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  #1  
Old 05-15-2005, 07:35 PM
A Fish Named Wallyum A Fish Named Wallyum is offline
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Default Omg! I Flew Today!!!

Lousy weather for rockets, but I managed six flights even with the windy conditions. Got two clusters up, the Taurus upscale and the Estes Firehawk. Both were far better than I expected. The Taurus flew on a 3xB6-4 the first time and a 3xC6-5 the second. Both were impressive, but the C6-5 was obviously more like what I had hoped for when I started the project. The Firehawk flew on a 3xC6-5 and it SCREAMED! Man, that was cool! That will be a regular from now on, especially on calm days. My Alien Invader clone also got one flight on a B6-4, but the winds were such that I decided to keep it grounded the rest of the day.
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Last edited by A Fish Named Wallyum : 05-17-2005 at 12:51 AM.
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  #2  
Old 05-15-2005, 10:21 PM
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CPMcGraw CPMcGraw is offline
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Bill,

I'm glad to hear SOMEONE got to fly this weekend!

Maybe I can get to post a flight report of my own next Sunday, if the weather holds up.

That Taurus looks great. I'll have to add that one to my list, since I've got that SEMROC cone still laying around collecting dust...

Who built the SSO? More to the point, does it fly well? I've got one still in the package, waiting for someday to arrive. The thought occurred to me that a parachute recovery just doesn't seem right...

Should have been either glide recovery, like the prototype, OR use that fancy fin-displacement routine to create a helecopter / flat-spin recovery.

Craig McGraw
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Old 05-15-2005, 10:58 PM
A Fish Named Wallyum A Fish Named Wallyum is offline
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The Space Ship One belonged to another Quarker and no, it didn't fly well at all. Two big loops to about 20' and a thumping bellyflop into the weeds. Smoked all to hell and belched a big flame, but the rains on Saturday apparently wet things down enough. Doug said he had put two squares of clay in it, but still wound up flopping it on a C6.
It looked good before the flight.
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Old 05-16-2005, 10:40 AM
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CPMcGraw CPMcGraw is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by A Fish Named Wallyum
The Space Ship One belonged to another Quarker and no, it didn't fly well at all. Two big loops to about 20' and a thumping bellyflop into the weeds. Smoked all to hell and belched a big flame, but the rains on Saturday apparently wet things down enough. Doug said he had put two squares of clay in it, but still wound up flopping it on a C6.
It looked good before the flight.


Sounds like...Another Challenge!

Makes you wonder how Rutan balanced the original...


Craig...
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Old 05-16-2005, 09:13 PM
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Bob H Bob H is offline
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After three weekends in a row with rain both days, the weather for the CMASS launch on Saturday turned out to be great. A little overcast to start the day but there was almost a complete lack of wind. An occasional light breeze was all we had to contend with.

I had 23 flights for the day with 1 lost rocket (a free 2 stage Midnight Express) and zero damage on all the rest. What more could a person ask for?
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Old 05-22-2005, 09:43 PM
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CPMcGraw CPMcGraw is offline
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Post Finally! I can smell the powder burning!

I am dizzy from the odor of black powder wafting through my nostrils! Oh, how good that feeling is!

This is my first launch of 2005, as well as the first launch post-Ivan, and I'm as fired up as a steam locomotive. Today (Sunday, May 22) I managed to get a full two-hours of relaxed flying, starting almost exactly at 5:00 PM. The winds were gusting above 5-8 MPH, so I had to adjust the rod angle a bit to keep everything in the small field. Didn't seem to matter which direction I aimed into -- the wind kept shifting direction, most of the time from the southwest, but occasionally from the southeast.

I kept the power down on all of the launches, with the lowest being 1/4A3-4T and the highest being B6-4. All of the rockets (except one, keep reading) recovered inside the field. This session of flying had my RC flying buddy, Carl Broughton, show up just after the first flight. Rocketry is more enjoyable when you have someone to help out. We kept the flying loose, as I didn't pre-pack any of the rockets. There was a good 10 minutes or so between flights.

Here's a recap of the action:


Flight 1: Quest Totally Tubular, A8-3, streamer. MAIDEN FLIGHT. Laser-straight flight, which really surprised me given the wind. Received a slight ding to one of the fin-tubes on landing. I could have used a 12" chute and probably recovered easily. I really need to build my BARCLONE Deltoid design...

Flight 2: Estes Rogue, A3-4T, streamer. Another good flight, was tracked through entire profile and recovered between 100'-120' from the pad. No damage.

Flight 3: Estes Aero-Hi, A10-3T, streamer. MAIDEN FLIGHT. Not at all what I expected. One of the fins is canted visibly 2 degrees off-center, while the remaining three fins are straight with the centerline. I really wasn't expecting much from this bird, but it proved me wrong. Really nice, relatively straight flight, and if it was spinning, neither the exhaust trail nor the tracking smoke showed any evidence of it. Like the others, recovery was within 100'-120' of the pad. No damage.

Flight 4: Estes Mosquito, 1/4A3-4T, featherweight-tumble. MAIDEN FLIGHT. This was the typical Mosquito flight. Even with the lowest-power motor I could stuff into it, this thing zoomed, smoked, ejected the motor, and subsequently did what all Mosquitoes do: Disappear for all eternity. I did manage to track the little black dot past motor ejection and got completely distracted by the motor casing coming back, which took my eyes away from the Mosquito. That was the last moment of contact. There was, by this time, a group of softballers in the same field, and they watched the flight as well. I think they lost track of it about the same time.

