General Rocketry Discussion!

AWWW! My vids don't work?!

*EDIT* Oh wait, now they do!
 
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Weldo said:
Hey I just remembered I have some vids and photos of my last launch!

Here's a picture of my Estes Mercury Redstone! I was proud of how it turned out!

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I took a video of it launching at 120fps... This was the first flight.

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Here's the second flight at 240fps.

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And here's where it ended up...

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This was all I could retrieve.

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Click to expand...
I remember seeing those in the Estes catalog when I was a kid. Always thought they were way cool, of course they were the biggest and most expensive in the catalog. Sorry all you got back was the nose piece. Guess that's why rocket clubs head out to the desert for launches!
 
Great looking rocket. That's terrible about the tree. Any way to retrieve it with a drone and a hook?
Robert
 
When I was into rocketetry, you had to order everything from Century and Estes thru catalogs the you got by sending them a penny. Real PITA. I ended up quiting when I couldn't find anywhere big enough to prevent me from losing most of what Iaunched! LOL
 
Yea, that’s why I’m mostly interested in small low flying rockets. And also why I probably won’t spend much time of a paint job again!

Some folks had luck with pvc pipes coupled together with a hook on the end but this happened a few months ago so the rocket is likely trashed by now.
 
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Went launchin' today!

My sister and I went out since we had some great weather. I launched the three Bandits I mentioned earlier in the thread. One came down with no recovery equipment, one had a streamer and one had a small 12" mylar chute.

This is the parachute model.

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I'd say the streamer one did the best. The one with no recovery equipment came down with no damage but the streamer made it way easier to see. The small parachute did not open properly...

I also launched a few others. The Ionizer here has a 16" mylar chute with a 4" spill hole. It deployed and worked beautifully!

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This one was launched twice, once with a plastic kit chute and once with the mylar chute from the Ionizer. The plastic parachute got a tiny spot heat welded together and failed to open fully, though it did open somewhat.

The second time with the mylar chute failed to open at all. The chute stayed tightly bundled up and the rocket landed hard and broke a fin. Consistent parachute performance still eludes me...

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I have some vids of these launches as well but they're too big for the server. I'll try to small 'em up a little.
 
Here's the Ionizer video. The Ionizer is a ready to fly rocket from Estes. It was given to me by a friend almost 20 years ago and it started my interest in the hobby. It has flown many times by him and by me.

This is actually one of the few times where everything went exactly as it should. This was a picture perfect flight! The motor used was a Quest composite B4-4. It was my first launch using a composite motor! I like them, they give a good Whoooosh!

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This videos is of the Nomad. It's a little satellite lookin' kit from Custom Rockets that I built over the winter. This launch was a B6-4 Estes and saw a failure to inflate the parachute. One fin broke off as a result. I'm not sure why the chute did not inflate, this was the very same chute from the Ionizer flight. Maybe it was packed too tightly? The Nomad has a much smaller body tube than the Ionizer.

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All in all it was a great day! My sister and I had fun and we learned a few things too!
 
Spent some time yesterday revamping the home made Altitrak.

I went with a plastic speed square for weight savings. I also screwed the square to the wood handle instead of using tape and made a nice weight from a leftover chunk of brass.

Since the concept was proven on my last range trip I wanted to make a more permanent tool. It came out well!

Original prototype:

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Reworked:

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It was a fun little project!
 
What's the equation again? Is it Tan of angle x distance from pad?
R
 
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