Well, 2020 has certainly been challenging so far - issues at work and the COVID-19 pandemic have created some chaos in life. However, there has been time for rockets; got a few launches in before the pandemic broke out and have built a few. The blog has been neglected, though. For some reason, it is the first thing to be put aside. I think it is because writing seems too much like work at times.
Anyway, I figured I'd make the first post of 2020 a small pictorial of launch images of the year to date. So, without further adieu, here they are:
My Estes MAV on the pad (Click to enlarge).
... and lifting off on a C6-3 (Click to enlarge).
Duane's upscale Cherokee clears the rail under F42
power (Click to enlarge).
My Centuri Taurus clone gets going on a B6-4
(Click to enlarge).
Jurassic TARC gets ready to launch their rocket
(Click to enlarge).
Ignition of the B6-4 in my Estes Starship Octavius
(Click to enlarge).
The Urban Astronaut's TARC rocket under power. Note
the Blue Origin rocket engine factory across the street
(Click to enlarge).
Allen launches his venerable Estes Mercury Redstone
(Click to enlarge).
The E12 motor in Josh's Estes Blackstar Voyager leaves
a nice cloud of smoke at the pad (Click to enlarge).
Duane's Death Star begins another C6-3 powered
journey. It is always a crowd pleaser when it breaks
apart at ejection (Click to enlarge).
My ASP Corporal on a D12-5 (Click to enlarge).
And coming down under parachute (Click to enlarge).
Duane's Leviathan rides the nearly invisible trail of an
Aerotech F52 (Click to enlarge).
The A3-4T mini motor in my Estes Little John starts
smoking (Click to enlarge).
A Mammoth spewing purple flame from its Aerotech
F32 motor (Click to enlarge).
The Mammoth safely descending under parachute
(Click to enlarge).
Duane's Mega Mosquito reaches the top of the rod,
propelled by an Estes D12 (Click to enlarge).
My Centuri MX-774 clone just before liftoff
(Click to enlarge).
Allen's QCC Explorer heads skyward (Click to enlarge)
My Rocketarium Viking 7 scale model on 2 B6-4's
(Click to enlarge).
A semi-scale model of Musk's Starship heads up the rod
on an Estes D12 (Click to enlarge).
A Mercury Redstone about to make a soft landing
(Click to enlarge).
Allen's Patriot does a shimmy before going unstable
on a D13 reload (Click to enlarge).
My Estes Starbase Starcruiser makes its maiden
voyage on a B6-4 (Click to enlarge).
2 stage Estes Savage with a C11-0 in the booster and
a B6-4 in the upper stage (Click to enlarge).
The B6-4 in my Quest Thunder emits a burst of flame
at ignition (Click to enlarge).
The Christmas rockets start appearing on the table! (Click to enlarge)
Back in October, I announced a contest for members of HARA - design and build a stable and safe Christmas-themed rocket in time for the December club meeting. Even though time did not allow me to build my design (which couldn't have won anyway, since I was providing the prize), there were a decent number of Christmas rockets that showed up at the meeting in the Space and Rocket Center's boardroom. There was a BT-60 based rocket wrapped in wrapping paper, a rocket with a hand painted holiday decor, a flying Christmas wreath, a Christmas candle, a flying Christmas present and two Christmas trees (one with LED lights), a "snowman on a stick", and a holiday-converted Estes Solo. Martin built the latter as part of an elaborate Christmas diorama, and even composed a poem for the occasion. This made it easy for the judges, who awarded the Apogee Katana to Martin without the need to deliberate. By the way, the other entries were great - it's just that they were overwhelmed by the complexity and craftsmanship of Martin's entry. There was also no need to prove the stability of his model, as the Solo has flown many times by many people. As for the stability of the others, well, let's just say that the launch at Pegasus field a couple of days later (Pearl Harbor Day) had its interesting moments...
The judges look over some of the entries
(Click to enlarge).
Martin's winning entry (Click to enlarge).
December 7 was beautiful day to fly - sunny, perfect temperature, and practically no wind. It was as if Mother Nature was granting us great flying weather as an early Christmas present, and we seized the opportunity. Lots of rockets took to the air, but I'm going to focus on the Christmas rockets in this post - after all, they are custom designed for the season!
My venerable Polar Express started the launch a bit after 10 AM. Even though he was not riding a custom bird, Santa has flown in December over the past several years and I was not going to let him off the hook this Christmas. The black powder Quest A6-4 provided him with a decent ride and his rocket sled descended safely to the ground under parachute, ready to be refitted for next year's journey. Duane followed with his "Snowman on a stick", which powered off the pad under a D12-3. A straight flight, but the shock cord broke and the sustainer tumbled to Earth, breaking a fin upon impact. Easily repairable.
My Polar Express lifts off (Click to enlarge).
