CHEETAH

Well, here is the refurbished Cheetah.  It is now about 6" longer than stock.  I painted the top gloss black with a light overcoat of Rustoleum Titanium Silver (ala Sascha Grant's LOC Weasel).  I wanted to keep the lower section as-is to retain the nice decals, didn't have the proper red, and wanted practice the over-spraying process. And, practice was needed.  As usual, I rushed the finishing and, while there was no bubbling or crazing, what started as a reasonably uniform layer of silvery speckes is not starting to get blotchy.  I assume that since the base coat wasn't fully set, the silver overcoat is reacting differently in different areas.  I tried to get a close up of one of the more pristine spots, but the only thing I suck at more than painting rockets is taking photos of them.  Now that I beat myself up, I'll say that I think it looks OK.

Just for future reference, here's what I did to fix it up.  I glued a 4" piece of telescoping 'coupler' stock into the end of the lower body so it abutted the top of the motor mount.  I then added a short piece of sectioned Blue Tube to toughen it up.  I cut a 1/4" slice of the outer coupler as a channel for the Kevlar shock cord.  A hole was drilled at the lower end of the coupler and the cord was pulled through, knotted, and tacked down with 5-minute Epoxy.  I made a plywood bulkhead that fit in the cone.  It sits on the inside rim and I had to deform the cone as it was inserted.  The other end of the Kevlar shock cord goes through the bulkhead and is also knotted and tacked with Epoxy.  I added an upper rail button and after two tries it's in the right spot.  The upper part of the existing rocket was a little knarly so I filled the gaps with Fill'n'Finish and added some black vinyl tape to make this area presentable.

I also made another 24mm-29mm adapter since my normal one doesn't fit in the 1.9" tubing.  The motor block on that one is a clamp-on aluminum retainer whose tangs are too wide.

Gotta go...will add stuff as required.

Bacon cheese turtle burger...mmmmm

Notice:  No actual turtles were harmed in the making of these treats.

A friend sent me this and, since unhealthy uses of bacon has become a secondary theme here in the Dungeon, I just had to share it.

Bacon Cheese Turtle Burger
Mmmmmmm bacon...............
this is a heart attack waiting to happen.

Handmade ground beef patties, topped with sharp cheddar cheese, wrapped in a bacon weave.

Then the next step, add hotdogs as the heads, legs and tail.
Next step? Place on an oven rack, covered loosely with foil and baked for 20-30 minutes at 400 degrees.

A little crispy, not too crunchy...just how a turtle should be, no?

Interesting factoid about NASA balloons

Received via Twitter:

NASA_Wallops Did you know the standard scientific balloon that Wallops flies can fit 200 Goodyear blimps inside it? http://bit.ly/ctG8Nh

I remember passing the Goodyear hangar north of Houston and I can attest that 'dem blimps are BIG!

AeroTech Cheetah scrap tube luck-out

Yet another dead rocket that I inherited from the infamous Paul Miller is the motor section and nose cone from an Aerotech Cheetah.  I found replacement 1.9" tubing on AeroTech's website but, as usual, decided to root around instead.  I'd have paid the $6+ bucks but decided that I didn't want to pay S&H on such a small order.  I was almost going to give up when I ran across the packing tube from the G185 that I flew last weekend.  Amazing, the OD is perfect.  I have a long version from a J-motor which will work out just fine.  The ID is a tad small but a little peeling and some thin CA fixed that. It never ceases to amaze me on how you can scrounge up tubing that will work for a low budget repair (or scratch build for that matter).

I've got to kludge a coupler to connect it to the damaged lower body, figure a way to attach a shock tether, and add some way to attach said tether to the nose cone.  I don't know why Paul hacked the cone's base off, but I suspect it too was damaged.

ESL-145 videography!

MDRA video-laureat Peter 'shaken not stirred' Abresch has posted 16 videos from MDRA's ESL-145 this past weekend. These include the Paul Miller streamer launch and my own 12-Pack flight.  The title says it was 12 D12s but it was actually 12 C6's.  I now wonder what I put on the flight card.  I'm so used to big D12 clusters that maybe I had a dyslexic brain fart?  I learned that ejection appeared even earlier than I remembered.  I guess I could have used a few B6's instead of some of the C6s.

Zero, zilch, nada

Currently there are no active projects in the Dungeon.  I've surveyed the plastic bottles, tubes, dead kits, unbuilt kits and the parts drawers to no avail.  But, inspiration can strike at any time....

Mega-Sonic - adjusted

Here is the Mega-Sonic after in-situ surgery on the upper fin set.  The way I had them was bugging the crap out of me. They are still not right, but are closer to what they should be.  If built right, they would have a longer root chord.  I'm satisfied.

