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kurtschachner
01-20-2009, 10:15 AM
I stumbled across this the other day:

http://books.google.com/books?id=MNgDAAAAMBAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_summary_r&cad=0_0#PPA196,M1

hcmbanjo
01-20-2009, 11:12 AM
The Vashon Valkrie was the first rocket (engine) I owned.
Being rasied in California we had the some of the strictest fireworks laws in the country. I couldn't buy black powder engines through the mail. I bought my Vahon from the Sears Christmas catalog in 1969.
The article mentioned warming up the engine with your hands. I don't remember doing that. And the time I tried to launch it was unsucessful. It was very cold that winter morning and the rocket barely cleared the rod. I'm sure I was responsible for it not flyng, at the time the fueling process seemed very slow.
We did get a permit for black powder engines a few months later. The assistant fire marshall of the state came down to Monterey Bay from Sacramento to check out my grandparent's artichoke ranch. We got the permit (it was actually a permit to buy and sell rocket engines) then had to drive 1 1/2 hours to the closest hobby store that sold engines!

Thanks for the Vashon memories!

Hans "Chris" Michielssen
www.howtobuildmodelrockets.20m.com

tbzep
01-20-2009, 11:26 AM
The Vashon Valkrie was the first rocket (engine) I owned.
Being rasied in California we had the some of the strictest fireworks laws in the country. I couldn't buy black powder engines through the mail. I bought my Vahon from the Sears Christmas catalog in 1969.
The article mentioned warming up the engine with your hands. I don't remember doing that. And the time I tried to launch it was unsucessful. It was very cold that winter morning and the rocket barely cleared the rod. I'm sure I was responsible for it not flyng, at the time the fueling process seemed very slow.
We did get a permit for black powder engines a few months later. The assistant fire marshall of the state came down to Monterey Bay from Sacramento to check out my grandparent's artichoke ranch. We got the permit (it was actually a permit to buy and sell rocket engines) then had to drive 1 1/2 hours to the closest hobby store that sold engines!

Thanks for the Vashon memories!

Hans "Chris" Michielssen
www.howtobuildmodelrockets.20m.com

You had some very accomodating parents. Mine wouldn't have driven to the end of our driveway to let me buy rocket stuff. :rolleyes: It was all I could do to get them to take my lawn mowing money and write a check to send off to Estes. I only got to order about once a year, sometimes twice.

shockwaveriderz
01-20-2009, 09:30 PM
The Vashon Valkrie was the first rocket (engine) I owned.
Being rasied in California we had the some of the strictest fireworks laws in the country. I couldn't buy black powder engines through the mail. I bought my Vahon from the Sears Christmas catalog in 1969.
The article mentioned warming up the engine with your hands. I don't remember doing that. And the time I tried to launch it was unsucessful. It was very cold that winter morning and the rocket barely cleared the rod. I'm sure I was responsible for it not flyng, at the time the fueling process seemed very slow.
We did get a permit for black powder engines a few months later. The assistant fire marshall of the state came down to Monterey Bay from Sacramento to check out my grandparent's artichoke ranch. We got the permit (it was actually a permit to buy and sell rocket engines) then had to drive 1 1/2 hours to the closest hobby store that sold engines!

Thanks for the Vashon memories!

Hans "Chris" Michielssen
www.howtobuildmodelrockets.20m.com


Chris: the reason the rocket barely got off the pad was probably because you launched in cold weather. the Vashon propellant was very temperature sensitive. the hotter the air temp, the greater thrust and total impulse that you would get.

terry dean

hcmbanjo
01-21-2009, 09:04 AM
Hi Terry,
After the Vashon didn't get airborne, I became aware of the problem after I went back and read the directions thoroughly. It was all there, they didn't recommend launching in colder weather. With the Freon being a self-refrigerant the cold temperatures only compounded the problem.
It is funny looking back at it though. All that hard work building, the anticipation and my heart pounding when I pushed the button - and nearly nothing!

The only thing I have found close to it is this You Tube video - you have to watch it until the end:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VaOfyiDzhqo

Hans "Chris" Michielssen
www.howtobuildmodelrockets.20m.com

BEC
02-02-2009, 06:12 PM
Thanks for that link - it brought back some fond (and not so fond) memories of my Vashon Valkyrie. I lost it from a park in Santa Fe, New Mexico on a warm day (and after a good warming up with my hands) - kind of the opposite problem to that described above.

The parachute deployment, since it basically depended on the parachute section just falling off and the parachute then falling out and unfurling, was kind of iffy. I had at least one good dent in the main body of mine from a failed deployment before that last flight.

Imagine what hand-wringing would be wrought over flying Freon-powered rockets now! All that ozone depletion. Kind of ironic since these were invented to get around fire marshall issues in Washington State (as I recall). Even more ironic that I now live in Washington State not all that far from Vashon Island.