Author: JET66

Interesting motor failure and the rocket still continued to fly safely to recovery and landing

The Maxi Icarus Rocket was a two stage rocket.  It was boosted with an Estes D12-0 to a C11-7.  The Booster failed but was still able to ignite the upper stage to a successful liftoff and safe landing. The booster section was repaired and ready for another launch.

Here is a slow motion video clip:

Section Meet #4, March 25th 2017

Well Saturday was the only good day of the weekend for rocket launching.  There were three contestants for the Section meet contest. Each one had one good flight and another one that was not as good.  None the less it was fun and everyone knows how to do better the next time.  All flights returned safely.

Daniel Peirce had one good flight with his boost glide rocket.  It achieved a time of 46 seconds on his second flight.  Xander had one great boost glide flight with his boost glider that achieved 24 seconds on the first flight. I had one good flight with my boost glider of 31 seconds on the first flight.  I was hoping for another great boost on the second flight, but that did not occur.

Daniel achieved first place in the boost Glider event.  Xander achieved 1st in the B division.

The Helicopter recovery was a more challenging event.  Daniel Peirce entered the Rose-A-Roc helicopter recovery rocket and had mixed results.  I entered in a kit that I had built from a company called CMR (Competition Model Rockets) that was famous for a few of its boost gliders in the 80s.

There will be more events and I hope more will come out to attend.

Here are the overall results of the Saturday Contest:

B Division:  1st Place Xander Thompson with 72 points

C Division: 1st John Thompson with 308 points

2nd Daniel Peirce with 300 points

Space Quiz

Space Quiz

By Jeff Gorham

Ascent from Midgard

Vikings Rocketry Society newsletter 1988

Check your knowledge of the Real Thing!

Try your hand at this quiz. For the answers, email me at Thompsonje@gmail.com

Space Probes, the unmanned space program:

  1. What was the name of the first interplanetary probe? What was its destination?
  2. The Pioneer 10 and 11 missions each carried a controversial plaque designed by Cornell astrophysicists Frank Drake and Carl Sagan. Why was it controversial?
  3. The Voyager series, on the other hand, had a different message for any aliens who might encounter it. What was it?
  4. What was the name of the two probes that soft landed on Mars in 1976?
  5. By the time the Voyager probes leave the Solar System, al of the planets except one will have been probed. Which one was omitted?
  6. A Jupiter probe was supposed to have been launched in 1986, but was grounded because of the Challenger accident, what was the name of the probe?
  7. The probe Ulysses (also delayed because of the grounding of the shuttles) was supposed to look at the Sun’s polar region, but first it had to fly past another planet. Which one and why?
  8. Name the three U.S. lunar probe series launched during the 1960’s; a bonus point if you can identify the one that soft landed on the Moon.

Women in Space. There has been much written about the “man in space” program, but what about the women?  Here are some equal opportunity questions to test your knowledge of female space travelers.

Miss Baker rode a Jupiter nosecone with a rhesus monkey named Able.  What kind of animal was Miss Baker? What happened to her afterward?

  1. Anita and Arabella were a pair of space faring arachnids. What mission did they fly on?
  2. The first orbiting female went up in 1957. What was her name, and what was the name of the vehicle she was in?
  3. Originally, women were thought to be better suited to the rigors of space travel than men. Thus, a program called FLAT was established. What did FLAT stand for, and why was it abandoned?
  4. Most of us know that Valentina Tereshkova was the first woman in space, and that Sally Ride was the first American Woman. But can you name the second women in space for the Soviet Union and the U.S.?
  5. Early in the planning for the Gemini program, two sisters, Jan and Marion Dietrich, were highly considered as astronauts for the program. Why?

Easy Joke Question Designed to Raise Your Score:

  1. What do you call a baby Martian?

 

Snowed in Rocket Projects

Well when the Weather is not cooperating for rocket launching, what is a rocket hobby enthusiast to do?  Obviously, build more rockets and repair the ones that need attention:

Daniels Beautifully built Estes Little Joe Rocket.  It is a work of art.

3D printed Capsule from Boyce Aerospace.


My built Fliskit “Tesla Rocket”.  It was really a fun build.

Daniels beautifully built Mad Cow Honest John with Sticker Shock vinyl lettering.

A Scratch Built “Fallout 4” rocket.

A rocket I toiled with while being snowed in for Apogee Components.

Daniels Rose-A-Roc kit,  from Flis Kits.


Daniels nicely built “Mako” by Flis-Kits”

Daniels Classic Estes Tartar.

