This year was the silver anniversary of LDRS, which is the annual national launch for high power rocketry. The location changes every year, and this year's event in Amarillo, Texas looks to have been big fun.

I'd already talked about some flights made by local rocketeers that I fly with. Now you can check out the video.

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Every year, our rocketry club NOVAAR does a high power rocketry demonstration at a big 4th of July show at Great Meadow. This is what the club does as payment for the use of the facility all year round. The club loves doing it, the crowd loves the rockets, and the Great Meadow folks love it all.

I don't go. Crowds, traffic, heat. I spend a quiet 4th with the family at home.

Meanwhile, down in Amarillo, Texas, at the annual LDRS launch...

As of today, between Virginia and North Carolina flyers, we have burned over 261,900 Ns of propellant! *

The Phoenix Project was a complete success. 20,000Â’ flight on a Q13,500.

SpinalTap complete success. 22,011Â’ on a P9911.

Mike McBurnett showed how to earn his L3 with a near 10,000Â’ flight on a M1297.

Mike Showalter flew his Patriot Missile on a baby N2400.

Ben Russell flew Ringworm on a N2300.

Ron Rickwald flew the Block 3 Standard Arm on a full O.

Dave Morey and Dave Hash placed 1st and 2nd , respectively, in the Bowling Ball flight duration contest.

Check the ROCKETS magazine [online site] for current photo coverage.

We still have one more day to go!

Needles to say, LDRS is rockinÂ’!!

Â….Ed

When you're out to impress the rest of the country, this is the way to do it.

*261,900 Newtons equals 58,877.5 pounds of force. Yowza!

Posted by: Ted at 09:13 PM | category: Rocketry
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Today was supposed to be a nice day, darn it! It was ok, nothing more than that, but the worst thing was that it was windy all day long. We launch rockets in the rain, we'll launch in the snow and cold, but wind stops us every time. The safety rules say that 20mph is the cutoff point. That's reasonable, because 20mph is a heckuva blow.

Today there were gusts to 17mph (that I heard of), and there were few lulls.

I had several things going on today at the rocket launch. First up, I'd volunteered to help with a CanSat competition. Eight college teams from around the country were making flights with identical high-power rockets, and at apogee their experimental payloads were ejected under parachute. These payloads were GPS units that sent telemetry back to the ground, where it was picked up by a YAGI antenna (I think that's what it's called) and fed into a laptop for recording and analysis.

Eight successful flights, but big... no, huge... HUGE, drift because of the wind. One team recovered their cansat almost three miles downwind.

I helped to prep a couple of the rockets, and later did a shift at the high-power pads doing launch control duties.

I finished that up just in time to grab a quick bite (PBJ, food of the gods) before a coworker of mine arrived with her nieces and nephews. Sammy and William each prepped a rocket with me, while Miranda decided she'd rather not. She claimed not to like loud, noisy things, which is understandable with two brothers, eh?

So we three got rockets ready to fly, pictures were taken, and we went to the launch area. Once the rockets were on the pads, one by one they were launched, after the Launch Control Officer read the important information over the PA system, including the fact that this was Sammy's first launch with NOVAAR and William's first rocket ever.

The flights went well, and afterwards the kids and I went out to the field to recover them (darn wind!). I gave Sammy and William their rockets to keep, which might seem like a nice thing to do, but it's really very selfish of me. See, by giving away two rockets, I'll have to build two more in order to keep my display rack full.

Hopefully they'll be back at another launch soon.

Other than that, not much happened all day. I broke one rocket (my Odin's Spear) when the wind blew it off the table and I didn't see it. Stepped backwards right onto it. I also had a stabilizer snap off of an Edmonds rocket glider, but that's already on the workbench, glue drying from the repair.

Mandatory stats stuff for my records:

1. BolAeroZ - B6-4 - this Shrox plan features an asymetrical fin planform and today there was just too much wind for it. It was only marginally stable, but was high enough not to be dangerous. I suggested that if Sammy and his dad cut the forwardmost fins off, then the rocket would fly much better.

2. Air Guitar - B6-4 - William liked this rocket for the paint job (so did the the LCO), which was patterned after Eddie Van Halen's guitar, hence the name. A very nice flight, recovered safely on a streamer.

