Well, THAT Didn't Take Long !!

 No sooner had I hit the 'GO' button on yesterday morning's post, I found myself trekking to the subterranean vault where reside the model rocket project boxes.

In quick succession, I had the pieces of the broken Deltie Airshow glider glued back together,

construction finished on a couple of gap booster stages I've been working on, 

and a couple coats of grain filler applied to the scale Viking-4 project.

Later today, I will be tackling a number of models populating the 'for repair' box.

That particular box is situated on a shelf in the shop that is always in plain sight, so whenever I pass through, there is always a broken rocket I can extract and haul over to the workbench for repairs and/or paint touch-up.

Plenty to do...

"Hey, BlastFromThePast, Where 'ya Been??

 Very good question indeed....

I've sadly suspended rocket building (and flying) activities over the past two months to make time for other activities:

First and foremost is a project that was begun about eight years ago and has languished until now:

Framing and finishing the basement. 

The donning of the tool belt and firing up of the chop-saw has been inspired by the presence of the parts and pieces of a full-sized pool table that hasn't seen any action since the missus and I moved to Castle Rock, Colorado in 2006. All of the components are scattered and stored all around the basement space.

It's high time to finish up a portion of this basement space and call in the pool table setup pros to get this thing back in action.

I've got lots of trick shots I want to master....

Also vying for my time is the annual frenzy of getting my indoor and outdoor Christmas light displays in ship-shape operating condition and installed.

I'm not exactly in the same league as the Griswalds, and certainly don't do it up like those folks you see on the 'extreme lighting' shows, but I do manage to put up a substantial amount of lights.  

I estimate somewhere in the ballpark of 12,000 to 15,000 individual mini-lites.

At one point in November, the entire basement space was covered with light strings and lighted features, in various stages of functionality and repair.

Even though I am slowly, year-by-year, converting everything over to LED, I still use tons of incandescent mini-light strings, many of which date back to the mid 1980s !!

These strings, as you might expect, are extremely fiddly to keep in operation.  I happen to have vast amounts of replacement bulbs, so I spend a lot of time troubleshooting and repairing inoperable sections of these strings, as well as fashioning my own custom strings.

That nifty little Lightkeeper-Pro tool definitely gets well used this time of year.  A great investment for us Christmas lighting nerds!

Anyway, it won't be long until I get back full swing into rocket building.

Stay tuned to the blog, I may yet sneak in another rocket-related post or two by year's end.

Cheers!

There Was A Casualty After All...

 Last Friday's launch at Castle Rock ended with me taking home six rockets that had flown and been recovered unscathed.

There was a 7th model in the tote, however, that wasn't quite so lucky.

I had brought the newly built Deltie Airshow along to put up for its maiden flight.

The first step in the process was to trim out the three gliders.

I selected one from the tote and sent it on a gentle test throw.

It dove downward, so was followed up with several more tosses  to fine tune the amount of nose weight clay.

I finally had it exhibiting a very nice, smooth glide.

But. I  had to go for one more toss, just to make sure.

This time I launched it a bit higher and with a harder toss.

Mistake...

It stalled, then did a perfect nose dive.

Busted nose.

Scrubbed Deltie Airshow launch.

Should'a left well-enough alone, eh?

Launch Date: October 20th, 2023

 Friday, October 20th, provided incredibly perfect rocket flying weather conditions in Castle Rock, Colorado, thanks to a high-pressure cell that had parked over the state for the past week.

Mike Perreault and myself journeyed out to Founders Park to take advantage of the completely sunny and calm conditions on a well-manicured field.

It was definitely a day to bring out the C and D class motors without any trepidation about losing models!

Mike started things off with a perfect maiden flight of a Little John clone, on A10 -3T power.

Photo by Mike Perreault

My first flight of the session went to, of course, the fleet flagship EAC Viper.  The bird's fifteenth launch went very well on a B6-4 motor.

Next up: Mike's Mini Honest John for a perfect A10-3T launch and recovery.