Duane sets up his "Snowman on a stick"
(Click to enlarge).
Josh launched his flying Christmas Wreath next. It proved to be less than stable with an Estes D12 - maybe the motor should have been mounted higher to move the CG farther forward? However, its flight was straight when compared to that of Vince's E15-powered Christmas tree, which did loops around the sky before hitting the ground. That made two unstable Christmas rockets out of the three flown - not looking good for the master designers!
Josh's Christmas Wreath lifts off Duane's pad
(Click to enlarge).
Vince's Christmas Tree starts its dance in the sky
(Click to enlarge).
The last two Christmas rockets to take to the air were Josh's Christmas candle and Patrick's flying Christmas present. Josh redeemed himself with the flight of the candle, which was arrow-straight on an Estes C6 motor. Patrick's boxy rocket had us both excited and scared, as it was loaded with an H motor of the largest impulse we could fly without a waiver. Such critters are very rare at Pegasus, where G motors are uncommon, so you can imagine the anticipation around the pads as Patrick hooked up that beastie. We needn't have worried - the flying Christmas present put in a perfect flight, riding that H motor's beautiful pillar of fire up into the blue. It put a perfect coda on the December 7 flights of the Christmas rockets.
Josh's Christmas candle takes to the air
(Click to enlarge).
Patrick shows off his flying Christmas present
(Click to enlarge).
The Christmas present in flight (Click to enlarge).
This contest seemed to be enjoyed by all, and I was happy by the number and variety of the rockets. I think I will do it again next year. Maybe I will even find time to build a rocket for it - the Polar Express needs company!
Nifty product and some very cool upcoming products from FlightSketch.com. This dude has the right attitude!
From his FaceBook post:
As promised, I wanted to share some info on what is in store for 2020 from FlightSketch.
First up, it’s been a long road getting the Mini to production and at every step it seems like someone has asked “why doesn’t it do ........” And well, there were a few awesome features that just wouldn't fit. In order to meet the size and price targets for the Mini, a few things got left out. The biggest being deployment events. So, we are announcing the FlightSketch Sport. All of the capability of the Mini plus a 2 channel deployment controller. It’s the same width as the Mini (fits in 18mm tube) and 2" long. Single cell LiPo operation opens up dual deploy to many more models. The first flight on the sport was a BT-55 model on a C6-5! Example flight: https://flightsketch.com/flights/347/
Second, almost as many people have asked for the opposite - an even smaller altimeter for competition use. We shaved 30% off the mass of the original FS Mini but the question was still “how low can we go?” Introducing the FlightSketch Competition. A sub-gram recording altimeter that is just 8mm wide and with all of the features of the Mini including Bluetooth. Small enough for record setting flights in the smallest models, we will be pursuing NAR and FAI approval for contest use.
And one more thing... like many others, we’re tired of spending hours searching for models after landing. Even low power models in tall grass can be impossible to find. It’s (almost) 2020, why can’t I just get a map to my rocket? Introducing FlightSketch SST - the Super Simple Tracker. Still just 0.6 inches wide, fits in an 18mm tube and plots your rocket’s position in real time on Google Maps. Uses Ublox GPS with LoRa radio technology for incredible range without external antennas. We maxed out our line of sight test capability at 16.5 miles with still a few dB of link budget left. And most importantly, it will be the most affordable tracking system available. Screen shots show the range test and an actual flight.
Stay tuned for more updates. Please let us know what features you would like to see!
Thanks for all of your support, looking forward to another amazing year!
Now under construction on the old Pegasus field, the Blue Origin rocket engine plant is very big and impressive; I am always amazed at how quickly these buildings are built. They seem to spring up overnight, like the walls just popped out of the ground. I hope Blue Origin give tours once the plant becomes operational, as I'm sure there is going to be some cool stuff to see within those walls.
Anyway, yesterday Duane brought to my attention an article about the plant construction that appeared in local paper and on AL.com. He pointed out that there was an aerial photo of the plant, which captured us launching rockets on the field across the street earlier this month. I looked it up on the Internet, and sure enough you can see Duane's SUV out in the field. Pretty cool.
You never know who is going to be watching when you fly rockets!
There are two holidays which really get a rocketeer's creative juices flowing - Halloween and Christmas. I'm a little late for Halloween - though I do have a few rockets in my fleet with the appropriate decor - but it's not too late for Christmas designs and builds. There's a very long tradition here - for example, one could take a kit like the Estes Spaceman (first released back in 1963)
and turn it into something like this (model by JeffyJeep on Ye Olde Rocket Forum):
Click to enlarge.
or one could use the parts from an Estes Baby Bertha:
to create the Polar-1 (from my fleet):
Click to enlarge.
