Launch Date: December 2, 2021

Unseasonal warm weather prevailed on Thursday, December 2nd, as five Colorado Front Range rocketeers met at Dove Valley Park in Centennial for a launch session.  In attendance were Jim Gazur, Lee Reep, Frederick Cobb, and David Bauer, and of course, Your Humble Blogger.  Fred and Dave are members of Denver's C.R.A.S.H. club.

Lee Reep started things off with a successful flight of a Hex-3 on a C motor.

My first order of business was to go off to the side and toss my Wasp boost/glider around to adjust glide trim. One errant throw caused the model to stall and nose-dive. SNAP!  There went the glider nose.  No Wasp flight today.  This mishap was a harbinger of how the remainder of day was going to go for the upcoming BlastFromThePast fleet launches....

My first model off the pad was the flagship EAC Viper. The A10-3T motor used for propulsion was a CATO.  As a result, the entire model was gutted, and the front end of the body tube crumpled.  I believe the Viper can be re-built and flown again.  This was the first CATO of my BAR era.

Around this time, Jim Gazur had his first model on the pad - a scale V2 by Spacemonkey, powered by an Aerothech D21. At ignition, the igniter popped loudly without starting the motor. Upon inspection, Jim discovered that the motor nozzle and casing were cracked.  The V2 did not fly this day.

Now, it was time for Dave Bauer to get into the action, with a German-made kit of the Russian Vostok. The model turned in a very nice flight, recovering nearby.

Lee Reep assists Dave in preparing the Vostok for flight.

The next model to come out of the box was my Mark II Rock-A-Chute clone.  Since the only A10 motors I had were from the same pack as the one which had just roached the Viper, I chose to go with an A3-4T.

The model turned in a very nice flight, except for a parachute that did not fully deploy. A post-flight inspection revealed the shock cord partially wrapped around the parachute. The model was returned undamaged.

Lee was the next to put up another bird. This time it was a Launch Lab Bullet Bobby.  The squat little model turned in a surprisingly high flight on a B4 motor and was successfully recovered.

Shortly later, Lee was soon back in the action with a very nice flight of his Dragonfly boost/glider, powered by an A10 motor.

 By this time, Dave Bauer had another bird ready on the pad.  This was a scale Ariane model. The bird turned in a very nice flight:

Jim Gazur was next to launch, with a 1:14 scale Nike Ajax from Boyce Aerospace. The model was converted to multi-stage configuration. The Nike booster was equipped with a Perfectflight Mini-timer set to ignite the upper stage .2 seconds after booster burnout.  Flying on a C11-3 / A8-3 motor combo, the bird turned in a beautiful flight.

My third flight of the day went to a Citation Patriot flying on a C6-5 motor.  The bird launched on a perfect flight trajectory. At ejection there was...no parachute!   After recovering the model from its hard impact, I found quite a bit of damage: two popped fins, a loose motor mount, some body tube 'wrinkling', and even a broken plastic shock cord attachment loop on the nose.

The model can be re-built and flown again.

Lee Reep had a much better outcome with an excellent flight of his Sceptre on D12 power:

Jim Gazur soon had a large glider project on the pad and ready for launch.  This is a Mini Dart 2 Discus Hand Launch glider modified for rocket power and R/C control.  The high-performance glider was flown on a Quest C6-3 motor. The flight started as expected, but quickly transitioned into a tight inside loop with a time period about the same as Jim's reaction time on the R/C controller, so he never could catch up.  He managed to gain some minimum control after the motor burned out--enough to keep it from crashing. 

Later on, after making some trim adjustments, Jim flew the boost/glider a second time, but with nearly the same results. Some additional fine tuning and trim modification should make this model a great flyer.

My next model to hit the skies was the perennially reliable Quest Big Rage, carrying a keychain camera and a FlightSketch Mini altimeter. Boost was perfect on a C6-5 motor.

At ejection, it was noted that there was no deployed parachute on the booster. The Big Rage came in ballistic.  The payload section was on a separate parachute which did deploy and bring the electronics down safely.

Unfortunately, my video cam workhorse rocket was completely toasted, the only salvageable part being the plastic fin can/motor mount section.  This was the model's 8th flight.

Bad day for the home team!  

I did get a very good video from the camera, and good flight data from the altimeter. I will have a blog post done in a few days covering this flight.

I had brought along a couple of other birds to fly, but with my horrendous track record for the day, coupled with increasing wind conditions, I opted out of any further launches.  I just didn't want to risk losing models or toting home more casualties. My fleet definitely took a brutal hit today...

Next, David Bauer was observed setting up a highly unusual model on the pad...

This is a flying pyramid which Dave called the "King Tut" !!!

Boosted by a G64 motor, the model roared off the pad to turn in what became the most spectacular flight of the day!  Parachute deployment and recovery were perfect.  It seems now that Dave holds the new record for highest total impulse used at Dove Valley.  Jim Gazur later wrote, "Now where did I put that box of G80s ?"

Fred Cobb finally got into the action with a very nice flight and recovery of an original vintage Estes Bomarc, powered by a C5-3 motor.

