Launch Date: January 5, 2018

My first launch session of 2018 took place on Friday of the New Year week.  Checks of local weather and wind websites showed afternoon temperatures in the mid -50s and minimal wind.  Ideal.  I was off from work for the whole week and my two grandkids, ages 7 and 9, were still on winter break, so they came along to fly their Generic E2X models.

Arriving at Dove Valley Park at 1 p.m., we found that the temperature was at 56 degrees with high overcast, and NO wind whatsoever.

The first model off the pad was the Hornet for flight number 38.  Once again, the bird performed very well on an A3 engine, deploying its parachute and landing very close by.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This was followed by flights of the kids’ Generic E2X rockets, all on A8-3 engines.  The grandson flew his once and his older sister flew hers twice.  All performed flawlessly, and were recovered very near to the launch pad.  I was really liking these calm conditions!

 

 

Next, it was time to fly some gliders.  The Griffin-2 and Firefly parasite were prepped and placed on the pad.  The tandem lifted off nicely on B4-2 engine power, achieving a respectable altitude.  The Firefly detached immediately at ejection and started a flat, straight glide toward the northwest.  The model has no turn trimming whatsoever, so I knew it would glide for a long distance.  It ended up flying out of the park boundary and landed in the median of the adjacent street.  I timed the glide duration at 71 seconds.  I definitely need to work on further glide trimming to instill a turn in its flight pattern.  As for the Griffin, it deployed its parachute and landed softly very close to the launch pad.

 

 

Next up was the Mini-Maggot-3 boost glider.  A 1/2A engine sent the model straight up to altitude where glider separation occurred perfectly.  Unlike the Firefly, this glider is trimmed to describe about a 25’ diameter right hand circle.  The MM3 circled gracefully straight over head and landed about 30 feet from the launch pad after a 56 second flight duration.  If this glider ever catches a thermal, I’m afraid it will be “Bye, Bye, Birdie!”

 

 

The final flight of the day went to the Estes Lynx.  An A10 engine took it perfectly straight and high.  Unfortunately, the parachute didn’t open so the model took a rather hard landing.  Luckily, the only damage sustained was the loss of the dowel ‘antenna’ detail on the rear dorsal fin.  An easy repair.

Failure analysis revealed that I had committed a dumb ‘rookie’ mistake.  Forgot to powder a new parachute….

Anyhow, it was time to pack up and head home, having completed seven highly successful model rocket flights in absolutely ideal flying weather.

Again, it was great to have the grandkids along – they performed all of the button pushing and model recovery – except for the fly-away Firefly, of course.

Belated Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to all of you model rocket blog readers! 
Why is this so late?
I've been on vacation from work up until yesterday, and it's been a whirlwind of family activity.  Haven't had time to sit down at the computer much over the past couple of weeks.
I did get a bit of rocketry stuff accomplished, however, mostly getting the workbench cleaned up and organized, as well as planning out a list of build projects for the upcoming year.
I also managed a flight session with the grand-kiddoes last Friday.  Will work up a launch report post in  the next couple of days.
Anyhow, it is my hope that all of you have a happy and prosperous 2018!
Cheers!

Back In The Day, Part 9: More Estes Stickers Found..

This past weekend, I was again rummaging through the piles of accumulated stuff stored under the basement stairway, when I came across yet another object adorned with old Estes Industries stickers...

Only this is not a rocketry-related item.

It's my old skate board!

And we are talking 'Very Old School' here.  The Genesis of skate boards!

You Gen-X-ers and Millennial skaters in the blog-reading audience may not recognize such an antique, but us old Baby-Boomers know all about them.

So, here's the scoop...back in the late sixties, if you wanted a skateboard, you made one.  Literally.
All it took was a good, sturdy hardwood plank, a roller skate, and a handful of hardware.
The skate, of course, was one of those old metal-wheeled jobs that clamped over your shoe and was tightened with a key.   The skate was taken apart, bolted to the board, and...voila... you had yourself a skateboard!

These early skateboards were a beast to ride - nothing like the fancy boards available nowadays. 
The difficult part in riding one was that you had to carefully balance on an extremely narrow wheel-base.  The metal wheels were not very forgiving with sidewalk cracks and bumpy surfaces. Pretty rough ride...and noisy as all get-out!   They also did not lend themselves very well to performing flips, jumps, and all the other stunting seen with modern boards.
Basically, you just jumped on it and clattered down the sidewalk!

Anyway, this is the one I rode back in the day...and it was decorated with spare Estes stickers.   I must have had enough of those to plaster all over everything I owned....

Cheers!

MPC Lunar Patrol: Part 12 - Let The Painting Begin !

The first task in getting the LP finished is painting the interiors of the booster pods and glider fuselage tubes.  I went with some matte black acrylic for this part.

Back in my 'old fleet' days, I wouldn't have bothered with this detail.  Back then, it was all about getting the bird out to the launch pad ASAP, without spending a great deal of time with the craftsmanship aspect of the build.
Nowadays, in my curmudgeonly, grumpy, perfectionistic old-fart BAR years, these details do not go overlooked!

