#1
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First launches since the early 90's
Well, I finally got to launch some of my rockets and it went well with a couple of exceptions. I launched, in this order, a Viking, Centuri Javelin, Nova payloader and a Centuri/Semroc Centurion.
Very nice, straight flights by all of the rockets and I had them dropping fairly close to the pad in 5—10 knots of varying breeze. Didn't get a chance to fly the Chuter II and I wasn't going to put the Long Tom up in that field in that breeze. Two casualties; the Nova lost it's nose cone because I forgot to tape it and the Centurion pranged. Post flight analysis reveals that I indeed had put a kevlar cord in the baffle, but forgot about it when I installed the shock cord. Evidently, the end of it had hit the glue while it was wet and stuck to the side of the body tube. When the ejection charge went off, the 'chutes wedged under it (somehow), preventing their deployment. As a result, everything from the baffle north has to come off. Alas. On the bright side (FTBS), I came home with every rocket—which is most unusual for me. All of that and I had forgotten how fun it is to mess with rockets. If I have any photos worth showing, I'll post them tomorrow. I'm thinking I want a picnic canopy, a small table, cooler with cold beverages and some chairs. Plus, a new field. This field was swell as long as you wore high-top leather boots—which of course, I didn't. Winter wheat stubble is like a mini version of pungy sticks and my ankles and lower leg are laced with little cuts. There are burger bushes coming up now and they'll be big here, directly, so launching rockets there will soon be impossible.
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Retro-grouch |
#2
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Sorry to hear about the Centurion, but it sounds like a great day flying!
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NAR # 115523 Once upon a better day... SAM #0076 My site: http://rocketry.gonnerman.org |
#3
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My wife bought me a table that's about half the size of a card table. Stores in the back seat on the way to launches and is easily handled by one person. It was "in use" elsewhere when I went to NSL in 2007, so I stopped in a big box store and bought a plastic folding table for $9.99. It sits at the perfect height to work on rockets from one of those folding chairs. Also found an umbrella that clips to the chair structure. MUCH easier to mess with than an EZ Up. As for the shorts, yeah, they're cool to wear and add sex appeal, but not worth much in the area of protection. I learned to love jeans in even the hottest weather.
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Bill Eichelberger NAR 79563 http://wallyum.blogspot.com/ I miss being SAM 0058 Build floor: Centuri Design Contest F-150 Hurricane Estes - Low Boom SST Semroc - Gee'Hod, Shrike, SST Shuttle In paint: Canaroc Starfighter Scorpion Estes F-22 Air Superiority Fighter, Solar Sailer II Semroc Cyber III Ready to fly: Estes - Multi-Roc, Solar Sailer II Semroc - Earmark, Snake Jumper |
#4
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Yeah, it was. Gonna try again next week. Some photos from the day: That's where we set up—in the middle of a soy bean field. That's my long-time friend, we've been building and destroying models of all descriptions since around fifth grade. Javelin on the pad. My box and rockets. The ill fated Centurion. My friend's first unsuccessful experiment. Great for pin-wheels. And his second. It stripped off both booster fin sets about ten feet off the pad. You know what happened next. Amazingly, we found the sustainer. Talk about a needle in a hay stack. It had no recovery system. It does now. Every time I shot a launch of one of my rockets, I was late and got nice photos of smoke trails. Anyway, till next week.
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Retro-grouch |
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