Lee was up next with a good flight of a Jet Freak boost/glider powered by an A8-3 motor:

Dave's next model was this futuristic/sport design, the Fliskits Adfecta.  The bird turned in an excellent flight:

Soon after, Lee put up his final flight of the day - a Mini Marz Lander.  Flying on an A10-3T, the model boosted well.  Unfortunately, the parachute tangled up at ejection, and the model landed hard. Surprisingly, there was no damage!

The next model to poke a hole in the clear Colorado sky was flown by Dave Bauer. This one is the Estes Menace.  The bird turned in yet another excellent flight.

The 20th and final flight of the day was put up by Fred Cobb, shown here prepping a vintage Estes Drifter model:

That's Lee in the foreground examining his recently recovered Mini Marz Lander.

The Drifter, painted in early era decor turned in a very nice, high flight on a B6-4 motor:

With this done, the intrepid group of rocketeers packed up their models and launch gear and headed out to a local ribs joint for some food and 'shootin' the bull'.

A great day for rocketry in Colorado!

A Brutal Day At The Launch Field Yesterday...

 Yesterday, December 2nd - another Front Range group launch at Dove Valley Park in Centennial -

Here's a pic of the pile of mishap victims I brought home.

75 percent of my flights went very wrong!  Yikes!

The Wasp glider didn't even make it as far as powered flight before it was damaged.

Some days are just better than others!

I'll have a full launch report posted here in a few days.

Stay Tuned......

Binge Build: A Plethora of Painted Projects, Day 2 !

 Yesterday was another good day for rocket painting, so a quick trip to the nearby Wally World netted a fresh can of gloss white paint.

The white base for the Interceptor, Big Bertha, and Nike-X models are now finished off.

While I was at it, I shot the red paint on the ESAM - 58 nose, and some metallic silver for the Crossfire ISX nose.

Good weather in today's forecast, as well.

Here is a group shot of all the binge-build models at their various stages of completion:

Cheers !

Binge Build: A Plethora of Painted Projects - Day 1 !!

 Monday, November 29th, turned out to be a perfect weather day for getting outside and shooting paint on some of the binge-build models.  Three of the seven assembled birds have been through the primer sanding stage, so these were today's targets.

The Interceptor, Nike-X, and Big Bertha models all got two applications of gloss white. I ran out of paint before the third and final coats could be applied, so this will have to wait until I can get more.

A couple coats of gloss black finished the Bertha nose and the Interceptor tail nozzle.

Metallic silver was used for the Interceptor antennae and the Crossfire ISX tail nozzle, and finally, some gloss orange now adorns the Interceptor wing pods.

I just may get these birds finished by EOY, after all!  

Stay tuned.....

Binge Build: A Primo Primer Painting Party !

 Today, the weather in Castle Rock, Colorado was absolutely perfect: temperatures in the mid-60s, lots of sunshine, and no wind.

In reality, I should have taken advantage of these conditions to be out at the flying field launching rockets, but instead I chose to haul all of my binge-build models up the long staircase from the basement la-BOR-atory.

Since I'm hoping to get these birds completed by the end of the year, it was deemed that such a great weather day should be best spent shooting primer coats.

Before I had them all done, I ran out of primer paint, thus requiring a trip to the nearby automotive parts store to pick up another can of Dupli-Color gray.

Here are all of the models set out to dry:

Tomorrow - more sanding....

Binge Build: A Pile of Plastic Parts.

 This post covers the collection of noses and other plastic pieces from the various kits.

At this point, I have also added the plastic parts from the Estes Interceptor to the build pile.

Most of these pieces require the usual mold seam mitigation, shoulder sizing, shock cord loop clean-up, and final sanding in preparation for painting.

At least the noses don't have to be sealed and sanded like the balsa versions of yore.

Following are pics of all the models in this build with nose cones, nozzles, and other plastic parts completed and dry fitted:

Next stop: final prep and primer paint!

Binge Build: Fin Filling Fun, Frolic, and Frivolity !

The binge-build models have now been processed through the big fill n' sand step.

OWWWF ! MY FINGERS HURT !!

I have even built up really thick callouses on my fingertips!

Oh...wait...that's from playing guitar...

Never mind!

But, anyway, that was a lot of fins to fill and sand.

Hey, Elon.....where is my Tesla-Bot ???

 

For this multi-rocket build I chose to "CWF" the fins after they were attached to the body tubes, rather than my usual MO of doing them separately.  The only exception to this were the little 'tab' fins on the Crossfire.  Compound fins are usually more difficult to fill and sand if assembled.

Also, I was able to forego most of this step on the Icarus booster stage fins in favor of papering them.  I figured that these fins could use a little bit more reinforcing strength due to all of the hard landings they will be subjected to. I did, however, glue on some reinforcing balsa gussets along the fin roots.  These parts received the full  fill and sand treatment.

All of these models were subject to no less than three cycles of this process, so I've been quite busy covering myself with CWF dust.

You might have noted that the above photo includes a 7th model.  This is an Estes Interceptor that had been completed up to this point since last Spring.  It has now been integrated into the current binge-build.

Moving on.....