8-6-05 TQC Walcott, IA
Well we could only make one of the two days this weekend. The forecast Friday called for low to mid 80's on Sat with next to no wind. At that forecast I started getting ideas and prepared accordingly.
When we arrived early Saturday morning it was just as the forecast predicted with clear blue skies and little to no wind.
It was time to try for our second goal of the season. Level 3 was out of the way, now goal two was to break Mach speed on an all paper rocket. The Mach 1 was built for this purpose.
The Mach 1 was built and designed for trying to accomplish this goal with either an AT K550 or a CTI K445. Both motors would put the bird easily through mach speed. However neither were available on this day and weather like this in Iowa rarely comes along so we modified the plan to an AT K695 Redline motor. A bit more kick than the other motors and a higher end speed also but we decided to give it a go.
The bird was prepped for dual deploy, drogueless at apogee with the main at 500'. The K695 simmed at 8,200' max altitude and a max speed of 880 mph.
This is what the Mach 1 used to look like. :-) This was taken in March in Nebraska.
Here she is today lifting up off the rail with Redline flame out the bottom.
Last known picture of the Mach 1 in one piece, LOL
Heading up and under boost. This is a 3" x 60" rocket, and that flame appears to be at least as long as the bird. She is entirely double walled except for about the top 8" of airframe. I didn't double wall that in case of a mild zipper I wanted to be able to cut a section off the end and still be able to install the nosecone.
Per the timer/counter on the video camera the Mach 1 survived about 2.0 seconds of the 2.3 second boost the motor has, at which point it came apart spectacularly. For a second there I thought we had it whipped.
After a bit of a search in the corn these pieces were recovered. Bottom left is the upper airframe tube that the nosecone would sit on. Just below the BSD sticker you can see a black spot, that's a plastic rivet, the three rivets held throughout the destruction. They are holding that mangled piece of coupler still, this piece of coupler was part of the ebay.
According to the flight video, the motor came up to pressure and began moving the rocket up the rail at 50.19 seconds, it started to come apart at 52.21 seconds, right at 2 seconds into the burn. As you can see velocity was just shy of 900mph at that point and had actually peaked and just started to come down.
That piece of allthread was what the Altimeter was on. You can see the bottom bulkplate still attached, and how the allthread is now S curved, honest it was straight.
Later during the day someone found this out in the field on the sod. Mach 1's RRC2 altimeter. For those of you familiar with this altimeter many things are now out of place, as well as quite a few items missing, LOL. Upon looking over the remains of the bird it was apparent that the altimeter did not prematurely fire any charges. It is still set for an 8 second mach delay, and the ematches were found unfired.
Losses, about $80 worth of rocket components, or in other words one rocket, $100 altimeter, and one $80 motor burned. I do believe I can get another, same design, rebuilt and having learned from this one I'm hopeful the next version of this bird will handle the K695 and mach transition.
Well now it was time to get back to flying and taking some pictures.
Pete and Sean preparing Sean's slightly modified Estes V2 for launch.
Lifting off on an AT Black Jack load, I believe it was an F23.
Under boost, for a great flight and recovery under dual chutes, overall went great.
Mark Cymerman's PML Black Brandt VB on an AT I161.
Under boost for a nice flight. Rocket came down just east of the north treeline in the corn and has yet to be recovered. If anyone finds it contact me here or go to the TQC website message board and post for Mark.
Christopher Sadowski's PML Callisto on an AT G64 for a nice flight.
Well this was Tannor's favorite rocket of the day. Made to look like a firework went up on I believe an Estes D12. Tannor wasn't as happy however after the flight because it didn't explode. LOL
A red, I believe PML rocket lifting off.
And now going up under boost.
Another flight for Pete and Sean on the V2, this time I believe it was a G33. In the foreground is a Fliskits Tres kit, modified for two staged flight, it went off well also but I didn't catch the flight with pics.
A Loc Big Nuke 3E, I've been looking at this kit for a long time, and having looked it over at the launch field today I think it will be my next large project, here it is lifting off on what looks like Blue Thunder propellant. 5.5" Diameter by about 80" in length, flies nice on K motors.
Going up under boost for a nice flight and dual deployed recovery.
There were plenty of low power flights today also, this one coming up nicely off the low power pads.
This rocket lifted off nice and slow for a good flight, however it then arched over and came in ballistic out in the beans. It was recovered and looks a little different now.
Next up Jim Sadowski's BSD 54 Special for a Level 2 cert flight on an AT J350. Predicted altitude was 4,500'.
Lifting off, lots of fire and lots of smoke. Now I don't know what happened with the camera here or how this came out like this, it's not from any resizing and kinda ruins the pic to me, but look at the flame coming out of the end of the rocket, it looks offset?? I don't know what's up there.
Under boost and on it's way up for a successful L2 cert flight.............
Pete Heavlin's rocket lifting off on a Pro 38 H153.
Under boost and on it's way up for another nice flight. I believe Pete probably had the record for most H153 flights on the day, he burnt a few of them.
A nice blue and silver rocket lifting off on another Blue Thunder motor.
We were about ready for our next flight now. We build our BSD 38 Special last winter and had never been able to get it up in the air yet, so it was finally time.
Not to mess around either we opted for the AT J350 for the motor, setup and ready for dual deployment via a RRC2, drogueless at apogee and the main at 500'.
On the pad and ready to go.
And up and away for a nice flight, nice and straight all the way and dual recovery came off without a hitch to a BSD 45" chute at 500'. RRC2 recorded a max altitude of 4,943'.
I believe this was a BSD Little John kit, on the pad and smoking.
And lifting off, looks like White Lightning propellant to me.
Under boost and on it's way up for a nice flight.
Next up Ken was ready for his Level 3 cert flight attempt.
From what I gathered the attempt was a 4" Performance Rocketry kit, going up on an AT M1297 motor.
I don't recall the length of this bird but I'm guessing around 80" or so. Here it is on the pad coming up to pressure, I do remember the paint job on it, and looking at it up close it was nicely finished.
Lifting off and on the way.
On it's way up to nearly 14,000'. I think the altimeter recorded an altitude about 40' shy of 14k. Flight was picture perfect as well as the recovery, was a bit of a walk but the rocket hunter helped with that.
Congrats Ken on your successful L3 cert flight!!!!
Unkown rocket lifting off on what looks like a bigger White Lightning motor.
Pete flying again, on guess what? Another Pro 38 H153.
Under boost and on it's way for another nice flight, Pete had plenty of flights today and I don't recall any failures, seems like they all went off well.
Big Nuke from earlier is up for another flight, this time on an AT L850 White Lightning, coming up to pressure here.
Under boost and on it's way up for a nice flight and again perfect dual recovery, hit over 9,000' on the L850 motor.
Hey even the Rocket Rev flew a rocket today....... Here it us lifting off.
And under boost going up for another nice flight.
Well that did it for our launching this weekend, not able to make it Sunday with too many other things to get taken care of.
As usual, if any of these flight pics are of your rocket and you'd like copies just let me know and I'd be glad to email you copies, please however give me the details about your rocket and flight so that I can update this page.
Thanks.