Mike had done a great job of pre-prepping birds the night before, so he was quickly ready to go with his next launch. This would be the maiden voyage of an Estes EAC Firecat clone, sitting atop a B6-4.   A great flight, straight and true.  Low winds led to a very close recovery. 

 I soon had my second bird readied on the pad, a Quest Nike K. 

Powered by a C5-3 motor the model's 7th flight was a great success, boosting straight and high, with close-by recovery.

By this time a trio of middle school aged boys happened by to watch the rockets fly. One of them pushed the launch button on this one, and all three went out on recovery.

These lads had a great time during their brief visit.  All seemed genuinely interested.  Some potential newcomers to the hobby, perhaps?  Shown here holding the recovered Nike-K and Mike's Bullpup:

Mike soon had yet another bird on the pad, an Estes High Flyer, flying on a C6-7.  

"First flight for a recent repaint, 4th flight for the airframe.   This was a great flight, altitude with attitude.   It really ripped into the sky.   Perfect deployment of a single streamer.  Upon retrieval, the nose cone was missing.   The kevlar line was intact, indicating a fail of the plastic loop on the nose cone.   Grounded for the remainder of the day."

One of the visitors launches the Hi Flier while Mike looks on:

Mike's next flight was made with an Estes Bullpup on a C6-7.

   "Always a favorite flyer, this one didn’t disappoint as it streaked skyward.   Recovery deployment was not quite as stellar, as a shroud line had wrapped around the chute and the Bull Pup returned with a ‘streamer- like’ descent.   Fortunately,  no damage.  Based on my poor record keeping, I would say this was the 6th flight for the Bull Pup."

Next up from my arsenal was the Griffin-2 custom design.  This would be the bird's 10th flight. 

With an Estes altimeter attached to the nose base, the model boosted very nicely on a 

B6-4 motor.  

At ejection, it was noted that the model had separated.  The nose came down via parachute, while the booster rocket and altimeter free fell.  No parts sustained any damage and the altimeter read 454 feet. 

I'll claim a successful mission!  

Photo by Mike Perreault

Next bird to fly was Mike's "DoorBelle", a scratch built BT-60 downscale of the Estes Doorknob. 

 "This was the third flight for the airframe, and the first flight after adjusting the nose weight and CG.  A C6-5 gave it a high loft, with a slight arc.   Perhaps a little more tuning."

By the time Mike had returned with his model, I was prepping one of my fleet favorites, the Skeeter Eeter 3.  This is a BT-60 upscale of the Mosquito.

Photo by Mike Perreault

The SE3 ready on the pad prior to a perfect C11-5 powered flight:

The bird almost stuck a three-point fin-tip landing on the turf a la Space-X, but the chute tugged it over at the last second.  

Curiously, the model landed very close to a large red 'X' painted on the grass. 

A am unable to ascribe any significance whatsoever to this, but it was interesting, nonetheless.

With the wind conditions remaining very calm, Mike pulled out the big guns.  This was in the form of an Estes Goblin:

"This was the third flight for the airframe.  Winds had dropped to near zero, so the Goblin was stuffed with a D12-5 and blasted into the blue.  A perfect flight, ejection and a dual streamer deployment.  However, one of the streamers wrapped up with the nose cone, and the landing came in hard.   The Goblin is off to the VAB for a fin repair."

Mike followed up this flight with another go with the EAC Firecat:

"The second flight of the EAC Firecat was on a C6-5.   I was second guessing this one, after the Goblin carnage.  I am so happy with the final build of the Firecat, I would hate to see it damaged.   However, it flew straight and true, a perfect deployment and super short walk for recovery.   This one may sit on the shelf for a bit."

My next flight was executed by an Estes Viking.  This one hadn't seen any air-time for over two years, so it found its way into the model tote for this flying session.

      The bird, powered by a B6-4 motor, flew very straight and high, popped its 10-inch square parasheet, and began drifting earthward.  I ran after it and managed to grab it before it touched down.  Not bad for an old geezer!