3. Groove Tube - B6-4 - This flight was mine, and it was it's usual beautiful boost. Tube fins tend to not be as affected by the wind, at least on the way up. She drifted quite a bit farther than the other two rockets because she went much higher.

And that was it for me for the day. One actual flight made. Darn wind. I still had big fun, because rockets and kids go together like PBJ.

Posted by: Ted at 07:59 PM | category: Rocketry
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Over at Pratt Hobbies blog, Doug has put up a picture of himself and his son Brian. Brian was my co-timer during the Team America finals.

Meanwhile, for the true tech-geek out there, check out this mashup of Google Maps that lets you track the orbital positions of satellites as well as letting you know when and where they'll appear in your sky over the next 48 hours. Tres cool! Kudos to Dick's Rocket Dungeon for the info and pointer.

Posted by: Ted at 09:14 AM | category: Space Program
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You may or may not have heard about Lordi, the Finnish band that staged a huge upset to win the European version of American Idol*.

No? Over at the Ministry of Minor Perfidy, they have a bunch of pictures of this group along with plenty of background. Fun reading, even if you're not into "Arctic Death Metal bands" (and if not, why not?).

I liked this comment by the lead singer of Lordi:

"We are not Satanists. We are not devil-worshippers. This is entertainment. Underneath [the mask] thereÂ’s a boring normal guy, who walks the dogs, goes to the supermarket, watches DVDs, eats candies.

But my favorite part, which resulted in a massive choking fit caused by the ol' soda-through-the-nose effect, was when Mapgirl** wonders aloud in the comments:

Heh heh “eats candies” Candied what? Baby Jesuses?

Worth the click.

**Mapgirl is a long-time commenter at the Ministry (she was already there when I found them) and she has a personal finances blog. You should go say hi.

Posted by: Ted at 08:03 AM | category: Rocketry
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Well folks, another rewarding weekend spent watching the future of America has come and gone. The 2006 Team America Rocketry Challenge is over, and if you're so inclined I'll tell you all about it, from my vantage point as one of the volunteers.

First, I'll kick this off with a few factoids that I thought notable:

• 100 teams of students from 37 states and the District of Columbia made it to the finals this year.


• Some 7,000 students entered this year's contest.


• Unlike last year, the vast majority of these teams were first time participants in the finals.


• Plantation High School in Florida sent *six* teams to the finals!

The weather looked dicey all week, but when Saturday dawned it was cool, the winds were calm and although the sky was completely overcast, the clouds were high enough not to impact the contest flights. As the day went on, the ugly overcast moved out, leaving us with a glorious day in the mid-70's, breezes around 10mph, and a sky half full of fluffy white clouds. Perfect rocket weather.

This year, the contest flight goal had been simplified in an important way. Instead of making two-stage flights and lofting two fresh eggs, the requirement was to design and build a single stage rocket that only had to carry a single egg. The target altitude was lowered to allow single-stage flights, although two-stagers weren't prohibited. The reason for this change was to increase the number of qualified flights. In previous years around 35% of the entered teams were able to make successful flights (even if they didn't make it to the finals). This year, the number was - I believe - closer to 70%. To compensate for the reduced technical difficulty from previous years, the design goals were expanded. Rather than going for either a set altitude or duration in the air, the teams had to go for both a target altitude of 800 feet *and* a duration of 45 seconds from first motion to the first part of the egg capsule touching down. Obviously, a broken egg was a disqualification.

Due in large part to the simplification of the mission, we saw far fewer outright failures (translation: uncontrolled debris raining down out of the sky). There was a real effort made to not disqualify flights because of nitpicky rules interpretations, and I didn't hear of any flights DQ'd for other than gross and/or obvious rules violations.

Once again, the students amused and amazed with their ingenuity. We provided a 1/4" launch rod 6 feet in length, plus a single pair of electrical clips for ignition. Teams that clustered motors had to bring their own clip whips or other method of multiple-engine ignition, and could bring their own launch pads or electrical launch systems. Several did. I saw teams who had built mini-weather stations into launch towers, ranging from simple streamers to indicate wind direction to full setups including anemometers, thermometers and barometers.