New Years Eve Build and Launch

img_4393 img_4395The rocket building class was fun. We had new people attend along with fellow club members. The launch weather at West-side was breezy, however we used one of the school buildings as a wind block and was successful at getting all of those rockets that were built launched, successfully. We had one interesting rocket liftoff and carry the launch rod with it to a good height. The rocket returned with no damage.

We did have three that did acquire a thermal and land in some trees. Hopefully they will descend from the tree tops soon. Happy New Year:-)

 

December Launch Report:

The December 18th morning was snowy and cold; however the launch did continue to go that day. Myself and Daniel Peirce toughed it out and I set up the wireless launch system that my fellow friend Bill Bowman from the San Diego Rocket Club (DART 317) had made for me and we love using it. It has a frequency hopping capability so there is no interference and it has a range of up to 500 feet. Daniel Peirce brought out his mid to high powered pad that utilizes a cymbal stand as its base and is a very sturdy base at that.

Weather wasn’t too bad. The snow was helpful with the rocket not taking too much of an impact on the landing, however it did require for us to make sure to dump out any snow the rocket may have ingested on the landing within its body tubes. We had a Snake Jumper Drag race and both rockets lifted off of the pad at the same time. My snake jumper rocket landed the closest to the pad. Both recovered safely. They were launched on Estes B6-4 rocket motors.

It did warm up just a little bit but most flights were successful. Daniel had two good flights with the Mad Cow Bomarc rocket. The first flight was on an Aerotech 24mm reload F12-4J motor. It took a little bit to build up thrust and the 4 second delay seemed a tad long. The parachute luckily deployed in time enough to have the rocket recover safely in the snow. The second flight of the Bomarc was on an Aerotech E18-4W reload. The rocket lifted off and appeared to be flying and arced over and landed a bit harder. Unfortunately during the preparation of the rocket Dan forgot to place the engine retainer cap on the rocket, so during the recovery portion of the flight, the motor ejected out of the rocket. The rocket still deployed its recovery chute. One of the strap on booster separated and there was some nose damage. I am sure it will look just like new after Daniel repairs the blemishes. https://youtu.be/cFt0vr7qOz0

Making sure to stick to a pre-flight check list tailored to that rocket will help alleviate this and no matter how experienced you are, a checklist will always help. I launched the Flis-Kit rocket called Deuces Wild. It’s my second attempt to get the angled two motor rocket to launch correctly on two motors. The good thing about the design is in case only one motor lights, it will still fly straight up. I tried the old fashioned process of using a flash bulb and thermalite. The clip whip system I used last time with Estes igniter did not work. I have quite a few of the Davey Fire flash bulb systems which can be used for recovery with an altimeter or other ideas.

Needless to say, even with the impressive flash and seeing the thermalite work, one B6-4 ignited before the other one and it lifted off still fine just with a little less thrust. The rocket deployed its parachute during its quick decent. The balsa nose cone did get a little bit of damage; however it can be quickly repaired and will be launched again hopefully with better success. Daniel Peirce built two of the Estes Renegade rockets. One was built just a tad different, but both are impressive and he decided to have a drag race with them on D powered motors.  The Renegade is a newer designed than the kit called the same name back in the 80s. The newer kit requires much more assembly.

The rockets went up straight and recovered just as expected, unfortunately one ended up on the power line close by: We all wanted to try and retrieve the rocket, but one of the number one rules about safety is to NOT attempt to retrieve any rocket from power lines. The correct thing to do is to contact the power company and inform them of what occurred. They were contacted by Daniel and the following day, it was retrieved by the power company and returned to the owner: The rocket will be ready for another launch. The last rocket of the day was the launching of a Quest Stiletto rocket: The Quest Stiletto rocket looks very similar to a Shrox rocket design that was popular in the late 90s and was launched on D powered motors. This particular kit is launch on 18mm motors. It does require to be built properly of during flight the rocket will tend to spin. This time it was launched on a C6-5.

Launch Report for October 1st, 2016

The weather was good from 9-11am I launched 3 different boost gliders and one did perfect. The two others needed more tail weight.

I did attempt to assemble an 18mm Aerotech D13-4W reload. When placing the cardboard liner within the casing, it became stuck. So that was a bad idea. It definitely needs to be assembled before launch day.

It was a good day though. I launched the Estes Honest John rocket and an MRC Ironman rocket with D12-5s. They were picture perfect flights and I launched the Oddl Rocket Break Away kit twice with B6-4s. Both flights were great.

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