A big, bad LDRS-29 photo album

Big because there are over 3000 photos.  Bad because you have to wade through stuff like ~40 shots of the same 'chute in the sky. I gave up at page 30 when I found the one showing Mythbuster Kari Byron choking a chicken. That part was good. But it's also bad because the photographer has all embedding turned off.

Launch Report 2010-7

Location: Central Sod Farm, Centreville, MD (MDRA ESL-145)
Weather: clear, high 80's, wind ~5MPH
Total flights: Today - 9; YTD - 52
Total motors: Today - 22; YTD - 66

This was a really good day on the Shore.  Hot, but not too hot.  Enough wind to cool you but not make you walk too far.  And, it was pointing in the most favorable direction!  Thanks, as usual, to Don-Paul for the shade.  And the bottle that's suitable for odd-rocketry.

Our theme again today was the Paul Miller Memorial Launch, complete with a two-heat drag race of Paul Miller recycled rockets, a red, white and blue "gateway" arch, and several other tribute flights.  One heat of the drag race saw me (Dick-Paul) and Mikey-Paul fly Fatboys, each on three C6-5's.  My detailed report is below.  The second heat saw Don-Paul's ISQY Tomahawk on a G20 face off against Itchy-Paul's Paul Miller Special on a G40.  All I'll say is that Paul won the race :D  We also added the 'Paul' to our names on the flight cards (at least most of the time).

I brought Jerry the dog, who tried to fight Neil's girlfriend's dog.  Luckily, uncle Don-Paul was there to break it up.  Other than that, Jerry was good and had a good time.  The big golden dog, maybe a Lab (named Marshmellow, Puffy, or some such), was hilarious. She would run onto the range on every flight and even did a back flip on an LPR CATO.  I have a couple of shots of both dogs in the slide show below.

We also had several planes spilling over from an air show in Easton.  There was one set of four 'war birds' doing some acrobatics.  Luckily they didn't linger.

I made more flights than usual at an MDRA event, and here they are:

1. 12-Pack on 3 x Estes C6-7 + 9 x Quest C6 - This was a great, smokey flight! All 12 motors lit.  The central three spit out and were found by people on the flight line.  For all the smoke and flame, I calculated that this was the equivalent of a mere 105G46-7.  The recovery was early but good, with no problems except some soot on the fins.
2. Public Missiles Small Endeavour on a G75-7 - Nice sparky flight.  The SU case wasn't bulged this time.
3. El Cheapo Pyramid on a G75-4 - Sparkies are cool in pyramids!  But the case did bulge both at the nozzle end and at the point below the motor mount.  I guess full length motor mounts are recommended with the Mealstorm motors.
4. Standard CrayARM on a G185-6 - Very fast. Soybean patch recovery.
5. Estes Fat Boy on 3 x C6-5 - This was resurrected from the box-o-dead-rockets that I won at Paul Miller's going away party and was part of the Paul Miller Memorial Drag Race.  According to the tick marks, this was flight number 34!  Good flight and recovery.
6. First Flight Hobbies Mega-Sonic on a D12-5 - Nice straight flight with early ejection.  'Chute tangled and the nose cone got an 'Estes dent'.
7. First Flight Hobbies Mega-Sonic on a C11-3 - Another good flight.  Early ejection and recovery with no additional dings.
8. MRC IronMan on a D12-5 - Another Paul Miller tribute. This might become one of my favorites.  As I was walking to recover it and talking on the phone, I see a nose cone. Hmmm, that looks familiar. I guess I'll add a Kevlar loop through the cone's base.
9. Estes Mini-Patriot on an A3-4 - Yup, another of Paul's, with a new fin and repaired streamer.  The little rocket was hard to see, until it recovered 20' from the pad.

Find more photos like this on Our Planet



Find more videos like this on Our Planet

Rocketry (and balloons) on Virginia's Eastern Shore

I'm talking about NASA's Wallops Flight Facility, of course.  Although there is tons of info on the Wallop's web site, CNET's geek gestalt blog now highlights the facility for the masses.  (via Clark Lindsey)  You can follow the labels at the bottom of this post to see highlights about recent activities at Wallops and the co-located Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS).

RockOn Terrier-Improved Orion

Photos by cjl (thanks for letting me post them!)...click and look at 'em full sized...full sequence on TRF.

PML - 20 years, 3 new kits and one rocket girl

PML is 20 years old and has released three new kits to celebrate.  Rocketry Planet has all the details in one easy to find place.

Blah, blah, blah

RockOn was successful.  I was sleeping.  Waiting for photos from TRF member cjl.

