ISOAR Launch - June 2014

Rain scrubbed our launch last weekend, but it held off long enough to get in two flights today.  First up was Angry Birds on an Aerotech I357 Blue Thunder.

Unfortunately the key chain camera didn't record the flight, so all I have is this quick clip from the launch pad:

Recovery in the tall grass was a little challenging.  Even with an 6' parachute it was tough to spot.

Next up was the LOC Bruiser, also known as the "graduation rocket" because I built this for my high school graduation party.  It hadn't flown since the crash in 2011 at Plaster City.  I decided a few weeks ago to repair the fins and the zipper.  Today it flew on an Aerotech J340 Metal Storm:

The motor has a 14 second delay and I drilled it down to 6 seconds, but it appears it went earlier than that.  Even with the early ejection charge there was no damage and it landed less than 50 yards from the pad.

My oldest son went out with me to recover it.  The grass was up to his chin!

ISOAR Launch - May 2014

Finally!  After seven months off I got to fly again.  This was also my first time flying back in Iowa since high school.  I flew two of my original mid-power rockets from the 1990's and also California Dreamin'.  That bird has flown 10 times now and still going strong.

I tried something a little different this time.  I attached a two-foot piece of rigid brake line to the payload section of my PML Phobos that extended beyond the nose cone.  At the end of the line I attached a keychain camera looking down onto the rocket.  I wasn't sure how straight the rocket would fly or if the camera would stay attached, but everything held together.  The flight wasn't as squirrely as I thought it'd be and it made for a unique perspective.  Check out the video.

The launch was held at the Indianola Balloon Grounds.  This is a great place to launch mid-power rockets.  I was able to launch and recover all three in less than 90 minutes!  Looking forward to next month.

Rocket Workshop Complete!

Alright the workshop is finished, it's time to get serious about building!

ISOAR Tripoli # 21 Launch Schedule

The 2014 ISOAR schedule has been posted!  Our first launch is March 16th at the Indianola Ballon Grounds from 10-5 --- weather permitting of course.

March 16
April 27
May 18
June 15
July 13
August 17
September 21
October 19
November 16

View launch info here

Kickstart Your Night - Superbowl Commercial

Did you see the Mt. Dew Kickstart Your Night commercial during the Superbowl?  It featured over 800 rockets!

Here's the commercial if you missed it:

That's the motivation I needed to kickstart my rocket building into high gear.  I have two projects sitting in the garage.  The first is a two-stage Wildman 3.  This will be my first high power two stage attempt.  The second project is a Space Cowboy which will be my first attempt at breaking the sound barrier!  2014 will be a fun building and flying season!

Back in the Midwest!

Not much rocketry related going on since my last post. I've been busy moving half-way across the country from California to Iowa. I made it back just in time to attend the last launch of the season with the Iowa Society of Amateur Rocketeers (ISOAR) - or so I thought. Mother nature had other plans and the launch was scrubbed due to thunderstorms and winds exceeding 30 mph. Guess I'll have to wait until the spring. ISOAR holds monthly launches April through November at the Indianola balloon grounds. This will be my new Tripoli Prefect.  Looking further out, there are several clubs within 3-4 hours including Tripoli Southern Minnesota (TSM), Quad Cities Rocket Society (QCRS), and The Heartland Organization of Rocketry (THOR). With so many great clubs in the region I'll be happy here!

I will miss Southern California. I leave behind some great rocketeers who helped me get back into High Power Rocketry. Without the assistance and encouragement from members of Tripoli San Diego, I wouldn't have certified Tripoli Levels 1-3 in 17 months. During my time with the club I had 13 launches totaling 12,927 N-sec burned.

As far as the off-season goes, my first project will be building a workshop in my garage. Once I have a good place to work, I'll be making a few small rocket repairs to my Angry Birds and California Screamin' rockets and I'll be taking another look at the LOC Bruiser and determine if she can fly again. I'll also be working on my first 54mm minimum diameter rocket!  It's time to do something other than low and slow. Looking forward to finally breaking the sound barrier and 10,000 ft.

I'll leave you with a picture of my new garage. You can see parts of California Screamin', the LOC Bruiser, Angry Birds, and a few mid-power rockets.

New rocket workshop - lots of potential here.

Better get back to unpacking boxes!

ROCtober - Second Flight of California Screamin'

I've been going through some serious Ammonium Perchlorate withdrawals since my last high power launch in April.  Unfortunately I couldn't fly during the opening weekend launch for Tripoli San Diego last week due to wind gusts in excess of 22 mph.  I had bought an L3200 Vmax from What's Up Hobbies and needed to burn it so I drove up to Lucerne Dry Lake with my sons for ROCtober.  It was probably the most mentally and physically exhausting launches I've ever had, but it was totally worth it!  It's a three hour drive from Imperial Beach to Lucerne and it took about 5 hours to unpack the car, set up my work area, build the motor and prep the rocket all while keeping my kids out of trouble.  During my preflight I discovered that one of the mini-clamps attached to the Raven2 drogue leads had broken and I no longer had continuity to the drogue ejection charge.  I didn't have any spare clamps with me, so I had to drill a small hole through the bulkhead to bypass the terminal block and reroute the electric match directly into the Raven2.  Crisis averted!