One team used a tube launcher (see here for a description of different kinds of launch methods), and several brought rails. One enterprising group of MacGyvers cobbled together a large windbreak from scrounged cardboard boxes, duct tape, string and various pieces of scrap wood (I identified a 1"x2" and a length of broomstick in there). It was hideous, but it worked and was ingenious. Farther down you'll find out what the specific benefit was.

In previous years, I'd been in charge of parking, been part of the recovery teams (long poles to get rockets down out of trees), and handled access to the flying field. All needed tasks, but none that actually let me see the contest flights except from a distance. This year, I was up close and personal. I had the honor of working as part of the timer crew, each rocket being timed by a pair of NAR members using stopwatches to time the duration portion of flight in hundredths of a second. Our lead for the day was Jim Barrowman, author of the "Barrowman equations", which are still used to calculate stability of simple rocket designs. Here's a blip from his NASA bio:

James S. Barrowman served as a project and program manager at the Goddard Space Flight Center for 22 years, managing Attached Shuttle and Space Station Payloads, the Explorers Program, and the Hubble Space Telescope Program. He was awarded NASA's Exceptional Service Medal twice, as well as a Goddard Space Flight Center Award of Merit. He has also been the President of the National Association of Rocketry.

I should add that he's one heckuva nice guy.

So I spent the day talking to students from a quarter of the teams. Each team sent one student to the timer's area to point out which part of the rocket had the egg capsule. Some designs separated into as many as three pieces under separate parachutes.

The accuracy that these students were achieving was amazing. In the first hour we'd already timed a 45.3something, and the other timer teams were seeing similar results. Obviously, the determining factor was going to be the altitudes.

Each rocket carried aloft an altimeter that used barometric pressure to determine the altitude achieved. The altimeter would sound a series of beeps that the judges listened to which gave the results in feet. Later in the day, as the wind picked up, a problem with some rocket designs appeared where the pressure of the wind across the vent hole would create a venturi effect which would reduce the air pressure inside the rocket. This would trigger the sensor, causing it to think it had already reached maximum altitude and it would start to beep an altitude, usually something like 4 feet. The design solution is to not make your vent holes too large, the practical solution was to let each team make "one last check", listening to the altimeter just before starting the countdown. There were a few rockets that had to recycle through the launch queue in order to reset their altimeters.

This year, NASA sweetened the deal for teams that placed from 11th to 25th (out of the money, so to speak). Each school or group gets an invitation for a teacher to attend a workshop on how to include aerospace subjects into the curriculum. The workshops are held in Huntsville, Alabama (home of Space Camp), and NASA is picking up transportation costs for the teachers as well. In addition, each of these teams has been automatically entered into NASA's Student Launch Initiative (SLI) program where they build a high powered rocket designed to achieve one mile in altitude. The group gets a $2500 grant to do that. Plus (yep, there's more), the teams can design and submit a scientific package that may be selected to be launched on an actual NASA research sounding rocket. If their experiment is selected, they get to travel to the launch site and see the launch.

The top ten teams may get that in addition to the prize money, but it wasn't specifically mentioned.

Each of the winning teams went up on the platform to get their trophies, meet the VIP's (including Buzz Aldrin, who still looks great) and get their photos taken. There were some 40 "partner awards" given out by the various aerospace sponsors. This year, besides the Aerospace Industries Association (AIA) and NASA, DoD and the Civil Air Patrol were sponsors as well.

The second place team was all girls. More about them in a bit.

The first place team was three guys, and they dedicated the day to two of the original team members who'd been killed in an auto accident not too long ago.

Afterwards, there was a BBQ for all of the students, families, guests and volunteers. I wound up sharing a table with two young ladies from the team that finished in second place. Their parents were there too, and I found out that they were from Toledo, Ohio. I'd been one of the timers for their flight, and I remembered that they were incredibly nervous. Turns out that the team had entered TARC the previous two years without making the finals, but this year they made it and won big. Their rocket was very utilitarian, well constructed and painted plain white with signatures from various people being the only decoration. This team was comprised of three seniors and a junior (who vowed to be back with a new team next year), and one of the graduating ladies already had a scholarship to MIT.