Rockets are prepped  for Saturday.  The Paul Miller memorial Drag race is ON.  Warthog, Itchy, Mikey and I will honor Paul's absence.

Got a free DVR for a year since Comcast didn't resolve our issues after 4 boxes and 3 tech visits.  Luckily, the issues are minor, more annoying that disruptive (flickering menu, short drop outs every half hour or so).

Grandson came over for lunch...good day!

A peek inside the Moscow Aviation Institute

More at any of the links below.

Dungeon <-- R2K <-- English-Russia <-- victorprofessor

RockOn launch is ON

 

Via the NASA_Wallops Twitter stream:

RockOn launch tomorrow. Window 6-9 a.m. Webcast @ 5 a.m. http://sites.wff.nasa.gov/webcast Read abt Rockon http://bit.ly/9BWX6D

Eleven university experiments will fly on a Terrier-Improved Orion sounding rocket to around 390,000. One of the participants is TRF's own cjl from the University of Colorado-Boulder. He said he's taking a camera :)

Many more virtual tours

I posted about the virtual tour of the USS Pampanito before I navigated around the rest of the site.  Check out the index page for 360x360 tours of other ships, missile silos, historical places, power plants, etc.  No time right now, let me know your favorite (this assume YOU have the time).

Take a tour of a WW II submarine

A friend pointed me to this virtual tour of the USS Pampanito. Follow that link and then left click on each page and move the cursor side to side and up and down to get full 360 x 360 degree view of each page. Scroll down to read the explanation of each pic and to select next picture page and index.

Mega-Sonic!

Note to self (and others who may someday look at this and say 'huh'): Upper fins are on wrong. Not a long story but not worth describing. This was my problem and will not be an issue when these are released into the wild.

What's on the workbench, Father's Day edition

1. Priming my First Flight Mega-Sonic.  This is an BT60/24mm upscale of their Semi-Sonic.  The Semi is cute but the Mega is pretty cool.  Respectable size for a modroc and you gotta love long balsa cones.
2. Prepping motors for the 12 x C6 flight of the 12-Pack.  Peeling the paper wrap of the Quest motors, adding tape thrust rings, etc.  Yeah, that is, that's all I'm doing. Honest.
3. I dug through the Paul Miller box-o-dead-rockets and found an immaculately finished 13mm Patriot.  Me wonders if it was RTF?  Missing two fins, found one.  Will cut a fourth from wafer glass. Update:  Paint inside the lower tube shows this wasn't RTF, but most of the 'immaculate finishing' is actually a printed wrap.)
4. I also found the bottom section of a Skinny Mini.  At least the fins are the same.  Since mine was butt ugly after may strange repairs, I'm replacing the the fin section with Paul's.

Special edition of Stupid Rocket Tricks:

• Leave the lid off your Fill-'n'-Finish.  'Nuff said!

Launch Report 2010-6

Location: Old National Pike Park, Mt. Airy, MD (NARHAMS)
Weather: Clear, temps in the mid-80's, mild wind
Total flights: Today - 10; YTD - 43
Total motors: Today - 11; YTD - 44

The day was great although the wind was vectored right at the closest line of trees.  Fortunately there is another field past them.  Jim Filler and Ed Pearson did a great job pushing the button and checking them in, respectively.  The flight rate was good despite a large Cub Scout contingent and those pesky contest fliers.  My theme was the Paul Miller Memorial, with half my flights coming from rockets recycled from his 'dead' box.


My Flights:

1. Mystery beta test rocket on a C11-3 -  The flight was slow and straight and ejection was right on cue.  I have photos on the pad, under boost, under chute, and on the ground in the slideshow below.
2. Mystery beta test rocket on a D12-0/C11-5 - The wind had picked up some so I thought I'd get the cluster flight in next.  Again, the boost was great with a little weather cocking.  Ejection was just after apogee.  A '-3' delay would have been early.  The booster spun-in along its motor axis for a good recovery.  The two upper stage sections came down lightly about half way to the trees.  I have photos on the pad and under boost in the slideshow.
3. Mystery beta test rocket  on a D12-5 - It ripped on this motor but, surprisingly, arced with the wind toward the tree line.  This got me a tad flustered so I didn't note the ejection timing.  The upper section's chute opened and it drifted over the tree line.  Whew!  The lower section's chute didn't come out and it glided (yes, glided) down albeit at a steep angle.  The top of the body tube has a slight deformation that wouldn't be noticeable if I didn't tell you about it.
4. MRC IronMan (Paul Miller Memorial Flight #1) on a D12-5 -  This was  a cool flight all around.  Ejection was just after apogee. Thank's Paul!
5. Tiny Tim Smoke on a C11-3 (Paul Miller Memorial Flight #2)-  Another nice flight.
6. Estes Javelin (Paul Miller Memorial Flight #3) on a Quest C6-5 - Unstable.  Dead.  I blamed Paul.
7. Estes Quasar (Paul Miller Memorial Flight #4) on a Quest C6-5 - High flight with some coning.  I think it drifted to Pennsylvania.  Lost..
8. Unknown USAF-Decorated Rocket (Paul Miller Memorial Flight #5) on a C11-5 - Nice high flight.  It drifted across the trees and I thought I'd find it.  I searched at the end of my flying and was well baked by that point, so I gave up quickly. It was free and only had a stock plastic chute.  I hope someone finds it and gives it a good home.
9. SS 7.5 ICBM on a D12-5 - Flight was good with late ejection.  Nose cone now has a smile.
10. Odd'l Birdie on an A10-3 - This got the most comments from the menagerie.  Nice flight with recovery 10' from the pad.

