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  #1  
Old 01-20-2009, 10:15 AM
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kurtschachner kurtschachner is offline
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Default Vashon Article

I stumbled across this the other day:

http://books.google.com/books?id=MN...d=0_0#PPA196,M1
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  #2  
Old 01-20-2009, 11:12 AM
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hcmbanjo hcmbanjo is offline
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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
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  #3  
Old 01-20-2009, 11:26 AM
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tbzep tbzep is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by hcmbanjo
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. 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.
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Old 01-20-2009, 09:30 PM
shockwaveriderz shockwaveriderz is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by hcmbanjo
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
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  #5  
Old 01-21-2009, 09:04 AM
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hcmbanjo hcmbanjo is offline
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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
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Hans "Chris" Michielssen
Old/New NAR # 19086 SR

www.oddlrockets.com
www.modelrocketbuilding.blogspot.com
http://www.nar.org/educational-reso...ing-techniques/
Your results may vary
"Nose cones roll, be careful with that."
Every spaceman needs a ray gun.
Look out - I'm the Meister Shyster!
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  #6  
Old 02-02-2009, 06:12 PM
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BEC BEC is offline
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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.
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