We have a new TARC Geezer!

Vince's Geezer TARC entry sets on the pad awaiting launch (Click to enlarge).

Well, today was THE day - the annual Geezer TARC fly off. This year's contestants - myself, Duane, Marc, and Vince - gathered at Pegasus field at 10 AM for the showdown. As is the norm with Geezer TARC, there were sighs of relief and expressions of dismay, with things never going as expected. And when the smoke cleared, we had a new champion - one who threw together a model without doing a single sim and flew it on a motor he hoped would work. Those of us who spent many hours with Open Rocket and building finely tuned birds of glory could only shake our heads in astonishment and wonder if we had neglected some sacrifice to the rocket gods.

Vince's improvised V-2 TARC was first to fly. I must confess I was tempted to disqualify him at the outset, for the model was literally a V-2 with a BT-70 payload section taped to the top. However, it was creative, reminding me somewhat of the old White Sands Bumper program (WAC rocket on top of V-2), so I decided to let it go. It took Vince a while to get the bird into the air, as he had 3 ignitor misfires before it left the rail on the 4th attempt. It was a fantastic flight - altitude of 829 feet and a perfect duration of just over 41 seconds. The rest of us were showing grim faces as we stared at Vince's 29 score.

"Fat Chance" and "Best Chance" - Duane's Geezer
TARC entries (Click to enlarge).

Eggsploder clears the rail under the thrust of 4 Estes
BP motors (Click to enlarge).

Duane was up next with his "Fat Chance" entry. Just shy of the weight limit at 636 grams, this thing was a pig. Nonetheless, it achieved 813 feet on an Aerotech F32, the closest of any flight to the 800 foot target. Unfortunately for Duane, Fat Chance's elastic shock cord couldn't handle the load and snapped, causing the sustainer to fall to the ground. The payload section made a gentle landing under parachute after a total flight time of 44 seconds, but that did not save Duane's flight from being disqualified. A shame - he just might have won the day.

The third TARC rocket to fly was Marc Loertscher's "Geezer Cheater." Tipping the scale at a whopping 750 grams (100 grams over the limit), it was disqualified at the outset, but Marc flew it anyway, just to see what it could do. He had developed a novel automated parachute reefing system for this model (which is why it was overweight), and you could actually see the chute being reefed and let out as the model descended from its peak altitude of 694 feet. Marc had programmed the thing to adjust the rocket descent rate so that it touched down in 42 seconds; it landed in 43, which our master engineer attributed to the programmed turn off of the chute control in the last 50 feet before ground contact. I was most impressed - and worried about facing this guy next year.

My turn had now come. It had taken me some time to prep the Eggsploder - stuffing the two eggs into the payload section and wiring up the 4 Quest ignitors in the 2 D12's and 2 C6's had taken more time than I normally spend getting TARC birds ready. But now she was set to go, and I hoped that the C6's would provide enough additional power to loft my 529 gram beauty to altitude (taken together, the 4 motors provided 63% of the impulse of a full F). I was also nervous after the cluster failure with my Deuces Wild a couple of weeks ago, so you can bet I checked those ignitors and the connections very thoroughly.

Turns out, I didn't need to worry...

Eggsploder's altitude profile showing the variable descent rate (Click to enlarge)

Eggsploder shot off the rail with all 4 motors burning bright, reaching 839 feet before popping the 18" parachute just past apogee. All my sims had indicated that this size parasheet would produce the perfect descent rate of 23 feet per second, but sims do not account of the upwelling of warm air from the ground (the launch occurred well past noon). I could tell that the rocket was catching air, and it stayed aloft a full minute - 17 seconds past the mark. A successful flight, but my 108 score looked pretty pathetic next to Vince's 29. I took a look at the altimeter profile after returning to my apartment, and found a very variable rate of descent - 14 feet per second near apogee, shallowing to 13 feet per second for a bit, then increasing to 17 feet per second and finally 20 feet per second near the ground. Weird, and none of the rates were close to the predicted 23 feet per second. Oh well, even if my time had been perfect, Vince was still 10 feet closer to the altitude mark than me.