Find more photos like this on Our Planet

Secret project flying tomorrow

Weather permitting, of course.  Rain won't be an issue, but wind direction might.  Should get in at least a C11-3 single stage flight in. 

Mythbusters 'Top 25' episode is now on-line

Last night, I caught the second half the Mythbusters 'Top 25' episode...and it was awesome.  Full of rocket sleds, lead balloons and, naturally, lots of explosions.  Via Twitter, I find they have the episode available on-line:

MythBusters Top 25 Moments

.

LDRS-29 - one reason to join Facebook

When I first started Facebook, not many rocketry people/companies/orgs were there.  In fact, I wanted to keep my Facebook account and my rocketry web presence separated so I didn't search any rocketry people out.  Now, NAR and TRA have pages.  Many vendors are on there, including AeroTech, Apogee, ARA Press, Madcow, K&S, Red Arrow and even Estes. The flood gates have opened.  I've hooked up with many of the people I've had on-line contact with and some I've never met.

Today, I got wind of a cool LDRS album - Huge Rocket Launch LDRS 29.  I've provided the link but, at a minimum, you need to be a member of FB to see it.  One interesting quirk of Facebook is that if a friend is tagged in an album you can see those photos even if you're not a friend of the owner.  This means that even if you're a member you might have to hunt for the album yourself.  And the best way is to search for and befriend other rocketeers. Names intentionally omitted to protect the innocent ;)

This is the first album to show the CalPoly 'rocket buildings'.  These are cool and I'll peruse them over and over for build ideas/motivation.  Lot's of co-ed rocket girls too.

LDRS-29 from the blogger's eye view

Fellow rocketry blogger Greg Smith attended and has a nice launch report.

LDRS-29 Day-6 stuff

Well, you can stick a fork in LDRS-29.  There is no report on the closing day yet, but ROCKETS Magazine does have a gallery.  Also, it looks like the launch will be featured on the Discovery Science Channel on July 5th at 9pm CST.  I couldn't find this schedule myself, but we should keep an eye out.  A month of production time seems short to me, but what do I know?

ROCKETS Magazine, June 2010

What's inside:

• Review of an Estes Saturn V complete with scale gantry;
• Pt. 5 of Black Magic Missile Work's electronics series;
• Rocket girl Haley Allen;
• Launch report from the Phoenix Missile Works club down south in Winterboro, AL;
• Terry Johnson describes how to do all three cert levels on the same rocket, a 7.5" Fat Boy;
• Build article on a rocket called the Envicerator.  Fitting name.
• Burl Finklestein's article on his Big V2 that flew at Red Glare 8 on an 'O' and two 'N's.  I was surprised to learn the airframe was a 24" dia., surplus drop tank whose structure was wound fiberglass over a Nomex honeycomb.  I assumed the tank was merely used as a mold like Triopli Oklahoma did on their V-2 that has appeared off and on through the years.  This is the best article in this issue.
• A report on Plaster Blaster 2009. This includes great coverage of a scale Patriot Battery loaded with 4 scale Patriots.  I suspect this is the same one that I've mentioned from LDRS-29.  There's also a huge X-15, which I doubt made an appearance since a series of two photos clearly shows it lawn darting, badly. Then there's a Colonial Viper and Delta II that may have been at LDRS (?).
• Alan Whitmore has another article on propellant making.  This is way out of my league.
• Another build article on the Azzurro: Blue Rocket;
• Review of the Blastcap ejection charge holders;
• And, last but not least, Pt. 1 of a series of articles on Drop Away SRBs, by Wes, 'Dr. Zooch' Oleszewski.

This is a feature-packed issue!

Cool paint job

LOC Weasel, originally uploaded by Sascha Grant.

