, Sunday morning found a different perspective. What kind of rocketeer would I be if I didn't at least check to see if it had blown down? So at 8:30 this morning, I loaded up the van with my loyal wife in tow. When we arrived at the field, there was no sign of it on the pole. "Oh, no, I hope somebody didn't make off with it!" I thought. After checking the line near the next pole, I came back to the first, then began searching the ground nearby. Hooray! There it was in the dirt, tangled in its chute, but all intact.
After a night out, it was in much better shape than I was after my first night out all those years ago :)
All the fins tips were skinned up from repeated banging against the pole, but, for all the wind, not a single suspension line was torn from the Estes chute. There were some creosote marks on the airframe, but no other scars. The kevlar cord into the transition section was a bit frayed, but I'd say it's still got 500 of its 800 pound test left in it :)
I tried Goo Gone on the creosote, then mineral spirits. Neither worked. Finally, ethanol did the trick. (Don't try this on Krylon or Testors - they don't like alcohol.)
Anyway, after retrieving the Eos this morning, I'm a happy rocketeer again. And I plan to build a clone, too. I was surprised at how bothered I was by the thought of losing the original.
Doug