Photo by Mike Perreault

Next on the pad was Mike's beautifully built and finished 'candy' Red Max:

"The third flight for Der Candy Apple Red Max, powered by a C6-5.   This was an awesome flight, straight and true.  Perfect deployment and a super gentle landing, under the 18” Skull and Crossbones!"

Since the weather was perfect, and Mike was on a roll, he broke out his next model:

"My first rocket, the Estes Patriot Missile.   This is the, roughly, 7th flight for the M-104 model, one of my favorite and most reliable flyers.  It was loaded with a C6-5, cleared the rod, angled hard left and porpoised for about 50’ before burrowing into terra firma.  After a moment's pause, the ejection fired successfully.  Ugh! 
Upon further review, it looked like a defective engine.   The engine casing was full of material, with just a thin burned path.  Fortunately, no damage to the Patriot."

"That was the end of the planned flights, and I didn’t want to end on a bad flight, so I reloaded the Patriot with another C6-5, and it flew straight and true.  The upper winds had shifted, and it drifted a bit west on the descent, landing in a rocket eating tree.   After 20 or so minutes of finagling, it was retrieved from the tree, no worse for wear.

How to extract a model from a Rocket Eating Tree....

Mike's Patriot had headed for and landed in a thick grove of aspen trees just outside of the park perimeter.  

One of the trees had snagged the descending model around fifteen feet above the ground. Fighting our way through the thick growth, we reached the scene of the crime and began looking for a way to facilitate a rescue.  Mike found a broken branch on the ground that looked long enough to reach the bird.

Nope...too short.  Barely touched the aft end of the rocket.

We both tried pulling on the thin tree to see if we could eventually bend the top down far enough to reach the model.

Nope...tree too thick....wouldn't bend.

A further search on the ground yielded up a nearly entire downed tree, providing a stick about twelve feet long.  This seemed to be the workable solution.

Here is a pic of the rescue.  Mike is manipulating the make-shift pole to try and free the parachute from the offending branch.  It was quite an epic battle.  Man vs. aspen tree for possession of a scale model Patriot!

Ultimately, Mike managed to tug the whole works out of the tenacious tree. 

 Next it was a further trial in attempting to release the model and parachute from the rescue stick itself.  

Sheesh!

After that it was just a matter of fighting our way out of the dense growth and finding our way back to civilization - and the launch site.

Mike decided that two unusually eventful flights for the Patriot was quite enough and decided not to try a third time.

After all of the excitement of 'trekking through the wilderness', I put up my final flight of the day, the very tiny futuristic Estes Star Seeker.

Flying on a 1/2A3-4T motor the model flew to a respectable altitude.  Since the fin assemblies had been broken on each of several previous flights, and re-glued many times, the bird exhibited a corkscrew trajectory.  Recovery was good despite a 6 inch para-wad descent.

Mike put up the session's last flight, a re-do of his Estes Little John. 

"I figured I would finish where I started, and reloaded the Little John with an A10-3.  Another perfect flight and recovery.   A perfect end to a near perfect day."

With that, we packed up and headed off into the sunset, leaving with the satisfaction of participating in a very pleasant day of flying rockets.

We also likely left behind a very disappointed rocket-eating aspen tree....

ESAM-58 In The Repair Shop...

 Today, I had some time to sit down at the workbench and begin repairs on the recently CATO-trashed ESAM.

The first order of business was to rough cut the severely damaged tail end off the model. 

The fins and lower launch lug are completely intact and salvageable, so these got carefully broken off and set aside.

Next, I was able to extract the motor mount from the model.  It is largely undamaged and fully re-usable.

The outer surface of the tube and the lower centering ring are scorched a bit, but are still very strong and solid.  A little bonus is that there will be need to paint the parts after they are mounted. They're already flat black!

All that is left to make everything good is to cut a new forward centering ring.