The last Geezer TARC flight was that of Duane's "Best Chance". Flying on an Aerotech F39 reload, it achieved an altitude of 629 feet - puzzling, as Best Chance's weight of 543 grams was a good deal lighter than that of Fat Chance, which had performed very well. Unfortunately, Best Chance was under the same "Curse of Recovery" as his predecessor; the parachute sheared away, causing the entire model to plummet into a tree at the edge of the road. The model was recovered, but Duane's second flight was also a DQ. He took some solace in the fact that the eggs had survived the fall undamaged - the Mayer egg protection system is almost fool proof.

2018 Geezer TARC results (Click to enlarge).

And so, around 1 PM today, Vince Huegele was presented the 2018 Geezer TARC trophy and proclaimed this year's TARC Geezer. Duane, by virtue of being the most cursed contestant, received the 2018 Flying Pig award. I noted, with some irony, that he had been emphasizing to his teams the need for beefy shock cords and strong attach points - the very things that failed today.

Congrats Vince!

The victor, holding his rocket and trophy
(click to enlarge).

Duane with the Flying Pig award (Click to enlarge).

And wait till next year. It's gonna be my year - I can feel it in my bones...

(My apologies for the lack of pics - I was busy timing and writing notes during the Geezer TARC flights)

My first eBay rescues...

There are a few people on the forums who delight in buying old built kits on eBay for the purpose of transforming them into flyable pieces of art. I have never done this, but found the idea intriguing - what better test of build/repair skills than attempting to resurrect decades-old dilapidated rockets? Anyway, there was a lot of rockets on eBay going for a few bucks - an original Estes Viper, a Sky Hook, a Mark II, a Streak, a Mosquito, a glider, and a Centuri Moonraker. It seemed too good to pass up, so I placed a bid; wonder of wonders, I actually won!

Lot of old rockets I purchased from eBay (Click to enlarge).

The rockets arrived in a couple of days, whereupon I immediately started an inspection. The glider and Mosquito I set aside, as I will probably not mess with them - Mosquitos are a dime a dozen, and I have yet to identify the glider with certainty, though it strongly resembles the Estes Firefly (The time period seems right). The Viper's fins are loose and misaligned, but it appears to be a straightforward repair and finish. Same for the Moonraker, but the adhesive paper is coming off the Streak, so that will require a little more work. I'm going to let it slide, as I have just rebuilt an old Streak. The Mark II is in the best shape of the lot - fins properly aligned, balsa nose cone in good condition. It will be the second rocket of this lot I finish and detail.

The Sky Hook (left) and Mark II before the start of the Sky Hook repair (Click to enlarge).

Which brings me to the Sky Hook...

I do not have one of these, and this model appears early 1970's vintage (in line with the other kits). Unfortunately, one of the fins was very badly misaligned - the one with the launch lug glued to the side, naturally. The kit's creator, Bill Simon, is going to give a lecture at the Museum of Flight in the near future, so I figured the Sky Hook would be the first to be resurrected. I cut off the misaligned fin, destroying it in the process, along with the launch lug (at least I didn't slice my fingers). I pulled a Semroc laser-cut Sky Hook fin from my stash, sanded it a bit, and glued it onto the tube. Proper alignment was ensured by using a Qualman rocketry alignment guide - even though he does not make a BT-30 guide, the Quest T-20 guide was a good fit to the old Estes BT-30 tube.

Have I mentioned that I love the Qualman guides? They are fantastic, and any serious rocketeer should have them in his or her tool kit. I just wish he made a set for for Centuri tubes.

Anyway, that's where things stand now - the fin is drying, and soon I will glue on a new launch lug and apply fillets. Life is slowly being breathed back into this old bird...

A tubular build...

Quest Totally Tubular (Click to enlarge).

Tube fin scratch build - the Algol
(Click to enlarge).

I must confess to not being a big fan of rockets with tube fins - they violate my 1950's conception of what a rocket should look like. However, I do have 2 in my existing fleet - the Quest Totally Tubular and a scratch built tubular payloader, which I christened the Algol. The Totally Tubular is one of those pre-colored quick build kits with "peel n cuss" stickers, which means it spends a lot of time on the shelf; it's hard to be fond of something that takes no work to assemble. The Algol involved more labor, but it exhibits a bit of shimmy when it leaves the rod, which also results in it getting a huge amount of shelf time. Given this, it is hard to imagine that I would construct another tube fin rocket, but that it is exactly what I am doing.