Of course, there was plenty to see besides rocket contest flights. There were lots of booths and tables set up from colleges and organizations, handing out literature and goodies like pens and keychains and pins and stickers and frisbees. The creator of the RocketCAD design and simulation software package had flown in from Germany to attend, and a company from Finland was flying a weather balloon to 750 feet with weather radiosondes located up and down the cable to measure weather conditions at various altitudes. There was a simulator of some sort (I barely got a chance to walk through the displays, and had no chance to stop and look). The Marines from Cherry Point, NC sent two AV8-B Harriers to do a flyover after the National Anthem in the morning, and a recon UAV did a flyover demo during the lunch break, circling the field and (I presume) beaming back pictures to the ground where folks could see them in real time.

Murdoc would've loved the Stryker on display, as well as a Humvee. I did get a chance to talk to the soldier there with them.
He was about a month away from retirement, but was part of the battle that toppled Baghdad. As a platoon sergeant for an artillery company, he was doing recon towards the airport (which was one of the last parts of Baghdad to fall), when his main unit became engaged by Iraqi's with small arms fire. He turned his recon unit around and hit the unsuspecting Iraqi's from behind. Kicked their ass too. I thanked him for his service.

File this next bit under "Small World". When I first joined NOVAAR, the very first person I talked to was Roger. Roger is a nice guy, and his son Doug was often out at the field as well, testing rocket glider designs.

Doug recently received his Masters degree in aerospace engineering from Virginia Tech. When I heard the school, I asked Doug if he'd known Chris Hall, a professor there and long-time resident of the Rocket Jones blogroll as the author of Spacecraft. Sure enough, Professor Hall was on Doug's panel.

One last item, about the title quote. While timing one flight, I remarked upon an exceptionally long shock cord (the bit that keeps the various pieces together under parachute). The student told me that their team mentor always said that "you can never have too much shock cord", and I laughed because I say that too. Their mentor was fellow club member Ivan, and he and I are both known for using the longest length of shock cord that we can fit into a rocket.

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The weekend we've been planning for, and that the student teams have been working towards for almost a year is upon us.

I've talked about the challenge itself, I've talked about the prizes. Here are some of the final details (from the final crew update).

The opening ceremony will include a flyover by a pair of US Marine Corps AV-8B Harrier fighter jets. There will be a large number of display booths by various aerospace corporations and miltary services. The CBS Morning Show will be broadcasting live from the field, and other networks may do this also.

Remember, the winning team will also be treated to a trip to the Farnborough Air Show in England by Raytheon Corporation.

Check out this list of distinguished guests:

Dr. Buzz Aldrin, NASA Astronaut

The Honorable James Finley, Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Technology

Dr. William Berry, Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Laboratories & Basic Sciences (Acting)

Mr. John Landon, Deputy to the Assistant Secretary for C-3 ISR and IT Acquisition

The Honorable John Young, Director of Defense Research and Engineering

Ms. Patricia Grace Smith, Associate Administrator for Commercial Space, FAA

Mr. Rex Geveden, Associate Administrator, NASA

The Honorable Ronald Sega, Under Secretary of the Air Force

The Honorable Delores Etter, Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Research, Development and Acquisition

Ms. Lynn Cline, Deputy Associate Administrator for Space Operations Mission Directorate, NASA

Ms. Angie Johnson, Assistant Associate Administrator for Education, NASA

Dr. Mark Lewis, Chief Scientist of the Air Force

Dr. Tony Tether, Director, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)

Dr. James Short, Director, Defense Laboratory Management; Office of the Deputy Under Secretary of Defense (Laboratories & Basic Sciences)

Dr. James Tegnalia, Director, Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA)

Dr. Bernice Alston, Deputy Chief Education Officer, NASA

Ms. Lisa Sutherland, Staff Director, U.S. Senate Committee on Science, Commerce & Transportation

Mr. François Gayet, Secretary General of the Aerospace and Defense Industries Association of Europe

Mr. Graham Gibbs, Counsellor, Space Affairs, Canadian Space Agency, Embassy of Canada

Dr. Tony Sinden, Councillor, Defence Science & Technology, Embassy of the United Kingdom

Mr. Frederic Nordlund, Head, Washington Office, European Space Agency (ESA)

Mr. Kiwao Shibukawa, Director, Washington Office, JAXA

Mr. Andrew Flinn, Underwater Weapon Systems Liaison Officer, Embassy of the United Kingdom

Mr. Andrew Bird, Missile Defence Liaison Officer, Embassy of the United Kingdom

That list gives a good idea of just how serious the government and tech fields take this type of event. The students might not even realize it, but just by making the finals they've generated some interest.