You get the idea... Anyway, my club, HARA, is having a Christmas rocket design contest this year. Winner gets a very nice Apogee Katana high power dual deploy rocket kit, suitable for Level 2 certification (or just impressing folks). I'm not eligible to win (as it was my idea and I'm providing the prize), but I figured I'd join the others in the fun - designing Christmas rockets is an awesome way to pass some free time!
So what to do? Well, I'm not the biggest fan of the popular flying Christmas tree (issues with installing a recovery system), nor did I favor the flying snowflake saucer route. Instead, I chose something quick and simple...
A BT-50 based flying Christmas candle.
This was easy-peasy to design in Open Rocket, and I am pretty pleased with the results - I particularly like the holly leaf fins.
Click to enlarge.
However, it seems a little bit on the boring side. So I hit upon the idea to use the LED flame from one of these as the nose cone:
Click to enlarge.
Stick this puppy in a BT-50 coupler with a small lithium watch battery and and a tiny switch, and I will have a pretty neat light up nose cone for my candle rocket.
Members of the Auburn rocket team awaiting the start of the launch (Click to enlarge).
Saturday October 19 saw the first HARA high power launch of our winter flying season. It was supposed to be on October 12, but we postponed it for a week due to lack of a waiver and a crummy weather forecast. On Friday night, the forecast for the 19th was also looking pretty lousy, but the club decided to press ahead with the launch - rocket mania is a hard thing to dampen, even with faced with the prospect of rain. I prepped four rockets, and Duane readied his tribe of Cherokees for their anticipated flights the next day. It would be good to fly on the big Woodville field and hear the roar of some high power motors once more.
Funny how bad weather can put things into perspective...
John gives the flyer's briefing (Click to enlarge).
We arrived on the field just before 10 AM. Quite a crowd was assembled, including many, many students from Auburn eager to certify (I understand their rocket team has over 50 members - wow!). The clouds loomed low, not more than 2500 feet above ground level, a fact that John pointed out as he gave the customary flyer's briefing right before the launch began. Even though our waiver was for 12,000 feet, it is forbidden to launch Class 2 (high power) rockets into clouds, so the altitude of the cloud deck set the maximum allowed altitude for the rockets - a bummer for some, but not for me, as none of my birds would even get close to 2500 feet.
Vince takes his NCR Eliminator out to the pad (Click to enlarge).
After the briefing, the launchings commenced, albeit slowly due to a slight drizzle that began right after the range was declared open. Patrick launched his low power 3D printed "Example" rocket, which flew very well and showed nary a sign of melting after recovery. Josh flew a Fliskits ACME Spitfire and Duane put up his first Cherokee, which rose into the cloudy sky powered by 3 E12-6 motors. The most spectacular flight I witnessed was that of Vince's nicely painted North Coast Rocketry Eliminator. Its Estes F15 motor blew out the nozzle upon ignition, causing it to climb all of 6 inches off the pad on a spectacular pillar of fire. It then settled back down and belched smoke like a dragon for several seconds. In true Vanguard fashion, it popped the chute after the delay ran out and the ejection charge fired - at least that part worked. Chuck then launched his Dynasoar "Man in High Castle" rocket glider on Aerotech E's - the first flight went a bit squirrelly due to some control issues, but flight #2 was very cool, with a nice glide and landing.
Josh's ACME Spitfire clears the rod (Click to enlarge)
Vince's Eliminator reaches max altitude
(Click to enlarge).
Duane's Cherokee streaks skyward on 3 E12 motors
(Click to enlarge).
Chuck's "Man in High Castle" rocket glider coming in for a landing (Click to enlarge).
Video of the "Man in High Castle" flight
And me? Well, I was huddled under Duane's canopy, listening to the rain hit the top of the tent and moving around to avoid the leaks. The rain had intensified, and I had decided there was no way I was gonna launch my rockets in that mess. It's one thing for a rocket to die an honorable death by fire or ballistic impact, or be lost on a strong wayward breeze. But to collapse in a heap of wet cardboard, well, that's a fate I could not bear my beauties to suffer. So I left them nice and dry in the car, as more daring souls trekked out into the rain to load their rockets on the pads. Duane felt similar - after his first Cherokee flight, he decided it was too rainy to fly the others. As a matter of fact, it was getting too rainy under his canopy, with all the leaks.
So we packed up and left the field, after a stay of only a couple of hours. Mother Nature proved to be too much for us that Saturday.
Folks staying dry under the LCO tent (Click to enlarge).
But a few hardy souls stayed on - I understand there were a couple of qualification attempts, at least one of which was successful. Also, Chris Short of CS Rocketry made the long trip up from down south to support our launch, and I hope people bought a bunch of stuff from him - I know Duane acquired a few motors for the next launch. HARA is lucky to have Chris show up at our launches, as not many vendors would have come out in face of the lousy weather forecast.
Here's hoping for better weather at the November launch!