Flight 5: Quest Gamma Ray, A8-3, 12" parachute. MAIDEN FLIGHT. The first parachute flight of the day, and also the most nerve-wrenching. The liftoff was clean, a nice weathercock into the wind as you might expect. As the tracking smoke reached deployment, there was a very audible BANG -- not a pop, or a whump, like you normally expect. Here's what happened: The recovery wadding did not blow out the top of the tube as it should. Instead, it reached the edge of the tube and jammed the tube tight. The parachute was pushed out, but when it opened, it snapped the leader line it was attached to just as the chute opened. Also, the motor was forcibly ejected out the rear. It shot out and away from the rocket, which now was light enough to tumble end-around-end, in a sort of rotating flat spin, until impact with the ground. The only damage to the rocket was at the edge of the tube, which hit first. The parachute floated in a still-opened condition for another 300' behind the pad area, while the rocket landed about 50' ahead and to the east of the pad.

Flight 6: Estes "Launchables" Bandit, A8-3, 12" parachute. MAIDEN FLIGHT. Another "I really don't expect much" flight that turned into a better-than-average flight. You've heard me squalk about plastic motor mounts and the added weight they bring, and I'm not changing my tune about them now. This model was still spectacular in that it flew very straight, even if the altitude was lower than a comparable model of balsa and paper tube construction. The model was recovered behind the pad area, about 200'. I will fly this one again, just because... No damage.

Flight 7: Estes Orbital Transport, B6-4, 2-12" parachutes. MAIDEN FLIGHT. I used the two chutes instead of a single 18", because I thought the model might drift away. I shouldn't have worried so much. The model needed a B6-2, which I didn't have, and probably would have been OK on a B4-2. The model arced backwards and downwind as it climbed out, similar to the real shuttle during liftoff. Very realistic. However, the longer-than-necessary delay allowed the OT to start plunging downward at a high rate of velocity, with the shuttle still attached. At deployment, the shuttle flat-spun downward at about the same rate as the booster under the twin canopies. There was no glide to the shuttle, and I think this is because the balance still isn't right. I will add more weight to the shuttle's nose before the next flight attempt. The booster was recovered about 200'-250' behind the pad. Two slight dings were found in locations where the model never contacted the ground, so the damage had to be done in-flight. Minor.

Flight 8: Estes Big Bertha, B4-4, 12" parachute. The launch rod was aimed a bit too low for this flight. The BB lifted off, then traveled nearly horizontally under power, climbing only about 100'-120' agl. The 4 second delay brought the model to less than 20' agl when the parachute deployed, and the canopy was fully opened when the BB touched down. This was an extremely slow, "pushing a cow" flight, so the downrange walk was less than 500' from the pad. No damage.

Flight 9: Estes Raven, B6-4, 12" parachute. After the Big Bertha flight, I thought it best to increase the power just a tad. This was a much better flight, with the rod tilted back toward vertical a little more. Nothing extraordinary, just a good, stable flight with a good recovery. No damage.

Flight 10: Estes Mini Bertha, 1/4A3-4T, streamer. Last flight, and I didn't want to go chasing after this one. My legs were tired, as were those of my flying buddy. Gentle liftoff, reached maybe 100' agl, deployed about half-way down, and landed less than 50' from the pad. No damage.


There would have been an eleventh entry here, for a SEMROC Micron on an A8-3. Unfortunately, the launch lug was clogged and bound on the rod. I didn't have anything to ream out the lug with, so I just set it aside for the next chance of flying. Better safe than sorry.

I took my cheap digital camera along, even bought additional batteries, and had the ability to take 10 shots. Guess how many I took?

Uh Huh. I still got 10 shots left. It stayed on the truck seat all that time.


Craig McGraw
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  #7  
Old 05-22-2005, 10:51 PM
A Fish Named Wallyum A Fish Named Wallyum is offline
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Is the Estes Raven you flew the one that uses the same nose cone as the Firehawk and National Aerospace Plane?
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  #8  
Old 05-23-2005, 10:56 AM
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CPMcGraw CPMcGraw is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by A Fish Named Wallyum
Is the Estes Raven you flew the one that uses the same nose cone as the Firehawk and National Aerospace Plane?


...And the Sentenel, and the Magnum... Yes. Same nose cone. Long, plastic, pointy...


Craig
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Old 05-23-2005, 02:09 PM
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Doug Sams Doug Sams is offline
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Quote:
Craig wrote:
o Estes Mosquito, 1/4A3-4T
o Estes Mini Bertha, 1/4A3-4T

Craig,

Were you flying vintage 1/4A3-4T's? (4 sec delay) Or did you mean 1/4A3-3T?

I have a stash of some -4's I got from Countdown (IIRC) but the ejection charges were kinda week. That comes with age AIUI (the motor's age, not mine :)

The dilemma is always: do I risk the weak charge on time? Or do I risk early deployment (with the Estes supercharge)? I flew an MPC A3-5 (A3-6?) the other day, and the delay just fizzled. Never even got to the ejection charge.

Anyway, your Mini Bertha - is that your own design? Or the Estes BT-20 version? I fly my BT-5 "Baby" Bertha on a 1/4A, but the K-0803 has gotta be about the upper limit for a 1/4A.

Doug
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Old 05-23-2005, 02:24 PM
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CPMcGraw CPMcGraw is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Doug Sams
Were you flying vintage 1/4A3-4T's? (4 sec delay) Or did you mean 1/4A3-3T?


Oops...

My mistake. These are 1/4A3-3T. I picked them up from the local Hobbytown USA recently. They're in an "older" package, with a motor code of B091800. I guess I just had the A3-4T on my mind...

Quote:
Anyway, your Mini Bertha - is that your own design? Or the Estes BT-20 version?


It's an Estes BT-20 clone. Even printed one of those "ladybug MiniBrute 70's flower-power" style decals for it. It's a good model, and looks much better on a more respectable motor like the A3. If I had used the 1/2A3, the flight would still have looked good.


Craig
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