A couple of years ago, a NASA official told the assembled students that according to projections, the first person to land on Mars is in high school right now. It might just be one of these kids.

Posted by: Ted at 01:58 PM | category: Rocketry
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My Level 2 rocketry certification process took a huge step forward last night when I ordered the motor casing and reload kit.

Contrail J246 hybrid. 38mm motor case, 36" long. 673 newton/seconds total thrust delivered over 2.8 seconds of burn time.

When all is ready to go (early summer), y'all are invited to the launch.

Posted by: Ted at 05:26 AM | category: Rocketry
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Last weekend our rocket club, NOVAAR, held a two day event out at Great Meadow.

Saturday combined a contest meet with the usual sport flying and a healthy number of Team America teams making test flights. Because the deadline for making qualified flights is on the 10th of April, more than a few (forty, to be precise!) qualifying attempts were made as well.

The day was mostly overcast and the winds were gusty enough to force the range to shut down for short periods throughout the day. They were also blowing in an unaccustomed direction, from the southwest, which meant we had to angle the rocket launches over a fair bit to avoid flying over the spectators and parking lot.

I decided that I was going to fly some rockets this weekend, since what had been happening lately is that I make a flight or two and then get caught up helping out with the range crew and talking to folks and just having a good time doing everything but prepping and launching my own rockets.

I also decided to not bring anything high-power because of the recent crap we've been putting up with from the BATFE.

Being April Fool's day, I brought an oldie out of retirement and flew her early on, before most of the crowd arrived. Good thing too, I guess.

1. Syzygy (aka "3 nosecones and a fin") - 3x A10-3T - "3 fins and a nosecone (3FNC)" is how we describe plain vanilla rockets (three fins being the minimum needed for stability). This cluster rocket is actually three rockets linked together into a triangle shape with shared fins. She's flown successfully before, but because the engines are out and away from the centerline, if all three motors don't light, you have a real problem.

Knowing that, I called for a "head's up" flight, and sure enough only two of the three motors ignited. She arced over and looped a couple of times up in the air before falling to the ground and ejecting two of her bright metallic streamers. Soft grass saved her from being destroyed, but I think I'm going to take some pictures for the logbook and then scrap her out for parts.

Frequent commenter Russ challenged me to a Zinger drag race. The Zinger is a small, lightweight Estes rocket which is truly 3FNC. It's also fun to fly because it really gets up there on a little A motor, goes practically out of sight on a B, and has been described as "aerial pornography" on C motors.

For a drag race, two rockets are launched simultaneously and there are generally three events judged. First off the pad scores a point, highest altitude scores a point, and then usually first to the ground scores a point. Two out of three wins.

Russ and I loaded up our Zingers with A motors and got ready to go. There was a brief delay as he accidentally broke his while prepping it up. He was ready for that though, because he brought three of them! I only had the one, and had only finished painting it the night before.

2. Zinger - A8-5 - Beautiful flight. I definitely beat Russ off the pad, but it was close. He was flying an A8-3 and the extra two seconds delay on my motor did the trick, as I coasted a fair bit higher before ejecting the streamer. We were both using plastic flagging tape for streamers (mine was about 3 foot long), and recovered without damage. Russ had to have been using some soft damn balsa for his fins though, because his Zinger broke two when it touched down.

That's why he built spares though. Next up: B motors. The plan is to launch until we lose them.

3. Zinger - B6-6 - A virtual replay of the first race. I barely beat him off the pad, beat him in altitude, and then lost sight of them both. Walking out in the direction of the expected drift, Russ found his and spotted mine nearby as well. Once again, mine was undamaged and his snapped two more fins! That was his last Zinger, so the C motor race would have to wait for another day.