Check out Sascha's glittery black paint job!

LDRS 29 day 5 - the first 'research' day (updated)

No written report - yet - but You can read the Day-5 report AND the ROCKETS Magazine crew has uploaded a few photos from Day 5.  I think Neil said he was going to fly a huge single use motor (now a days, I count anything over and M as huge).  [Apparently, I mucked up the 2nd link.  I wonder if anyone even noticed?]

A new perspective on rocketry - the parachute-cam

People mount rocket cameras in many different ways - looking down, sideways, and even upward; in dedicated bays and taped on.  Dr. Zooch even mounts them on booms to give a remote perspective on the flight.  George Katz has come up with a new one - on the inside of his parachute.  Although very shaky, the view is unique and interesting.

LDRS 29 day 4 report(s)

Neil McGilvray's report on day 4 is up on Rocketry Planet. This is the first day that Neil beat Jerry in the launch report drag race, so I don't know if Jerry going to submit one. If so, I'll add the link HERE.

What I liked best about today's report (some of which I've posed about already):  Kari; a Dubai Sail Building oddroc earned a CalPoly student his/her Level One certification; Gates Brother's Porthos flew in memoriam of of Eric; a Colonial Vipers, Klingon Cruisers, big Estes SST, and an R2-D2, oh my; the N10,000 drag race; Ky Michaelson's Flaming Coffin on an M2400 (lived up to its name).

ROCKETS Magazine's Day 4 album is also up.

LDRS 29 - J1999 drag race

A bunch of rockets. A bunch of CATO's. Parts everywhere.

LDRS 29 galleries at ROCKETS Magazine

I noticed via Neil's Day 3 report that ROCKETS Magazine's galleries are being populated.  They have some really great shots and I can tell their DVD will rock.  I couldn't resist swiping this photo of my favorite Mythbuster, and now honorary rocket girl, Kari Byron.  Check out Day-1 and  follow the links to subsequent galleries.

Hayabusa recovered

JAXA reports the Hayabusa capsule has been found and "deemed intact at the moment." (via Clark Lindsey)

LDRS 29 misc photos from various days

While waiting for the day 4 reports (and maybe Neil's day 3)...

TRF post packed with photos - Highlights: Interceptor-N both going up and down; Patriot battery with one hald way out of its tube; big R2-D2; group shots.

A Picassa album - Highlights: 27 Squats on 1G 54mm motors (many needed more nose weight); 7 x N10000 drag race!; Interceptor-N up and down (one microsecond from impact); Klingon Battle Cruiser flying.

The Rocketry Planet photo/video thread. At post time, it only has a link to the above. But keep checking back.

ViperLaunch

ViperLaunch, originally uploaded by Mike (Sparky7) Jerauld.

Cross posted for Verna and Randy. Click through to see more from TeamViper at LDRS-29

CATO Chutes released into the wild

CATO Chutes is a new manufacturer of hemispherical rip-stop nylon parachutes up to 30" in diameter.  They've actually been around at launches in the Northeast for several years but now are available nationwide via their new webstore.  You can easily figure out who the principal is but let me say her husband is a dedicated rocketeer and an all around good guy.  So if you need this sized product, buy it!

LDRS 29 day 3 report(s)

Jerry Irvine's day 3 report is up over at Rocketry Planet.  I'll add a link here when Neil posts his.

• Jerry's report
• Neil's report

Highlights - Student's flying low and slow versions of famous architectural landmarks on G and H motors, an N-powered drag race, high powered rocket cars, Jeff Jakob's display of amateur class hybrids (complete with HVAC and a clean room floor, whatever that is), a Patriot launcher loaded with 4 of them (see one launching here).

Lowlights - PunkRocketScience's Interceptor-N did try to core sample.  Sound's like it might be fixable though.

Hayabusa re-enters over Australia

Here's some footage taken from NASA's DC-8. Read all about its journey on Spaceflight Now. Can't wait to hear how the return capsule fared. Its beacon has been picked up and they expect to find it tomorrow.

LDRS 29 day 3 (Saturday) photo album

A reader sent me the link to their nice photo album from Saturday.  Looks like the site was well protected by a Patriot battery.  :D  Was that Mythbuster Kari Byron that I spotted?  Check out the album and let me know.  BTW, the launcher was loaded with 4 of them!

LDRS 29 day 2/3 gap report

Here's another small but nice album on Flickr.  It includes shots of several big futuristic/sci-fi rockets.  Looks like PunkRocketScience had a bad day - there is a shot of a badly crunched Interceptor-N.  I'm sure there will be an explanation on TRF after the event.