1972 Centuri catalog pages showing the Groove Tube (Click to enlarge).

Back in 1972, Centuri released what I believe to be the first commercial tube fin rocket kit, the groovy "Groove Tube." In my opinion, it is the best looking of the lot, with a nice red, white, blue, and black paint scheme, silver trim, and a hippie-looking name decal. I had one in my teenage years - the lack of balsa needing sanding appealed to me - but soon lost it via my standard "C6-7 in very small field" practice of those days. Several days ago, I ran across a Groove Tube thread on Ye Olde Rocket Forum, and the pictures of the model sparked a new interest. The instructions and parts list were easily obtained; I had them all in my stash.

• 1  PNC-89 Nose cone    (Semroc/eRockets BC-846)
• 1  Shock Cord  
• 1  Body Tube                 ST-813
• 6  Stabilizing Tubes       ST-83
• 1  Thrust Ring               TR-7
• 1  Centering Ring          HTC-8
• 1  Motor Tube                ST-73
• 1  Motor Hook      

This build is not as simple as it appears, at least in terms of finishing and painting the model. Should I build it, then apply primer and paint? It might be difficult covering all of the rocket, especially in the gaps where the tube fins join the main body tube. And how to deal with the black interiors of the tube fins? Paint the inside black (might be a little tough with spray paint), use a black marker, or cover the inside with black chalkboard paper or trim monokote? I decided to follow Chris Michielssen's approach, which is to paint the components separately and glue things together at the last. I am also leaning towards using the chalkboard paper or monokote on the tube fin insides, as that will avoid masking off their exteriors.

Groove Tube parts (Click to enlarge).

Having settled on the approach, I have started the build - the motor mount is assembled, and the first primer coat has been applied to the tubes. This weekend I will finish the balsa cone with Brodak sanding sealer and prime it. The decals have also been downloaded from JimZ's site and cleaned up - I think I am probably the 1000th person to do this, as no one bothers to post their cleaned up decals online. A shame, as the decal in the JimZ scan is pretty ratty, and it takes a bit of work to get it usable.  So, in an attempt to set things right, you can grab my decal set (300 dpi png) here - it also includes the Arrow 300 set and Centuri logos.

The season begins at Pegasus...

My Estes Alpha streaks skyward on an A8-3 (click to enlarge).

My apologies for no blog posts over the past couple of months - it's been a busy summer, and I haven't found much time to write. Things seemed to have slacked off a bit for now, so hopefully I will be posting more regularly. Especially given that rocket season - at least in terms of TARC and low power - has begun in earnest.

A few days ago, Duane noticed that Pegasus field had been mowed, eliminating the high weeds, grass, shrubs, etc. that had prevented us from launching there over the summer. Naturally, such an event had to be marked by an inaugural launch, so 1 o'clock on Sunday saw Duane and I driving onto the field, where we met Allen for a little rocket fun. The day was beautiful - sunny skies with the occasional puffy cumulus cloud, and a light breeze out of the northeast. In just a few minutes, my low power pad (now equipped with an Odd'l Rockets' ceramic blast deflector) and Duane's rail were ready for action. We had brought rockets, and we were eager to see them fly - along with a passerby family, who had fun watching the birds take to the air.

Duane watches my ASP NEO Standard clear the rod
(Click to enlarge).

The Stars & Stripes shows its spirit on the pad
(Click to enlarge).

My ASP Neo Standard was the first to leave the pad on an A8-5, following a straight trajectory up into the blue. The parachute deployed nicely and the model made a soft landing on the dirt about 30 yards from the pad. I followed this performance with the maiden voyage of my Estes Stars and Stripes, a patriotic, easy-to-build model that went out of production a few years back. It achieved a decent altitude on the B6-4, lazily drifting back to earth on its parachute. My third flight was made by my newly-built clone of the Estes Hornet Mini-Brute; it ripped off the pad on an A10-3T motor, reaching a very respectable altitude of 339 feet (recorded by the PerfectFlite FireFly altimeter in the payload section). The Hornet recovered by streamer, which slowed the model to a modest 21 feet per second on its descent (you gotta love data!).

The Hornet leaps off the pad on an A10-3T
(Click to enlarge).