Must continue this tomorrow. It's dinnertime at the BlasFromThePast home, and I need to go wash up my hands.

They reek of burnt black powder....

BAR Fleet #143 - Deltie Airshow

Source: Scratch-built Edmonds Aerospace design.  Designed by Robert Edmonds II.

Type: Boost Glider

Motor size: 18mm

Revovery: glide (three vehicles), streamer (booster vehicle)

Booster length: 42.86m (16.9 in.)

Booster diameter: 18.7mm (.736 in.)

Booster weight: 24.3g (.86 oz.)

Glider length (typ.): 27.2cm (10.71 in.)

Glider wingspan (typ.): 23.2cm (9.1 in.)

Glider weight (typ.)*:  7.1g (.25 oz.)

Overall model length: 56.2cm (22.1 in.)

Overall model weight empty*: 45.5g. (1.6 oz.)

*Trim clay weight not included

Color scheme: White, black, blue, red, silver trim.

Completion date: September 21, 2023

Triple The Glider Fun!

My favorite aspect of the model rocketry hobby is building and flying boost/gliders and rocket gliders.

When I happened upon published plans for the Edmonds Deltie Airshow, I knew immediately that such a model was a must-have for the fleet.

Coupled with the fact that there are three gliders in the mix, they are of an unusual delta-wing planform that has a lot of that 'cool' factor.

The model was actually started back in July, 2022 alongside a number of other builds. It just takes me a long time to build and complete a model rocket, what with all of the other hobbies and activities that vie with rocketry work-bench time.

This build is fairly straight-forward albeit with a lot of balsa parts. 

In the original kit, the glider parts were all pre-cut with the inclusion of numerous interlocking assembly tabs.  The kit was intended for rocketeers building their first glider model.

I chose to cut all of the parts out of balsa sheet stock minus the tabs. The fuselage, wings, and vertical stabs are all butt-jointed on this version.

The booster rocket is constructed from Estes components.  One deviation made on the booster fins was the substitution of basswood stock for the glider attachment parts. I found that the original balsa pieces were far too weak and broke easily.

The Edmonds plans called for flying the Airshow with gliders unfinished.

I applied my usual glider finishing method of spraying on a thin application of white primer, light sanding, followed by color and markings using permanent markers.

The booster rocket is brush-painted with gloss hobby acrylics.

This should be a very fun bird to launch on a large field. It will likely require the employment of a substantial recovery crew!

Launch Date: September 7, 2023

Thursday, September 7th, saw an absolutely perfect day for flying model rockets in Castle Rock, Colorado. Mike Perreault and I made the short trek to Founders Park to do just that. 

The weather conditions couldn't have been any better - temperatures in the high 70s to low 80s, and virtually no wind! There were only a few brief occasions where a light breeze blew across the field for a few seconds, then it was back to dead calm.

Normally, Founders Park is a 'B6-4 field' but today was definitely a day to bring out the C and D motors- which we did!

As it turned out, only one of our flights drifted a short distance outside the field perimeter.  Most landed very nearby, and a couple even touched down next to the launch pads.

The first bird to ply the skies was Mike's Mini Honest John, a veteran of several previous flights.  

The model flew perfectly on A10 power. This flight session marked Mike's first use of a newly built camera tripod launch pad, complete with a drill chuck to hold the launch rods.

My first bird off the pad was the EAC Viper, turning in a perfect B6-4 flight.

At the beginning of this launch session, we had noted that there was a Castle Rock Fire truck parked in the parking lot, and several members of the Town's Fire and Rescue Team present.

At each of the first launches, a cheer went up from the firemen as the rockets reached apogee and deployed their parachutes.

To my surprise, one of the firemen ran into position and caught my Viper before it drifted to the ground!

After talking a bit to the team member, we learned that they were at the park to conduct some fire hose training exercises.  The gentlemen hung around for several more of our launches.

Next up was Mike's "Doorbell", actually a down-scaled version of the Doorknob.