Take the details with a grain of salt, but I saw on Rocketry Planet where two people got burned at the away cell when a 2nd stage motor lit while the rocked was on the pad.  Reportedly their were airlifted away.  I hope they are OK and will wait for more info.   Hopefully, Neil and Jerry will give their day 3 reports shortly.  To a lesser degree than the involved person's being OK, I hope the Discovery Channel Crew was shooting something else at the time.

F-104 and Klingon Battle Cruiser from LDRS

DSC01818, originally uploaded by GraceFamily.

As mentioned in my earlier post. Click through to see the Flickr user's entire LDRS-29 album.

Discovery, STS-131, from hangar to launch in 3 minutes 52 seconds

Awesome time lapse video via Air & Space:

(I had to insert a jump break because the annoying ad would play every time I visited my blog.)

LDRS 29 day 2 report (update)

Rocketry Planet has a great report on day 2, including 3 slide shows and a video montage of people, places, and, more importantly, things (that means rockets, y'know).  I attached a small thumbnail of one of said things, a big Klingon Battle Cruiser.  Cool, just cool.  Other photos/clips that caught my eye are: cool upscales (including Punk Rocket Science's Interceptor 'N'): Neil, Bob, and Kathy (the MDRA/ROCKETS Mag crew); some cool oddrocs; a prototype F-104 Starfighter kit from LOC; what looks like MMX-sized reloadables from Green Monkey....

Neil also has submitted a report on day two.  Includes photos of the drag race between the F-104 mentioned above and similarly sized X-15.

LDRS 29 day 1 report

Truth is stranger than fiction. Jerry Irvine is apparently writing LDRS launch reports for Rocketry Planet - Day 1 of LDRS 29 sees high winds with little flying.  Sound like everything but the weather is cooperating.   I hope the weather improves and everyone has a great day tomorrow!

Beagle VI Flight Computers

Flight Computers, originally uploaded by jurvetson.

Steve Jurvetson offers a view of the custom electronics that will fly on the Beagle VI rockets as part of the CLOTHO project. These have the now expected features - flight event control, GPS, etc. But they add a new one - remote control of pad ops. Neato.  Click through for more info including a link the the Maverick's new website and a description of the cube on the wooden stand.

Oh God, the madness is creeping back in

And They're coming to take me away Ha Ha
They're coming to take me away ho ho he he ha ha
to the funny farm where life is beautiful all the time, and I'll be happy to see those nice young men in their clean white coats
and they're coming to take me away ha ha

- Napoleon XIV (aka Jerry Samuels)

After the BATFE situation put the breaks on "Easy Access" 38mm HPR, I went through bouts of depression and anger.  However, I self medicated myself with microbrew beer and single malt scotch and eventually became content with the world of LPR and MPR (it helped that I never really left it).  When the NAR/TRA prevailed in their lawsuit and APCP was removed from the explosives list, I rejoiced.  I decided I'd fly an occasional HPR motor and even was planning for a big (gasp) 'J' reload.  However, I didn't get the bug to build anything new that would require more than a big G or small H.   But, of late this little red version of me has been popping onto my left shoulder and whispering 'K' motor in my ear.   He wants me to try to shred my L2 rocket and burn sparkies in my 18" Art Applewhite saucer.  So, I've been pondering a CTI 4-G case.  I'm just not sure that I'm ready to invest that much money per flight so sense had prevailed. But....

EMRR sale status

Nick has started a thread on TRF to relay status of the sale of EMRR and to provide a place for feedback.  The highlight is he has six interested parties.  I find that encouraging.  Even though I'm still a little saddened about the change, I hope Nick's deal goes through to his satisfaction.  I have little doubt that every potential buyer will keep the site up, otherwise, why would they bother.  I was going to do a more detailed venting of my but decided to wait until the deal is completed. 

Hump day rocketry vacuum

Not much going on today in the Interwebs.  I was kinda down about not being at LDRS, which starts tomorrow (or today if this post is slow).  Should be interesting.  I've heard about lots of cool projects.  Plus both US Rockets and Kosdon have booths.  There is plenty of controversy around these vendors, especially the prior. Will people sparks fly along side rocket sparks? (Kept cryptic since I have no interest in trying to pass along what I've heard about J.I.)  On the Kosdon front, Tripoli Motor Testing has reportedly certified some of his stuff, with the details waiting for the launch.  BUT, I was cheered up when I got the details about two beta test kits that are on the way from First Flight Hobbies.  One is the 24mm upscale of the Semi-Sonic, a.k.a. the Mega-Sonic.  The other is a top secret 24mm 2-stager that's about 58" tall.  Should be here in time for the June launches at NARHAMS and MDRA!

Heads or tails?

