Potter, NY 6/25/15. 1/2 scale, 125 lbs. High Power Rocketry is a hobby conducted at sanctioned launches in accordance with FAA rules and applicable NFPA guidelines. See www.tripoli.org for more info.
Congratulations. This rocket of yours is a super show. Very good, the shooting, launching, switching and first to second stage, the opening of the parachutes of the two stages, the little variation in rotation that provided a more stabilized image. Really surprising. Great post, great video. Congratulations
That was AWESOME! Used to do the Estes rockets as a kid... Those guys did it right! The camera views were brilliant...especially the one looking at the earth as it took off! WOW!
BEEEEEEAUTIFUL FLIGHT and recovery!!!! LOVE how you delayed staging as well just like the real deal. Those little details make scale flights like these all the more spectacular. THAT is a day to be proud of. Thank you for sharing it! Brian - TRA2578
Nothing special about that. Even commercial airliners use tape to fix their planes. Mostly little scratches that could have an impact on in flight stabilitly
...Nice........very nice........you guys seem to have got it up and running this time....well done... congratulations on a time well spent with grand results...
"Let me get a piece of tape on there." Definitely inspires confidence haha. But seriously really nice staging, recovery, camera work and all. You can tell a huge amount of work went into this. Super cool.
I've seen a lot of videos of Tripoli and NAR guys launching some damn nice rockets. But I've watched this video at least 30 times. I'm looking at the precision of your work, and it is impeccable. That thing looked AND flew like it came right out the big door down at the Michoud facility. I've seen NASA rockets that weren't as well put together as yours, and I've seen guided missiles that didn't fly that straight and smooth. And please don't tell the North Koreans how you did that.
Not trying to be contrarian, but nasa rockets that send payloads to asteroids millions of kms away seems a tad bit more well put together then a hobbyist sounding rocket.
+Andrew Schecter Thanks Andrew! Although a longer coast increases altitude I wasn't planning that for this flight. When you're watching your own project your sense of time is distorted:) So it seemed to me I was firing the sep/staging events pretty fast when in reality I probably should have staged it sooner to minimize that arcing and downrange drift. Next flight will have a single motor in the booster so I'm swapping out the RC stuff for a regular staging altimeter. And shorter delays are already programmed :)
+vahpr I was wondering if you ran sims on the staging delay. As it says in The Handbook of Model Rocketry, "...a model rocket staged at maximum velocity of the booster will go roughly twice as high as one staged at the maximum altitude of the booster--neglecting aerodynamic drag...." Once drag factors into the calculations it gets far more complicated, which is where the sims come in handy.
+andy124124 I didn't bother to sim this one as I have enough experience with this and a near identical model some years ago so have a pretty good feel for what looks cool and works well. That said, I've been running exhaustive sims for a 98-98 minimum dia 2 stage flight at Balls this year as I'm trying to maximize altitude. I've found that longer coast time increases altitude but you have to balance that with the fact that it's gonna arc and make recovery a potential problem, not to mention costing alt. So I'll pick some happy medium there and hope for the best.
Excellent, love the two direction videos. Saw a puff of smoke at separation, was it to release the sustainer? Was it forward ignition or a timer in the nozzle of the sustainer?
+mojaverockets Thanks! I had a small separation charge between the stages. Having flown an identical scale model some years ago I knew it needs a nudge to get it apart. No timer - I fire the sep charge and sustainer igniter by radio control (with another e-match on one of the main chute charges). So if the cluster is unruly off the rail I can NOT light the upper stage and deploy the main immediately. I think this is the safest way to go on theses....
I had thought about doing RF ignition on our space attempt should the 2nd stage be less than vertical. Seen to many 2nd and 3rd stages fire when boosted less than vertical. We did both direction video on a Cal Poly NASA SLI 2-stage a few years ago to check the staging and deployment. With such small and inexpensive digital cams now available it seems a shame not to do so. Again, great job with the rocket and video.
+mojaverockets I'm planning a 98-98 md for Balls this year (this will be head-end), sims to about 110k', but we can't use the rc system due to the alt it burns out and coasts to. Got a couple of the rocket electronics guys working on tilt sensors and I'm hopeful this will be the ticket. Ideally something that maximizes coast so fires when your selected max angle is reached. Or something along those lines. Of course at M3 any external cam will melt while it's stealing altitude so I'm thinking something in the nc shoulder that looks out. Better than nothing I suppose :)
I'm involved with several space projects, the one I mentioned is Sugar Shot to Space, the original website is currently down but we are on facebook. We also have a 150 to 98 2-stage AP planned for Balls or XPRS this year. We had been considering a tiltometer (2 NASA SLI teams I mentored a couple of years ago used them in Utah for their 2-stage projects but I was thinking about either RF ignition or RF 'destruct' signal...early chute deployment?