4. Angel - D12-5 - This scratchbuilt ring-fin is another rocket that hasn't flown for a couple of years, and I don't know why. She looks cool, flies great, and because she's minimum diameter (the body is the same size as the motor), she gets great altitude. She landed close to the pad because she's built like a tank so I could get away with using an 8" parachute for recovery. Not much time in the air to drift, and landing on thick soft grass is a blessing.

I prepped four rockets at the car and took them out to the range. Unfortunately, between TARC flights and contest event flights, things were moving very slowly and I was only able to launch one more rocket for the day.

5. Groove Tube - C6-7 - This one kind of annoyed me. The Groove Tube was a kit produced by Centuri for over 10 years back in the 80's. For some reason, the Safety Check guy was worried about stability and was hesitant to give the ok to launch it. He asked me if it had flown safely before (ignoring the somewhat beat up paint job), and I couldn't hide the sarcasm as I told him that it had never been unstable in the previous thirty-odd flights.

Yep, that got the ok. Another beautiful flight, dang near out of sight, and as the streamer came out and I watched the wind push her along I wondered what I was thinking, putting a C motor in her on such a windy day. Oh well, another long long walk for recovery. Undamaged.

I spent the rest of the day doing a shift as Safety Check and generally enjoying myself, and helped afterwards getting things ready for the overnight (we were going to leave most of the equipment out on the field since we were flying again the next morning).

April second was a much nicer day. The wind wasn't quite a bad, the clouds weren't quite as heavy, and I slept in, not getting to the field until 11am or so (it's about an hour drive from my house).

Once again, the plan was to fly some rockets. I had those three still ready to go from yesterday afternoon. Cool!

1. Honest John - B4-4 - This scale model of the US Army tactical nuclear missile is painted in the orange, white and black test round pattern. Pretty flight and good recovery not too far from the pad. I used a small chute for recovery.

2. Odin's Spear - B4-4 - I need to do a better paint job on this ring-fin kit from Vertical Force Rocketry (over on the sidebar). This was a prototype that Rich gave me to test, and she flies great!!! But I painted her plain boring sorta-yellow, and she deserves better. Recovered undamaged on the very small mylar chute.

3. Vampyre - A10-3T - Another ring-fin, this one another original design of mine. Small, superquick, and gets great altitude. Painted red and black with silver accent stripes, she gets compliments for her looks too. I'm proud of this one and she's been perfect for some 30 or so flights. This one was no exception.

The wind was in a lull, so I pulled out the biggest rocket and motor combo that I'd brought for the weekend.

4. Hot Jets - F24-4 - That's right bubba, it was time for my cheerleader rocket! Beautiful boost, and right at apogee the x-form chute came out. She drifted pretty good, but not as bad as she could have because the chute did something I've never seen before. It began to spin, and as it did it twisted the shroud lines. As the shroud lines twisted it reefed the parachute more and more, causing the rocket to descend faster and the chute to spin faster and close tighter until, about 20 feet off the ground, the chute looked like a balloon. Balloons are good, if they're filled with helium, which this one wasn't, so the rocket dropped straight down to the grass. Undamaged, and I have no idea why the chute acted that way this time, although it was pretty cool to watch and saved me from a much longer walk.

5. YJ-218 - 2x C6-7 - Can't have a launch without a Yellow Jacket flight! This twin-engine cluster made her 25th flight, and it was perfect. Recovered under her custom matching yellow x-form chute (thanks Liz!).

Time for another mid-power flight. The winds were picking up again, so I didn't go maximum motor for the rocket, but considering how light she is, this was plenty.

6. Barenaked Lady - E18-4 - She screamed off the pad, angled into the wind, and went waaaaaaay up there. For some stupid reason, I put a regular sized chute on her and when it ejected, I knew I was in for a long walk to recover. She landed beyond the first set of fences, and when I got to that field I watched a TARC rocket come down gently under chute for a perfect landing. Unfortunately, a gust of wind reinflated the chute and dragged the entire rocket right into the creek. I couldn't get to it in time (and shouldn't touch it anyway, in case it was a qualifying flight), but when the kids arrived a minute later (out of breath from running), I pointed it out to them. One of the kids waded across the spillway and the wind pushed the rocket to him on the other bank. I saw them later and after a brief drying out the rocket was ready to fly again. Yay!