Here's a video of the bi-plane that flipped on landing at Reagan National this AM.  Happily, pilot and passenger are uninjured.  Those delayed by the event are unhappy.  But not as unhappy as the pilot for breaking his plane.

Not many people get to view a Shuttle launch from this vantage point

Lt. Col. Gabriel Green and Capt. Zachary Bartoe patrol the airspace in an F-15E Strike Eagle as the Space Shuttle Atlantis launches May 14, 2010, at Kennedy Space Center, Fla. Colonel Green is the 333rd Fighter Squadron commander and Captain Bartoe is a 333rd FS weapons system officer. Both aircrew members are assigned to Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, N.C. (U.S. Air Force photo/Capt. John Peltier)

         (found via bad Astronomy)

Armadillo boosted hop with 'chute deployment and engine restart

One its latest flight, Armadillo's pointy Mod lander scooted to 2k', shut down its motor, deployed a drogue, drifted down a ways, released the 'chute, restarted its motor, and landed on target.



Here's a 4-pane video of the same footage. (found via Clark Lindsey)

12-Pack GSE, revisited

I got a comment to my previous post on the 12-Pack saying that, unless I feel like stomping out a fire, large amounts of tape around the Quickmatch may not be a good thing.  I need to see what scrap car airbag material I have left.  A loose wrap of that stuff may work well and should be easy to install.  Of course, it will also funnel the sparks and motor exhaust upward.  Hey WiK, if I tape it on, it might be like giving the rocket a kilt. LOL.

SpaceX highlights video

SpaceX has compiled a highlights video of the Falcon-9 launch.  Launch, on-board, staging, to the  Dragon in orbit.

A flying sub, the ROMBUS SSTO, a Bell Orbital Saucer...

Scott Lowther has released his Aerospace Projects Review V2N6. His related blog post gives all the details, some tow-res diagrams, and a thumbnail view of the whole shebang.  If my hobby budget wasn't chronically exceeded, I'd grab this one.

Falcon-9 launch, zoomed in and zoomed out

Zoomed in...



...and out...

UFO seen over eastern Australia may have been Falcon-9 booster? (updated)

9MSN in Australia reports that there were numerous reports of a yellow-green, swirling, noisy UFO (Unidientified Falcon-9 Object) over eastern Australia early Saturday morning (local time). Several photos are provided.   They speculate that it might have been the Falcon-9 booster upper stage.  More analytic people than I will probably be able to look at the times and location and better determine if it could have been the Falcon-9.  Interesting sight either way. (hat tip to Sascha Grant!)



You heard it here first, but there is more on Bad Astronomy.

12-Pack GSE revealed

I kicked some ideas around and decided that I'll merely wrap the entire Quickmatch cluster in masking tape.  Wow. 

Another great Falcon-9 album

_MG_3205, originally uploaded by Katie Darby.

So awesome. Click through, yadda, yadda, yadda...

Falcon-9 photo mania

Here's an AP photo showing what may be condensation as Mach is broken? (via io9)  And the answer to their question is...partially.

12-Pack essentially done, less custom GSE

It's not worth another set of photos, but I laid 2 coats of Future on, added 2 additional plastic pop-rivets to keep the removable motor mount securely in place, updated the Rsim model with actual unloaded mass and CG numbers, filled the business end with C6's, and confirmed there is still ~1 caliber of stability.  Nice.  It will fly later in the month at MDRA.  I'm still wondering about a standoff, baffle, or sheathing method to make sure the huge bundle of Quickmatch sparks don't ruin what for me is a great paint job.  A paint job which raises the POD (probability of disaster) to critical levels. :)

The view from the causeway

Spaceflight Now has a wonderful gallery of launch photos taken by Ben Cooper from the NASA Causeway about four miles south of the launch pad. I just had to swipe one.  This is not the best from the exhaust plume standpoint, but I love the composition.

SpaceX Falcon 9 launch

SpaceX Falcon 9 launch, originally uploaded by Matthew Simantov.

Click through for additional shots.

Falcon-9 video

The webcast capture, including video drop outs:

Falcon-9 is looking good!

Congrats to SpaceX!  After aborting on the first try, Falcon-9 successfully boosted about 7 minutes ago.  No word of any anomalies.  Staging seemed to work too. About 4 min. to Dragon separation.  Someone pleeeeese get this video on YouTube.  I feel the need to embed. (This is all unofficial, of course.)

Update:  Some unexpected 2nd stage roll.  LOS at horizon.

Falcon-9 webcast on Spaceflight Now (update)

Update:  Don't necessarily listen to me. Spaceflight Now has an old interview, not the webcast.  And SpaceX's webcast since came up for me, and it appears to be LIVE!

