July 24, 2004 Tripoli Southern Minnesota
Well we had planned on going to Nebraska with the THOR group today and launching rockets. The forecast was great and we were primed to go. Unfortunately the day before the launch the forecast did a flip, and was calling for rain and clouds for the majority of the day.
When I got up this morning and checked the weather it still looked bad, then I remembered a friend mentioning earlier in the week that TSM (Tripoli Southern MN) had a launch today also. A quick check of their weather forecast showed sunny skies and low winds, I quickly decided that would work and we were off northward to MN and our first TSM launch.
We arrived around 9:30 in the morning to find several people starting to setup the pads and tables. Not real sure about the who, what, when, and where's with this club we kind of hung back for a bit. Then they had a fliers meeting at the LCO table when they were ready and I got filled in on the procedures and signed up for the days launch.
Our first flight of the day was to be on our post shred, newly rebuilt Binder Jaguar. The plan was for an AT I285 Redline motor to feel it out and see if the coning had gone away with the new construction and double walling of the kit. Dual deploy was to be handled by the Missile Works RRC2 altimeter with a 12" drogue at apogee and a 36" main at 500'.
As we were prepping this, the first flight of the day was ready to go, a scratch built 3" rocket on an AT J415 if I remember correctly. Here she is going up.
Unfortunately she had a problem right around motor burn out and came apart, looked like she was rebuildable though and hopefully better luck next time.
After that flight we were ready with the Jaguar. And we have liftoff....
A nice liftoff and boost, but unfortunately right about motor burn out it again did a little coning, I don't know if we'll ever get this one up on a J like I wanted to. After that it straightened out nicely for an overall very nice flight. The RRC2 performed well popping the drogue at apogee, and the main at 500' with no problems for a soft touchdown.
You can see the red flame from the redline motor in the pic but trust me they're much brighter in person, a great motor.
Next up we flew the old reliable Estes Big Bertha. Meesha prepped it with a heatshield, a 15" nylon chute and a C6-5 and it was ready to go. As usual a nice flight and soft touchdown. These things just can't hardly fly any other way.
Last weekend we wanted to get the BSD Sprint up on an H180 but winds and 8ft corn kept us from attempting it and it went up on a G64 instead. Today was different though, the winds were good so we were ready to give it a go.
Did a quick demo on the motor build for some folks looking at getting into high power, then prepped the rocket. Plan was for a medium delay and motor ejection, however I inserted the RRC2 into the payload bay also to record altitude. A beeper was installed, 36" main chute and we were ready to go. And liftoff.....
And we had a typical Sprint flight, very straight and quick boost, with deployment right at apogee. Unfortunately I didn't get the camera focussed in well so it's a little blurry in the pic but you get the jist of it. Upon recovery the altimeter was beeping out an altitude of 1,871'. A great flight overall.
Three good launches down, and with a string of good luck going it was time to break out the "pretty rocket" for it's maiden flight. The Cosmodrome Black Brandt II was on deck.
It's high power capable but we decided to keep it a little lower for it's maiden flight and loaded up an AT G64 with a seven second delay. 24" nylon chute was loaded with a kevlar recovery system and we were all set. Lift off....
One of the better pics we got all day, the BB II took off with a quick and straight boost under G power for a very nice flight. The chute appeared on cue at apogee for what looked like a perfect flight.
Unfortunately upon recovering the rocket I found a problem, this kit comes with a balsa nose and tail cone, the plywood fins were beveled to near scale which means the leading edge of the fins was fairly sharp. All though the deployment looked fine the nosecone apparently came back and hit one of the fins, you could see the evidence on one fin. Here's the result of a balsa nosecone vs. a sharp plywood fin, I think the fin won.
In person it looks almost like the nosecone was hit with a hatched, which I guess the sharp fins can act like one. I have a source for a plastic Black Brandt II nosecone and I think we'll replace this one with that, so in the future this shouldn't be a problem.
Well Tannor had been chanting "screaming mimi, screaming mimi" all day so I wasn't going to get out of there without at least one launch on the Estes Screamin Mimi so it was loaded up to go next.
We prepped it with a D12-5 and a 15" nylon chute and took it out to the pad. After the countdown it took off for another nice flight, and again you could just barely hear the whistles after motor burn out. So the little one was happy, well kind of he wanted it to go back up again. Once was enough for today though.
Below are some pictures of other rockets we caught during the day, if these are yours or you know the details please let me know, these are all cropped for the webpage, if one of these are yours and you'd like the full picture just email me and let me know.
Unknown rocket on what appears to be a Black Jack motor, nice liftoff.
Unfortunately I didn't get the camera focussed in very well, but this was a scratch build if I remember correctly and a first attempt at a cluster with 4 G64s I believe. They all 4 lit and he definitely got the up part down correctly, there was a problem with deployment though and it came in ballistic. Hopefully better luck next time.
Unknown gray rocket coming up to pressure on what looks like a Black Jack or Smokey Sam.
And it's off and away!!!
Another nice rocket boosting up, looks like a White Lightening motor to me.. lots of smoke and lots of flame..
I like this pic, a Black Brandt coming up to pressure and roasting the blast deflector..and then...
And it's away, must be a White Lightening motor, lots of fire and lots of smoke. Steve Scham's rocket on a K550 White Lightening to 5639' AGL dual recovery controlled by a Perfect Flight mini altimeter.
I don't remember all of the details but this is a scale, or semi scale kit of a Russian missile, very cool looking rocket, being prepped and then....
and it's away, I don't know about you but I feel this rocket is in clear violation of the warning sign at the bottom of the pad.. ;-)
Well that was it for our day, the kids were hot and tired and so was I so we got packed up and headed home. We had a good time and found another great group to launch with. Again thanks.. and to anyone wanting copies of these pictures just email me and let me know.