The PerfectFlite FireFly display unit shows the peak
altitude achieved by the Hornet - among other things
(Click to enlarge).

While I was flying, Allen and Duane had been busy prepping their birds. Allen led off with a launch of his red, white and blue QCC Explorer, which turned in a text book flight on an Estes D12. Next up was Duane's venerable Beast, his symbol of Geezer TARC glory. It sat on the pad for several seconds, the ancient (11 year old) Aerotech F20 chuffing like an asthmatic before lighting. As the Beast cleared the rail, it became clear that the motor did not have much left; the rocket clawed for altitude and arced over. Breaths were held as the bird dived for the ground, with welcome exhales occurring as the parachute deployed not more than 50 feet or so above the dirt. For those of you who don't know Duane, he is one of those guys who lets nothing go to waste - even decades old composites. This is one reason that his flights can be kinda interesting at times. Anyway, the Beast's flight was followed by the journey of his Estes Mammoth, flying on a much younger Aerotech F27 (also a black "smoky" motor). This launch was much, much better - the Mammoth shot way up into the sky, and the Jolly Logic Chute release popped the parachute right at 300 feet.

Allen's QCC Explorer is lofted by an Estes D12
(Click to enlarge).

Duane's "Beast" struggles to gain altitude on its ancient
F20 motor (Click to enlarge).

Allen launches his Blackstar Voyager
(Click to enlarge).

Duane's Mammoth trails black smoke on its way up
(Click to enlarge).

Allen's Estes BlackStar Voyager flew next, on an Aerotech E20-4 - Good chute deploy and a soft landing. Inspired by all the successful flights, he then brought out his scratch built "Fissile Missile". This orange and black beauty represents a step along Allen's path to a level 2 high power certification, incorporating a black powder drogue deployment and a main released by a Jolly Logic Chute Release - you will note that these devices are becoming frequently used at Pegasus, as they help ensure that mid-power birds flying over 1000 feet have a decent chance of landing in the field. The Fissile Missile's flight was perfect, soaring to just over 1030 feet on an Aerotech G38 and with drogue and main chute deployment as programmed. Allen was quite pleased.

The Fissile Missile on the pad... (Click to enlarge).

And riding black smoke into the sky
(Click to enlarge).

I took over the action with my trusty Fliskits Deuce's Wild following the Fissile Missile. I was hoping for some good footage from the HD keychain camera taped to the side, but only one of the two B6-4 motors lit. The rocket barely cleared the rod, arced over, and plowed straight down into the dirt just to the east of the parked cars. I could not bear to look, so Duane recovered the rocket. As he handed me  the model, I was surprised to see that the body tube was not crunched; indeed, the only damage was to the balsa nose cone, the sides of which were sheared away as it was driven into the body tube. I cannot recall a body tube surviving unscathed from any of my previous lawn darts - as a matter of fact, I am still looking at the model with disbelief. Post flight inspection of the ignitors showed that one of the Quest Q2 ignitors had a broken lead, which explains why one motor did not ignite. I should have caught this BEFORE the flight, however - carelessness in rocketry can be expensive. Fortunately, the repair is a simple replacement of the nose cone.

Jim Flis - your rockets are tough hombres!

My Deuces Wild struggles under the power of just one
B6-4 (Click to enlarge).

The damage after the flight (Click to enlarge).

A GoPro view of the Deuce launch (Click to enlarge).

The final launch of the day involved one of my Estes Alpha clones, the one with the red, black, and white 1970's decor. The A8-3 got it up there and the parachute deployed with nary a problem. I intend on flying an Alpha at every launch until the end of the year, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the kit's release. It seems like an appropriate thing to do.

For the record, here's the onboard footage from the Deuce's Wild - not one of my finer moments...

It fell, daddy!

"It fell, daddy" - These words were the comment made by a little girl after witnessing a very heavy model of a Blue Origin (I think) spacecraft arc right into the the ground at Southern Thunder. It was an all too common occurrence during the two days of the launch, and is becoming increasingly more frequent at every launch. Rocketeers - inexperienced and veteran - are forgetting a very basic rule of rocket flight...