Watch the webcast on Spaceflight Now, now. SpaceX's whole website is coming up blank for me...the white screen of death?  Anyway, Spaceflight Now is there.

12 C6's = ?

I am planning to fly the 12-Pack on three central Estes C6-7's (for ejection) and 9 Quest 'long burn' C6's (for boost and I got a lot of them).  It seems a C6 isn't a C6.  The Estes has an average impulse of 4.7 N and the Quest has 3.5.  Based on a quick calculation, the flight will use 141g of propellant, so it is technically high power.  But the equivalent motor is a mere 105G46.  That's only a 25% G motor.  Assuming all the thrust spikes occur at the same time, the max thrust is around 181 N.  I still have to plug actuals back into my RockSim model and load her up with motors and see if I forgot the nose weight :eek:

EMRR update with my reviews and a new contest!

Today's EMRR Update includes reviews of my Odd' Rockets Birdie and Wedgie.  One has a goofy formatting error but the gist should be clear - these are cool kits.  And you can always look at the pretty pictures :)  The errors have been reported and may even be gone when you read this.

There is also a new photo contest.  As a follow up to the Two at Once contest (which is closed), Nick has kicked off the Double Vision Photo. These names made me think I was seeing double.  But then I saw one of my photos was used as an example for the new one (my duo of Semroc V-2's, seen to the right).  Dang Nick, now I gotta find another subject for my entry.  Maybe I don't have to, but it will be more fun!

SpaceX Falcon-9 webcast details

From the horses mouth, so to speak:

Posted June 01, 2010

This page will host the live webcast of first test flight of Falcon 9. The launch window for the first Falcon 9 test launch attempt is now scheduled for:

Friday 4 June 2010

Launch Window Opens: 11:00 AM Eastern / 8:00 AM Pacific / 1500 UTC

Launch window lasts 4 hours.

SpaceX will provide a live webcast of the launch events, presently scheduled to begin 20 minutes prior to the opening of the launch window.

Webcast Start: 10:40 AM Eastern / 7:40 AM Pacific / 1440 UTC

SpaceX has also reserved a second launch day on Saturday 5 June, with the same hours.

Dates and times are subject to change, so check here where we will post any updates to this schedule.

In the meantime, the window above should be showing you an audio/video test loop to help confirm your system settings.

When the cat is away, the mouse will paint their rockets

When I last posted about the 12-Pack, I was neither sure how I wanted to paint it nor when I'd get around to it. What I forgot was that the wife had bridge. And since the TV season is over, I headed to the Dungeon and made up my mind. This photo shows the results from three angles. At first, I had mounted the escape tower from my Estes Mercury Atlas on the 'AquaPod Capsule'. It looked cool but seemed a bit flimsy for a rocket of this size, so I improvised/scrounged something else. I have a little touch up to do and will give it a coat of Future Shine.  I'm pretty happy with the result. Large BP clusters ignited with Quickmatch are tough on a rockets lower extremities so I'm pondering some set-up to help protect the finish a bit.

The fleet is growing faster than I can fly them :eek:

Here is a shot of the 12-Pack.  It's flyable but methinks I'll wait to paint it.  I am thinking about leaving the white primer on the base and painting alternating motor tubes black.  Then maybe add a roll pattern on the fins. Or maybe use trim Monokote instead of paint.  Or... 

I also reintroduced the nose cone and body of another one of Paul Miller's leftovers.  It's a BT-55 3FNC with USAF styling. That's the 6th of the Paul Miller-derived rockets on my cue.

A massively clustered Coke Zero/Mentos Rocket Car

Uncharacteristically, I mostly find this to be a waste of good Coke Zero. But as long as it's their Coke Zero and not mine...and the scale of the project IS cool.

Via Clark Lindsey - hey Clark, shouldn't this have been on the Space for All v. RLV and Space Transport blogs? :)

Now if they could get George Katz to properly pressurize those 108 bottles...

Rocketry electrical safety

Verna and Randy have dedicated most of the June update of their Photo of the Month and Fire & Smoke features to a very important aspect of rocketry safety - electrical safety.

Recovery Safety. I will not attempt to recover my rocket from power lines, tall trees, or other dangerous places. 

Last month, two rocketeers from Canada were injured when they tried to recover a rocket from a power line. I had read about this on Rocketry Planet but had lost track of the thread.  I am saddened to hear one rocketeer died of his injuries.  The best homage we can pay is to heed the warning and stay safe.

By the way, just because a rocket snagged on a line is not up high is no reason to think it is safe!  V&R offer some photos of a rocket that almost dangled to the ground.  These lines carry high voltages that are capable of following any path to the ground and which can jump large air gaps.  Call the power company!