These flights were with the SPAAR club and the field was Fort Indiantown Gap, PA. It was pretty nice, maybe 73 degrees F, but about 10 mph winds and gusty. Oddly, the wind was from the East, and a lot of rockets were blown to the west. Many were lost, and I had to ask myself why so many rocketeers sent their rockets up so high that they were unrecoverable.
Gamma-Ray, A8-3:
This was to be the second and final test flight of the Gamma-Ray with an A8 motor. There were two flights before, but that was without the Altimeter 2 which measures speed and acceleration. There were also two flights with the Altimeter 2, but one did not have a good ‘chute, so there was no valid data on return speed or flight time. A second test would confirm the results of the first test flight. It was windy, but I wasn’t expecting more than about 100 feet on this flight.
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This flight used the same sized 13.5” parachute, but this one had a 10% spill hole and weighed almost one gram more.
This flight used the same sized 13.5” parachute, but this one had a 10% spill hole and weighed almost one gram more.
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The ignitor burst into flames and the rocket took off with 13.7 Gs, highest of the A8 motors. It burned for ½ second with an average acceleration of 4.7 Gs, average for the A8 motor. It reached a top speed of 34 mph, which was very significantly slower by 12.5 mph for the A8, and in fact the slowest flight ever of the Gamma-Ray.
The ignitor burst into flames and the rocket took off with 13.7 Gs, highest of the A8 motors. It burned for ½ second with an average acceleration of 4.7 Gs, average for the A8 motor. It reached a top speed of 34 mph, which was very significantly slower by 12.5 mph for the A8, and in fact the slowest flight ever of the Gamma-Ray.
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It then coasted with not too much wind cocking for 2.5 seconds and turned over at an apogee of 122 feet. Although it wasn’t a long burn time, it made the A8 altitude record. Another 7/10 seconds passed and the ejection fired after it dropped 10 feet. I got a good ‘chute there at 112 feet, and it returned at 12 mph. When the parachute did deploy properly, this was actually the slowest return speed for this rocket even with its spill hole. It was sunny, so it may have caught a bit of a thermal boost. It landed about 80 feet downwind.
It then coasted with not too much wind cocking for 2.5 seconds and turned over at an apogee of 122 feet. Although it wasn’t a long burn time, it made the A8 altitude record. Another 7/10 seconds passed and the ejection fired after it dropped 10 feet. I got a good ‘chute there at 112 feet, and it returned at 12 mph. When the parachute did deploy properly, this was actually the slowest return speed for this rocket even with its spill hole. It was sunny, so it may have caught a bit of a thermal boost. It landed about 80 feet downwind.
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With 19 documented flights, the Gamma-Ray now is the 3rd most flown rocket in my collection (tied with the lost X-15), and the most flown in my born-again era, not counting my old rockets from the 1970’s. As the first flight of the day this was a successful though quick 10.2 second flight, and it told me I could go higher on my next flights with other rockets.
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.With 19 documented flights, the Gamma-Ray now is the 3rd most flown rocket in my collection (tied with the lost X-15), and the most flown in my born-again era, not counting my old rockets from the 1970’s. As the first flight of the day this was a successful though quick 10.2 second flight, and it told me I could go higher on my next flights with other rockets.
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C-Thru, C11-3:
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This was going to be a first-ever low-power test flight of the C-Thru, and for safety reasons it was not carrying the 38 gram mass of the camera, just the Altimeter. The heavy camera would greatly reduce the altitude of the flight. If the parachutes were to deploy too low, there wouldn't be enough time for them to open properly, resulting in a damaging thump on the ground. I already had many aerial pictures of Fort Indiantown Gap, so no camera. The kit maker says it can handle a C11, but who knows?
The reconfigured recovery system was in place, though not needed for this test flight. I used Nomex and wadding and dog barf, so I didn’t expect any more parachute melting today.
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I was glad to see it ignite and lift off just fine, and even more so to see it climb safely away. Initial peak acceleration was 10.8 Gs – pretty good - although it didn’t carry the extra payload weight. It burned for 7/10 seconds and had a very comfortable 5.2 Gs average.
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It flew fairly straight despite the stronger winds today. It did only reach a modest speed of 77 mph though. Ejection occurred at 215 feet. It could have done much better because the delay time was only 1.9 seconds. In the next 8/10 seconds it reached its apogee of 237 feet.
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After the ejection, I got two clean, untangled and un melted parachutes, and it all looked text-book perfect. It came back at only 7 mph, helped I’m sure by the lacking payload weight. Flight duration was 22.3 seconds, and it landed downwind about 200 feet from the pad. It was a picture-perfect flight, ironically its mission was not to take any pictures this time.