Here's a shot of Mike preparing to launch the bird on its maiden flight, powered by a B6-4.

A C6-5 motor sent the Doorbell off for its second flight....

Next up was my ESAM-58 model, flying on a C6-5.

The model lifted off, flew to maybe 150 feet altitude, nosed over and streaked in for a perfect core sample!   I remarked to Mike during mid-flight that something was seriously wrong. There was also no discernable ejection charge after the model had impacted.

 In the liftoff picture below, it can be noted that the gas plume is way too small for a normal C6 motor and that it appears to be canted off to the side.  The smoke trail also looks a bit irregular.  Enlarging the photo, a small red object appears adjacent to the jet.  I surmise this might be a fragment of the aft body tube being blown off the model.

A definite motor CATO!

Surprisingly, the nose and the front end of the body tube both sustained absolutely no damage.  

Not even a paint scratch.

The back end, however, was totally roached.

I might write a future blog post on this one once I perform a thorough failure analysis examination. I think the upper part of the rocket can be salvaged and flown again in some form.

The next bird out of my model box was the Quest Nike-K.

Flying on a C5-3 motor, the attractive model turned in a perfect flight...

This one was also caught mid-air and returned by one of our friendly neighborhood firemen!

Mike Perreault preparing his Goblin for its maiden flight.

Liftoff on a B6-4 for a perfect run.  The model is the only one of the day to drift a little bit outside the park boundaries.  Mike received his first 'tall weeds landing site' rite of passage for model recovery.

The Goblin ready for its second flight.  Another first for Mike: a D motor launch. The bird is airbrush painted with a candy yellow finish.

A great D motor liftoff.  The bird returned close to the launch area under dual streamers after a very high flight.

My next bird selected from the on-field arsenal was the Big Daddy...

Beautiful flight and recovery on a D12-3 motor.

Mike's candy-red Red Max ready for flight. B6-4 power.

Next up was my Interceptor. I had intended to launch it on a C6-5, but the only ones of that type I had in the range box were of the same date code that had just trashed my ESAM. I chose to go with a B6-4 instead.

 

The model boosted perfectly with the parachute ejecting precisely at apogee.

The bird drifted softly down to land right next to Mike's range box!

Here is the C6-5 powered liftoff shot of the second launch of Mike's Red Max. 

Beautiful bird!

Mike soon had his Patriot model ready for flight...

...and I had my Griffin-2 set to go at about the same time. 

So, we decided to go for a simultaneous drag-race style launch.

The B6-4 powered Patriot left the pad first....

...followed a half second later by the Griffin, also on a B6-4.

A very young child and his grandmother were at the park perimeter and watched the launches.  

My bird had landed in a tall shrub which was near their position.  I was able to barely reach the parachute and drag the model out of the branches.  

Mike showed up with his recovered Patriot, so we stopped and chatted with the visitors for awhile.

Perhaps, a future rocketeer in the making?

Soon enough, Mike had his Bullpup prepped and on the pad.

A perfect C6-7 launch and recovery!

The final two flights of the session were also done in drag race fashion.

Here is Mike's Purple Haze...

...and my Crossfire ISX.

Again, Mike's bird left the pad first on a B6-4 motor.

Followed closely by the Crossfire on an A8-3.

With sixteen flights completed it was time to pack 'em up and head out.

With perfect flying weather and only one model mishap, it was a very satisfying launch session.

On a final note, Mike and I made the short trek to visit the tall pine tree at the south end of the park where, back in June, David Frey's E20-powered Hi Flier XL ("Skylicker") had hung up 40 feet off the ground, not to be retrieved.

We were just checking to see if there were any vestiges of the model to be found.

Nothing.

Either the bird had blown off the tree on its own to have its remnants found by a passer-by, or the model had been removed at some point by Park and Rec. personnel (the most likely scenario).

I like to think that the model was completely devoured and digested by the RET, resulting in a sudden growth spurt!

Cheers!