#1
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Last Launch 2017
Comrades:
We've had nice weather all week so my sister and I took the kids for a launch yesterday. We launched 17 rockets in about an hour and 45 minutes. We launch at a park near her house that's right on the Rio Grande which is bone dry this time of year. Temp was about 45 with very light breeze from the NW; just enough breeze to keep the recovery more or less in the grassy area. My niece and nephew launched their scouting rockets and my son launched his Big Bertha. The rest were mine, all first flights for the rockets. 3 Sandhawks, 2 Tomahawks, Lance, Aries, Tartar, Patriot, Fat Boy, Goblin, Nike-Smoke, Arcas and Hermes off two pads. Some more stats: we used the new Estes white ignitors on all with only one failure; engines from A10-3T to E12-4; kits from five manufacturers (Estes, Centuri, Semroc, FlisKits and Launch Pad) plus two scratch-builds; damage was fairly light with two fins damaged by over-zealous 9-year old recovery, one fin damaged on impact with a rock wall, two Sandhawk fins popped off on impact; all of these were repaired by evening. The only flight failure was one of the rescue Sandhawks that was blown apart at ejection. This one is probably terminal; the motor mount was both blown apart and blown out of the body tube. The mount, with fins still attached came down from apogee still smoking and landed in a newly plowed area; payload bay recovered with a badly melted chute and the body tube slowly drifted down on the 18" chute and recovered just short of the river. The motor mount tube is completely blown apart at the seam for its exposed length and one of the 5055 rings is just gone. The pictures show: 1) Estes D-Region Tomahawk on D12-5; this is the original BT-60 size version; 2) Scratch Ares from Alway's Rockets of the World Supplement drawings; 3) Semroc ISQY Tomahawk on A10-3T; messed up the 18mm mount during construction, 13mm is plenty 4) Launch Pad Lance with fins from 14 U.S. Army Missiles; fun build; solid on D12-5; 5) Centuri Nike-Smoke on C6-3; never flew it as a kid; messed up baffle when it stuck just a couple of inches in, flew fine without it. I'll post a few more pictures later.
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NAR 79743 NARTrek Silver I miss being SAM 062 Awaiting First Launch: Too numerous to count Finishing: Zooch Saturn V; Alway/Nau BioArcas; Estes Expedition; TLP Standard Repair/Rescue: Cherokee-D (2); Centuri Nike-Smoke; MX-774 On the Bench: 2650; Dream Stage: 1/39.37 R-7 Last edited by MarkB. : 04-11-2020 at 06:00 PM. |
#2
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I got to launch a week before Christmas and was hoping for some fair skies the week after, but the temps took a nosedive and field conditions were lousy, so I busied myself with building. Now I'm getting the temps I wanted, in the sixties on Thursday, but the field is a quagmire. Not to worry, by Sunday the temps will be back below freezing with single digits at night. Never have been able to get the hang of January-March.
Hope you still plan to add more pics. I'm jonesin'.
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Bill Eichelberger NAR 79563 http://wallyum.blogspot.com/ I miss being SAM 0058 Build floor: Centuri Design Contest F-150 Hurricane Estes - Low Boom SST Semroc - Gee'Hod, Shrike, SST Shuttle In paint: Canaroc Starfighter Scorpion Estes F-22 Air Superiority Fighter, Solar Sailer II Semroc Cyber III Ready to fly: Estes - Multi-Roc, Solar Sailer II Semroc - Earmark, Snake Jumper |
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