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Bull Pup 12D Iris, B6-4:
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This was not a flight. It was supposed to be. The rocket was prepared, flight card filled out and turned in, altimeter armed, ignitor installed. I put the rocket down on a table to take a quick picture of a high-powered launch and a big gust came along.
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Pix taken, I stepped back and reached for the rocket, but it wasn’t there. At that same instant I heard a familiar crunch sound under my foot. Fortunately I didn’t put all my weight on it. What I heard was the crunch of balsa wood, and my heel crunched on the Bullpup’s rear fin.
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Fortunately I didn’t step on the body tube, which would have essentially destroyed it. This poor rocket has taken a lot of physical abuse, and the next two B and C flights were scrubbed while I fix the single rear fin that broke right at the root. I could have used some CA or epoxy, but I wanted to do a more careful, better job on it. I had plenty of other rockets to launch this day.
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Quest Cyclone, A8-3:
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This was the fourth flight of the Cyclone with an A8 motor. Three of those flights carried an Altimeter 2, but one had a stuck streamer and one did not give valid ejection timing data. This particular flight went well and gave me a complete set of numbers.
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With a reliable ignition, it lept off the pad with an acceleration of 21.3 Gs, a record high for any motor. It was gone quickly! The motor burned for ½ second – fast, and gave me an average of 7.3 Gs, a record high for the A8 in this rocket. This pushed it to a top speed of 72 mph (of course, a record high for the A8 in this rocket).
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The rocket then coasted for 2.6 seconds and still flew straight up despite the winds. The 2.5 second delay was a bit too soon, firing off at 197 feet, stopping the rocket 1/10 second later at an apogee of 229 feet. Again, a record for the A8 motor.
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I got a good streamer, and the rocket came back at 16 mph (interestingly, faster than when the streamer was stuck). The duration of this flight was a mere 11.1 seconds when it landed 100 feet downwind. All in all a success, and told me 200+ feet was quite safe on this windy day, at least with a streamer. On this day I saw many, many other club member’s rockets drift away into the trees to the west and into history. This rocket now earned a flight with a more powerful B6 motor.
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Quest Cyclone, B6-4:
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Time to see how the Cyclone does with a B6 again. This has flown before with an Altimeter 2 recording data, but one flight had a stuck streamer, and one had an obvious altitude error of over 9000 feet. I only had one successful data flight for the B6, and this was to be the second one.
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Just like before the Cyclone ripped off the pad, this time with the highest recorded acceleration of 23 Gs or more (which is the measure limit of the Altimeter). With a burn time of 8/10 seconds, the average acceleration of 7.7 Gs was also an all-time record. Naturally, this reached a record speed of 142 mph, and set an altitude record of 582 feet.
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It was visually obvious that this rocket flew very high and very straight up. Fortunately it has some highly visible orange on it and a clear blue sky making it easy to track.
At 554 feet, the ejection charge fired after a generous 2/10 extra time; still not enough given the high speed this rocket achieved. It climbed its last 28 feet with the streamer opening up completely.
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It returned at an expected rate of 16 mph. That was a record flight time of 28.4 seconds.
I went to retrieve the rocket, seeing exactly where it landed, about 300 feet downwind. As I approached the orange blur on the ground, it turned out to be just a dull orange clump of grass. Here goes an afternoon of searching! I quickly located the actual streamer another 50 feet further. I arrived and found the orange streamer, orange nose cone and fortunately the Altimeter safe and sound, but there was no purple/black rocket body, and I realized I may never see it again.
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I found the rocket body a short time later about 50 feet upwind, fortunately I didn’t step on it walking to the streamer. (I just did that to the Bullpup 12D after it was prepped for a flight. It would have flown with this motor in it.)
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Apparently what happened is that the ejection and possibly the streamer deploying in the 100+ mph wind pulled the motor block out of the body tube, as it was still attached to the Kevlar shock cord. There was no sign of glue on the block, or in the body tube, and no sign of torn cardboard, only a slight indentation the size of the motor clip end.
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This was an almost-ready-to fly kit, and I don’t recall the build exactly, but I know for sure I would not have installed the motor block without any glue, so that may have been already made. It might be a simple fix, but not sure the glue will hold with all the charred soot in the body tube from 9 flights so far. Maybe a good cleaning and sanding first would help. Right now, this rocket is in “Needs Repair” status, so there will be no more scheduled flights.
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#Gamma-Ray #Cyclone #C-Thru #Bullpup
This was an almost-ready-to fly kit, and I don’t recall the build exactly, but I know for sure I would not have installed the motor block without any glue, so that may have been already made. It might be a simple fix, but not sure the glue will hold with all the charred soot in the body tube from 9 flights so far. Maybe a good cleaning and sanding first would help. Right now, this rocket is in “Needs Repair” status, so there will be no more scheduled flights.
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#Gamma-Ray #Cyclone #C-Thru #Bullpup
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