Weight is everything

Consider this YouTube video:

Obviously underpowered, eh? If you look at the video description, you will find that the motor used in this flight was an Aerotech E23-8T; E impulse is not even on the Leviathan list of recommended motors (F26-6FJ, F50-6T, G40-7W, G80-7T). If the flyers had done a little math or simulation beforehand, they would have realized that the max altitude on this motor - assuming the rocket weighed 17.5 ounces as stated on the kit art - was only 300 or so feet, with a coast time of 3 seconds. The 8 second delay they used was waaaaay too long; no wonder the rocket plowed into the ground.

The moral of this story? Stick to the recommended motors unless you are prepared to do some sims or math - after weighing the built and finished rocket, of course. Unless you are these folks, who used trial and error to arrive at the right motor (yes, I am being sarcastic):

A simple glance at the kit instructions would have told them that an A motor was not on the recommended motor list for the Amazon; the lowest usable impulse was B. But I suppose they had to find out for themselves. Fortunately, the Estes Amazon is a hardy beast, or its first flight would have been its last.

However, the Blue Origin model I mentioned at the beginning of the post wasn't a kit, so there is no list of recommended motors. So what do you do with scratch builds? Well, we have wonderful computer programs like Open Rocket and RockSim that you can use to fairly accurately estimate the performance of these rockets, enabling one to choose the right motor/delay combination. To be fair, there are some model types - like saucers - that these codes can't handle, forcing a bit of internet searching to discover the motor types used in similar models that have been flown by others. After you weigh the rocket, of course - the simulations are no good unless you have a weight match. This is especially true of those who tend to overbuild - all that epoxy and stuff can add considerable weight to the model, which isn't automatically factored into the simulation programs.

At a launch, I like to use an iOS app called Rocket Calculator, which does all sorts of nifty rocket math, including estimating altitude, coast time, and thrust-to-weight ratio. The numbers it produces are usually within 10-20% of those of Open Rocket or RockSim, making it an excellent tool for deciding proper motor/delay combinations.

Rocket Calculator main menu
(Click to enlarge)

Rocket Calculator Altitude
Prediction (Click to enlarge).

I know that some may think I am being a bit of a curmudgeon (or "tightass", "stick-in-the-mud", etc., etc.). However, our hobby survives because rocketeers fly their models safely; rockets arcing into the ground ain't safe. Fly smart - stick to recommended motors or use the results of valid simulations/calculations.

I am now leaving the soapbox.

I survived Southern Thunder 2017

Barely...

Just a few minutes after arrival, I slipped in the very muddy ground along the tent line and created a big new mud puddle when my huge carcass hit the ground. Fortunately, my pride was the only thing to suffer damage - if you discount the fact that I went through Saturday covered in mud like a sewer worker. Nonetheless, I soldiered on and managed to enjoy Southern Thunder 2017 very much, especially on Sunday when I stayed a good deal cleaner.

Lining up at the RSO tent for pre-flight checks (Click to enlarge).

For those of you who don't know, Southern Thunder is the big annual launch for the Music City Missile Club (MC2) and my club HARA. Traditionally held in June, this year we were joined by a new co-host, the SoAR (Southern Area Rocketry) club out of north Georgia. This is a good thing, as SOAR brings to the event some very experienced folks and some nice launch equipment to augment MC2 and HARA's already awesome capabilities. The Birmingham Rocket Boys also came north and joined in on the fun by conducting a night launch on Saturday night. I haven't seen the official numbers for Sunday, but there were about 227 flights on Saturday, which is lower than in past Southern Thunders. The cause was obvious - a smaller attendance, no doubt caused by the monsoon rains that blew through the area Thursday and Friday, creating the treacherous quagmire that led to my fall. The weather was so bad that I was doubtful it would improve by launch day, and I am sure many potential attendees were put off by the iffy forecast. Their loss, because those of us at ST2017 had a great time flying rockets with all sorts of motors, from 1/4 A all the way up to M's.

Looking south from the middle of the tent line (Click to enlarge).

My Estes Orange Crush on the pad (Click to enlarge).