Next is a couple of brushed-on coats of gloss black enamel to the glider nose cones.

 I'm not worried at all about weight here, since I am going to have to add more to the nose cone bases anyway for glide trimming.

Next up- the good stuff - masking and shooting the base color coats.

Cheers.

MPC Lunar Patrol, Part 11

Finally..(cough, cough)
   .... all of that filling, priming, and (hack, hack) sanding is done on this bird !!

Ready to start on painting and detailing. 
I might actually have this model finished by the end of December. 
I am definitely in great anticipation of getting this model rocket in the air.
Stay tuned....

Launch Date: November 25, 2017

This Thanksgiving weekend was marked by a spell of wonderfully warm and calm Colorado weather, so what better time to get out and launch a few model rockets? 
Friday night, my 7 year old grand son put the finishing touches on his Generic E2X model, and we planned to launch the next morning.  I was also anxious to get out and launch the newly- built Griffin-2 booster and Firefly parasite glider.
Saturday morning, we stopped by the hobby store to pick up a couple needed packages of engines, then headed for Dove Valley Park.  Arriving around 11a.m. we found the field deserted except for a large flock of geese.  Temperature was  55 degrees and wind hovered around 5mph.

The first bird off the pad was the Hornet on an A3-4T engine.  Another perfect flight, with the newly
installed internal engine retainer performing wonderfully.







Next up was the maiden flight of the grandsons' Generic E2X.  The model boosted nicely on an A8-3 engine, deployed its parachute and landed fairly close to the launch pad. The young lad was quite elated, and gleefully set out on recovery.

After a short session of hand launch glide trimming of the Estes Firefly, I had it on the pad attached to the Griffin-2 boost vehicle.  Flying on a B4-2 engine, the tandem boosted nicely, albeit in a somewhat wide spiraling trajectory, but reaching a respectable altitude.  At ejection, the Firefly separated and seconds later the Griffin's parachute popped open. 
The Firefly immediately settled into an interesting glide pattern, staying perfectly nose-into-the-wind during its entire descent. There was absolutely no turning, stalling, or diving whatsoever. The wind actually pushed it slowly and consistently downrange, so that it appeared that the glider was flying backward.  I got the impression of watching the flight of a hovercraft rather than a glider!
I watched the bird as it appeared to fly over the nearby street and into a parking lot area on the other side, but lost sight of it before it landed.  My grandson and I set out on recovery.  Thinking that this would be a tricky recovery, we walked toward where I had last seen the glider.
"Grandpa, there it is!!", exclaimed the keen-eyed young man.  To my surprise, there was indeed a red object lying in the grass within the borders of the flying field.  The model had made a soft landing on the turf still pointed into the direction of the wind.

Looking later at the cel phone launch video of the flight, 59 seconds had elapsed from liftoff until my comment that I had lost sight of it.  The glider was probably still aloft for another 5 to 10 seconds after that.  60+ seconds is not a bad flight duration for a delta-wing parasite glider on B impulse.












On the way back to the pad area, I happened to find this on the ground...

Not sure if it's a rocket fin or the tail rudder of a small model airplane.
The Griffin-2 booster rocket was successfully recovered as well, thanks to the efforts of the enthusiastic grand-kiddo.

Following that, we put the Generic E2X up for its second flight, again on

an A8-3.  The flight went just as well as the first with the bird landing within 50 feet of the launch pad.
I had brought along the Estes Lynx and the Mini-Maggot glider, but chickened out on flying either one because of the steady 5 mph wind.
Instead, I stuck another A3 in the Hornet and sent it aloft for its 37th flight. Another perfect launch and recovery.
It was really great having my grandson along for this flight session.  Not only was he the 'recovery crew', but he served as Launch Control Officer as well, counting down and pushing the button for all five of today's flights.  He even remembered to announce control system continuity, check for low-flying aircraft, and pull the safety key after each launch.  A splendid new rocketeer in the making!

 

Back In The Day, Part 8: More Stickers!

A couple of weeks ago on The Model Rocket Building Blog, Chris Michielssen wrote a post containing some pictures of old model rocket stickers that the manufacturers used to send with orders.
I also have a number of these, except most of them are stuck to my old range boxes and are rather battle scarred and weather-worn. 
Here are some pix of my range box which I am using now. 

 

During the 30+ years that I was away from rocketry, this served as the around-the-house tool box.  Of course, now that I am a BAR, it has returned to being a range box.  Most of the stickers on it were put there in 1974-1976. All are from either Estes or AVI.  Also on top of the box is a NAR sticker, a well-faded Estes Aerospace club sticker, a flag, and a couple of random Space Shuttle stickers..

Another tool box I used back in the day features more EAC stickers. For many years after rocketry, this box held my electronics tool kit, and is now my fishing tackle box.

Also, I have this notebook with more stickers in the front cover pouch.  These well-preserved copies were never used and are still attached to their backing paper.