As I was walking back to my car I was passed by an enormous gaggle of Cub Scouts and parents. Unbeknownst to our club, a group of local scouts had built model rockets and were there for an afternoon of flyng (someone told me it was four packs, but it was probably one pack with four large dens).

I hustled to put my rocket away at the car and then scooted right back out to the launch area because I knew they were going to need help. Thirty or forty Cub Scouts (at least), most of which have never flown a rocket before, need close attention. We spent the next couple of hours pointing out how to fix the problems with some rockets during the build process (gluing the launch lug in line with the fins might be more aerodynamic, but it prevents the rod from reaching the lug), as well as providing help inserting igniters and hooking the rockets up (I would demonstrate, then unhook it again so the scout could do it himself). One funny moment came when I discovered the reason we'd seen so many parachutes strip from the rockets, it turned out that the adult who helped that batch of scouts assemble their rockets used hot-melt glue to attach the chutes. The heat of the engine, followed by the ejection charge, caused numerous problems for those kids. There are instructions for a reason, people!

All in all, it was a long, satisfying, tiring, enjoyable weekend. I stayed afterwards to help tear down the range and pack up the equipment and load it into the club trailer. They're going to do it again this afternoon and tomorrow, but we're headed down to visit Mookie, so I can't make it. Looking out the window though, Quack.

Posted by: Ted at 09:44 AM | category: Rocketry
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Lots of wind today, but I still managed five flights. It's a two-day event, so I'll be heading back out to the field tomorrow.

Big fun. Stories later.

Posted by: Ted at 10:12 PM | category: Rocketry
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From Pratt Hobbies, the Surface to Idiot Missile.

Disclaimer: It's a sad but true fact that in today's world it must be explicitely stated that it's a joke. *sigh*

Posted by: Ted at 09:58 PM | category: Links
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Jennifer hangs it up.

The guys down at Whitakers, North Carolina lost their flying field. It's not actually lost, it's just been turned into a corn field without prior notice.

Posted by: Ted at 04:41 PM | category: Links
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My friend Doug Pratt has started a rocketry blog, and named it, appropriately enough, Pratt Hobbies Blog. It will soon be on the sidebar.

He's off to a great start, including a post about how the BATFE is reacting to their recent smackdown by the Federal courts regarding rocket motors. Short answer: they are not taking it well, and it seems that the retaliation against the hobby has started. Read more over at Doug's blog, and, like most of us, he wanders off onto other topics as the fancy takes him. Check it out.

Posted by: Ted at 05:58 PM | category: Rocketry Resources
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1 Whoa! I didn't expect such a fanfare...and in big type too. Tanks, dood...you're my inspiration.

Posted by: Doug Pratt at March 18, 2006 07:33 PM (ia2zV)

2 LOL I have no idea what happened, but when I put the rocket doggie banner up top, it completely hosed my template.

Uh, I mean, yeah, your blog got the big type treatment, because it's worth it.

Posted by: Ted at March 18, 2006 08:43 PM (+OVgL)

3 Well, don't feel like the Lone Stranger. Something is hosed on the new blog, too. For some reason the messages are spaced down the page and don't start until after the sidebar. I've emailed customer support at Hostway, which has been very good in the past.

Posted by: Doug Pratt at March 18, 2006 09:19 PM (ia2zV)

4 Must be an IE thing, because it looks fine in Firefox.

Posted by: Ted at March 19, 2006 12:04 AM (+OVgL)

5 Yeah, I tried it late last night with Firefox and it works. This morning Hostway customer service emailed me and said they replicated it with IE but not with Firefox, and they're working on it. Pretty good service for a weekend! Hostway's been good to me.

Posted by: Doug Pratt at March 19, 2006 02:20 PM (ia2zV)

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Because this *is* Rocket Jones ya know.

I've been talking about "certification" and "Level 2" and such, without ever explaining what that means.

A while back I posted a Beginner's FAQ explaining the hobby rocket motor codes, and another post illustrating the size of some of these motors. You can read it for more detail, but I'll try to explain it here without needing to follow that link.