I flew 7 rockets during the two day launch - not great, but hey, at least I got a few birds in the air. Here's the list:

• Estes Orange Crush on a C11-5 (Saturday)
• Estes Mammoth on an Estes F15-6 (Saturday)
• Aerotech Initiator on a G74-9W (Sunday)
• Downscale Enerjet 2250 clone on 3xB6-4 (Sunday)
• MPC Pioneer 1 on a Quest A6-4 (Sunday)
• Estes Marauder clone on a B4-4 (Sunday)
• Estes Alpha on an A8-3 (Sunday)

All flights went well, with soft landings in the drier parts of the field. I got some ribbing from members of my club about the Mammoth and Initiator flights, which were considered to be a significant deviation from my norm. I guess they are right - I rarely fly anything with more impulse than an E, even in Geezer TARC. The Initiator flight was my favorite; I love the fire and sound of the brilliant Aerotech White Lightning motors, and the G really put the rocket way up there.

My Enerjet downscale awaits its turn (Click to enlarge).

Racking up mod rocs (Click to enlarge).

Allen accompanied me and Duane to the field, and his modified Madcow Patriot put in a very nice flight on an H motor. I gave him considerable grief about sticking a G118 into an Estes Ventris, which I figured would shred the rocket, but it held together nicely, with the electronics in the modified payload section executing a perfect dual deploy. I also enjoyed the flight of his finless induction rocket, which flew (mostly) straight on an C6 motor - to the amazement of the onlookers.

Allen's induction rocket on the pad (Click to enlarge).

And in the air (Click to enlarge).

And Duane? He flew nothing - nada, zilch, bumpkus. Perhaps I shouldn't criticize, because he may have been the smartest of our trio. With no prepping and waiting in lines, he was completely free to watch the flights, some of which were rather spectacular in a NASCAR fashion. I was oblivious to quite a bit of the action while doing flight preps. Lots of things go on at a Southern Thunder, with the launches, raffles, and special events. Blink and you can easily miss something quite neat.

Southern Thunder 2017 sponsors - there were lots of goodies given away! (Click to enlarge).

Motivated by the written word...

The monotony of all the flying done during my spring work travel season has been broken by reading Wes Oleszewski's "Growing Up with Spaceflight" series. Wes - aka the infamous Dr. Zooch of scale rocket fame - spins pretty good yarns about growing up with the space program, starting with a wee lad watching Mercury shots and progressing on through Gemini, Apollo, and the Shuttle. I have just finished reading "Project Apollo Part 1", and I had to laugh when at the end of the book Wes describes getting into model rocketry. Consider this short excerpt:

"A few months earlier I had gotten an MPC "Pioneer One" model rocket for my 13th birthday. Of course just flying it and watching it come down on its parachute was something for regular kids and not for the insane spaceflight lunatic who lived at 3324 Lexington Drive. No indeed - I had to heavily modify it and add stuff that would certainly get me thrown out of the National Association of Rocketry - had I been a member. Today I had assembled a kludge the likes of which was so dangerous that it was a miracle that Vern Estes himself did not come to my house and slap me up-side my head; it was perfect."

Wouldn't be fair to Wes to go further; if you want to know what the kludge involving the Pioneer One was, buy the book - it's only a few bucks on Amazon, and there is a lot of great stuff on the early Apollo missions presented in a fun, leisurely manner. However, I think you can guess that things did not go well. Most of the "spaceflight lunatics" who grew up in the 60's did stupid stuff with rockets - my ill-considered schemes were so crazy bad that I dare not speak of them with current rocketeers, lest I be called accursed and cast from their company. So I admire Wes for putting some of his exploits in print. As for me, I'm gonna keep quiet.

MPC Pioneer 1 (Click to enlarge).

MPC ad showing the Moon-Go at right (Click to enlarge).

As a kid, I also owned a few MPC kits, and liked them very much - they looked cool and had plastic fin units and detail parts. These passed into oblivion decades ago, but I have managed to gather a few for the kit stash, including a Moon-Go, which was one of my favorites. Anyway, the book's description of the Pioneer One incident reminded me of my past model, and I realized that I have enough original MPC parts in the bins to build one. And, so this weekend, I started work on a Pioneer One - it goes together quickly and I should have it finished and painted by Southern Thunder, where it shall make an appearance, involving "just flying and coming down on its parachute."

Old rocketeers have no desire to tempt the fates - we cannot dodge quickly anymore.

Note: There is a short history of MPC rockets and some catalog images posted here, should you have the interest. Wes' first rocket was a Flare Patriot, btw.