During the off-season I came up with the idea to create a video of the flight by overlaying all the telemetry data received from the Telemetrum.  To ensure I captured all the major events (lift-off, drogue, main, and landing), I attached three keychain cameras to the rocket.  I also setup a Flip video camera at the launch pad and had my hand held video camera on the flight line.  The last step was to screen record the telemetry video/audio coming into my laptop from the TeleMetrum.  The end result was my best video yet!

Flight Stats:

	TeleMetrum	Raven 2
Altitude	3981 ft	4044 ft
Top Speed	402 mph	406 mph
Top Accel	21 g's	23 g's

With six cameras rolling, I captured a ton of good screen shots.  Here are just a few...

Pre flight

Post flight

Ignition!

Lift off on the Cesaroni L3200 Vmax

From 0 to 402 mph in 1.3 seconds!

Lucerne Dry Lake from 3981 feet.

Kickin' out the laundry (drogue)

Fin can descending under the drogue

Upper payload and nose cone prior to main deployment

Main parachute deployment - Rocketman 12'

Google maps summary from TeleMetrum
Red bullseye = launched / Black = landed

                         My best video yet.

For more information on ROCtober, visit Rocketry Organization of California

Fiesta Island Launch

Every now and then I get to launch model rockets with my boys at Fiesta Island in San Diego.  Today I brought one of my keychain cameras and captured a few good pics of the bay area.

Apogee - Estes SkyTrax

Parachute Deployment

Apogee - Estes Amazon

Flight Line

For more information on the rocket launches at Fiesta Island, check out DART Rocketry.

Tripoli Level 3 Certification - 6 Apr 2013

My Level 3 project named California Screamin’ is based off the PML Ultimate Endeavour. It stands 120 inches tall and has a diameter of 6 inches. When loaded with the Aerotech M1297W motor, the total weight is approximately 42 pounds. Major modifications to the PML Ultimate Endeavour design include:

• Fully fiberglassed phenolic airframe with two wraps of 16 ounce glass cloth.
• G10 fiberglass fin thickness increased from .093 to .187 inches.
• Length extended from 108 inches to 120 inches.
• Airframe modified for dual-deployment.
• PML piston system removed.
• Extended altimeter bay to 10.5 inches. Electronics include the Featherweight Raven2 altimeter with Power Perch and the Telemetrum v1.2 recording altimeter with GPS and telemetry link.
• Main parachute upgraded to a Rocketman 12 foot Standard Recovery parachute. The drogue is a Rocketman 4 foot Standard Recovery parachute.
• Motor mount increased to 75 mm with Aero Pack motor retainer installed.

I started this project in Dec 2011 and completed the certification flight in Apr 2013. It would have taken less time, but I spent six months out to sea on a deployment to Japan and Hawaii. I was able to get most of my documentation written (31 pages) during my free time on deployment. If you are working on your Level 3 project and have any questions with the required documentation, send me a message and I'll be glad to assist. I took over 160 photos throughout the build.  If you would like more information or to see more pictures of the building techniques I used, just ask.

Pre-assembly - spacing out the centering rings on motor mount tube

Test fitting centering rings and steel rods on the motor mount assembly

Booster section prior to inserting into body tube

Sliding body tube over motor mount and fin assembly

Altimeter bay: 15" coupler with 10.5" liner, bulk plate, and 1" spacer

Screws and threaded inserts prior to altimeter bay bulkhead installation

Side 1 of altimeter bay sled with Telemetrum

Side 2 of altimeter bay sled with Raven2 and Power Perch

Altimeter bay aft bulkhead with ejection canisters, u-bolt, and two-circuit
barrier terminals

Inserting screws through the body tube into the altimeter bay bulkhead

PML expanding foam curing before the next batch

Fin fillets sanded

Rocket set up for ejection charge testing

Rocket, drogue, main 'chute, and 80 feet of kevlar shock cord

Assembled and ready for flight!

Rocket transport vehicle

Launch day!  Assembling the 5,417 N-sec motor

Lift off on an Aerotech M1297 White Lightening!

Screamin' to 5,770 feet

Drogue Deployment

Forward payload and nose cone before main 'chute deployment

Successful recovery!

Telemetrum flight data - lost power at apogee

Raven2 flight data

Ejection charge testing video with Telemetrum

Level 3 flight with footage from 3 different cameras

A special thank you to TAP members, Greg Smith and Jack Garibaldi!

Tripoli Level 2 Re-certification - 2 Mar 2013

When I originally built the Angry Birds rocket using a LOC Minie Magg kit, I never had the intention of flying it on a J motor.  This was a fun father-son project thrown together over Father's Day weekend.  My son had grown very attached to it and I knew he'd be crushed if anything happened, but after my two previous cert failures I was running out of rockets.  After much debate I finally worked up the nerve to send it up on a J357.

Ignition!  Cesaroni J357 Blue Streak.  The black tape on the body tube is
holding a keychain camera.  Unfortunately it didn't record the flight.

Finally Level 2 certified!