Launch Date: August 23, 2022 - Grandson/Rocket Day At Castle Rock!

 Today, I had the privilege of introducing my four-year-old grandson to the joys of model rocketry.

After prepping and packing up a few of the smaller birds in the fleet, we headed out to Founders Park in Castle Rock, Colorado, a good B6-4 sized field.  The lad's mom and grandma came along to watch as well.

The first bird off the pad was the Quark with streamers taped to the fins.  

After instructing the young rocketeer about how to operate the launch controller, he counted down and pushed the button to send the model off on an amusing flight on A10-3T power.  Everything worked perfectly and the young man enthusiastically ran out on recovery.

Next up, he launched the flagship Viper, flying on an A8-3 motor. 

At ejection, the parachute shroud lines tangled with the model, so it was a bit of a hard landing that crumpled up the front end of the model's body tube (I just got that repaired last week!  Sigh....). 

The third model out of the box was the MPC Super Star clone. 

Flying on a 1/4A3-3T, the rocket flew surprisingly high.  Unfortunately, it suffered a broken shock cord. 

The booster rocket tumbled back to within fifteen feet of the launch pad, and the parachute with nose came in right next to the range box. Talk about an easy recovery, and there was no further damage to the model.

By this time my young grandson had the launch procedure down-pat. Like an old pro, he sent the Estes Star Seeker clone up on a nice 1/4A powered flight. 

Sadly, grandpa had not taped the friction fit motor in tight enough, so it ejected without pushing out the tiny parachute.

My grand-kiddo gleefully went on recovery and picked up all the pieces.  Easy fin glue-on repair.

All in all, even though three of the four models came back with some sort of damage issue, we had a great time on the flying field. 

Most satisfying, my grandson successfully pressed the launch button and recovered all four models.

Perhaps a new model rocketeer in the making....

Launch Date: August 19th, 2022 - An Impromptu Day At Dove Valley

This launch report post is a wee bit late in coming. 

For most of the month of August the BlastFromThePast household had been the center of a substantial amount of family activity, resulting in precious little keyboard time.

The August 19th Dove Valley launch was initiated by Mike Goss, who had happened to plan a rocket flying outing with his two young grandkids.

Mike put out an email invitation to the rest of the rocket gang to join them at the park, to which Jesse Ulibarri and myself responded in the affirmative.

Mike and the kids arrived at the field at 10 a.m. and began launching birds. Jesse and I were there by 10:45.

The weather conditions consisted of temperatures in the mid 70s and sustained wind around 6-7 mph.  

After having some encounters with rocket eating trees in the downrange area, it became a good idea to limit BT-50 and smaller models to A motor power, and B's for the BT-55 and 60 sized models, though a few models saw some C-motor action.

We were also very wary of the activities of a grounds crew operating mowing equipment around the park. They turned out to be a non-issue as they worked around our little setup.

Here is the pictorial rundown of the flights:

Mike's Granddaughter, Naomi, poses with a Satellite White Crayon rocket.

Mike's Grandson, Aaron, ready to launch an Estes Chrome Dome.

Mike's Grandkiddoes preparing to launch an MPC Duck Dodgers Star Traveler on a C6-5 motor. These young-uns proved to be an excellent launch and recovery crew!

Another favorite of grandkids - a Generic E2X awaits ignition on an A8-3 motor.

A Goss Crossbow SST ready to go on A8-3 power.  The model experienced a shock cord burn-through, but all was recovered successfully.

Mike Goss flew a nicely finished Photon Probe on a C6-3 motor.

Liftoff for a great flight...

...that culminated high up in a 'Rocket Eating Tree'!
Mike returned later in the afternoon armed with a long pole and was able to retrieve the model.

My first flight of the day went to the newly refurbished and upgraded EAC Viper.

Flying on a B6- 4 motor, the model flew high and drifted out of the park, barely missing landing among a row of RETs (Rocket Eating Trees) 

Jesse Ulibarri's Black Brant II scale model ready for flight.

 

Perfect Launch and Recovery!

Mike Goss flew a Loc Precision Big Nuke on an A8-3 motor. For some unexplained reason the model went unstable.

Young Aaron was soon back in the action with a successful
launch of a Power Patrol on a B6-2.

My Big Bertha set to go on a B6-4 motor.

Next up was my freshly repaired Citation Patriot ready to fly on B6-4 power.

Jesse prepares a Sky writer for flight.

This is Mike Goss's scratch-built 'Flame' built from an Estes Booster-55 unit. The model flew nicely on a C11-3, but the parachute failed to deploy.  No damage.

Here is a model not often seen on the flying field - a scratch-built McKibben Special, an old Estes Design-of-the-Month bird.

Impressive flight !!

My next model to take to the skies was a B6-4 powered Nike-X.

My final flight of the day was a launch of a Quest Nike-K on a B4-2 motor.

The last model to fly in this session was Jesse's nicely finished Alpha.

Also flown by Mike Goss, but not pictured -

- Quest X30 NASP on a C6-3 

-Estes Indicator, A10-3T

Just too good to be passed up...

Mike Goss demonstrates that it is necessary for rocket and rocketeer alike to compensate for wind!

A very ecstatic Jesse Ulibarri !!

A Slight Diversion...

 Today, our group of Front Range rocketeers was supposed to meet at Dove Valley Park in Centennial to conduct another launch.  As luck would have it, the weather conditions turned abruptly against us.  A couple of days ago, local weather models showed nice warm, windless conditions.  On Monday, however, we were struck with a monsoon weather pattern that brought lots of rain and sloppiness to the area.  These conditions show signs of continuing into today.

So, the launch was cancelled....

Instead, I trudged down the stairs to the basement La-BOR-atory to work on rockets.

Rather than continuing on with the binge build models, I chose instead to repair the EAC Viper.  This is the model that was badly damaged by a motor CATO last December.

To begin the repairs, I removed the remnants of the motor mount and gave the interior of the tube a thorough cleaning.

Next, the charred and bent forward section of the airframe body tube was cut off as cleanly as possible.

A stage coupler was glued in and a short section of body tube cut and  attached to the coupler. Any remaining gaps were fixed with CWF.  The Viper is now slightly longer than original, but will be completely flight-worthy.

Next, the motor mount.  I decided to upgrade the model with an 18mm mount this time.

With a little brushed-on acrylic paint and a new shock cord/mount, the fleet flagship is once again fit to take to the skies!

Cheers!

2022 Binge Build, Part 5 - First Model Ready For Finishing!

The RASCAL Rocket Glider is now fully assembled and ready for the final surface prep and coloring.

Since this one doesn't require the extensive amount of balsa filling and sanding, it was easy to break away from the pack of other binge-build models.

The only time-consuming (and dusty) operation consisted of sanding the root-to tip-taper and the airfoil on the wings.

Next step is to hit the model with a light coat of white sandable primer then break out the permanent markers.

Stay tuned ..

2022 Binge Build, Part 4 - Earning Their Stripes....

 Now that the motor mounts are.... mounted... it's time to lay out and mark the airframe tubes for fin and launch lug placement.

For the smaller tubes, I have made precision-marked paper cylinders that easily slip over the tubes.  For the large rockets, I simply calculate and mark a strip of scrap paper with the proper placements.

This entire process is also done with a mechanical pencil with a sandpaper sharpened chisel tip.

My go-to tool for extending the fin lines is an 18" piece of metal shelf standard.  It easily slips onto tubes up to two inches in diameter and is easy to hold onto while marking.

The metal standard is a little bit too wide for BT-5 tubes, but laying them on the bench works out just fine.

Here are most of the binge-build tubes after the marking operation:

Moving along....