This all applies to the US. Canada, the UK, and probably other countries have their own variations.

Until recently, if you were younger than age 18 then the largest motor you could fly was a "G" motor (up to about 16lbs of thrust). There were ways around that limit, by having an adult purchase and possess the motor and take responsibility for the flight, even though a minor may have done most of the work. The National Association of Rocketry (NAR) has introduced a program where a youngster can legally fly high power motors, basically by standardizing the "sponsor" requirements.

High power motors are defined as "H" power and above, and you need to make a certification flight to prove that you can construct a safe rocket for the power involved. For Level 1, your flight has to be witnessed by two members of your rocketry organization who are also Level 1. Safely flying and recovering the rocket means you can purchase and use "H" and "I" motors (a little better than 140 lbs of thrust).

Level 2 requires the certification flight, but you also have to pass a written test about organization information, government laws and regulations and general rocketry knowledge. That's the level that I'm working towards, and once I get there I can fly "J", "K" and "L" motors (up to 1,150 lbs of thrust).

The top level right now is Level 3, for "M", "N" and "O" motors (and up I suppose, an "O" produces up to 9,208 lbs of thrust). For this, you're assigned two advisors who already have their Level 3 certification, and you must document the construction process and put together a binder showing details about the rocket and simulations of the expected flight. There are also additional safety requirements at this level. Like the others, you must make a flight and recover the rocket undamaged.

So that's the certification process that I keep babbling about.

Russ, I'd be happy to sign off on your Level 1 flight.

As for the Zinger drag race, well, you're on! Someone once described the Zinger as "arial pornography" and I've got to agree. I thought I had an unbuilt kit somewhere but I can't find it, so send me the specs and fin measurements and I'll have one ready for the next launch.

And since the next launch is on April first, I've got a few fun and/or odd April Fool's rockets that'll be ready to go as well. I'm looking forward to this one!

Posted by: Ted at 05:58 PM | category: Rocketry
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1 Well,Ted,I was actually instigating,oops,I meant suggesting a

race between I and the kid.However,a duel* with you sounds

enticing.I accept your challenge.After all I've never been

afraid to whoop up on someone my own size.HEHEHE!!!!!Yer

goin' DOWN dude!!!!!
What you'll need to be like totally embarrasssed by me and to

become my own private April fool will be:

A)1/BT-20-7" long
B)3/fins 1/2" wide w/a 2" leading edge a 1 9/16" trailing

edge and a rear sweep of 40 degrees.The trailing edge mounts

flush with the rear of the BT.
C)Nose cone 20N

Had to pull my busted Zinger out of the scrap box for the

measurements since this one appears on niether Ye Old Rockets

or Jimz.These are the specs i'll build mine to.As you know

the Zinger has squared off fin tips.I had thought about

making my next one(this one)with rounded fins in the Estes

Mosquito style.If you wouldn't mind building them with that

one little mod just let me know.I'll understand,however,if

you wanna play purist and all.
Well good luck on your L2 progress.Can't wait to see it.
Oh and BTW I was gonna post something about the 70's but it

got waaaaay out of hand.I'm talking mega post.I actually got

so burnt out on it I had to stop for a bit.Sometime soon I'll

finish it up and find somewhere to post it though.

*Scene from Robin Hood:Men In Tights.
Sherrif:"Sir,I challenge you to a duel" as he slaps Robin

with a glove.
Robin icking up a steel glove,"I accept" as he backhanded

blasts the sherrif across the jaw.
I laugh my ass off every time I think about that.

Posted by: Russ at March 10, 2006 11:54 PM (ObxzR)

2 Russ, feel free to round your fin tips.

Posted by: Ted at March 11, 2006 02:59 PM (+OVgL)

3 Will do,Ted.Oh and BTW,thanks for agreeing to witness my L1.

Posted by: Russ at March 11, 2006 04:09 PM (ObxzR)

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Who: NOVAAR
Where: Great Meadow Equestrian Center, The Plains, VA
When: 10am - 4pm
Weather: Winds from 10-20mph

Our rocketry club, NOVAAR, had scheduled a two-day launch event for the weekend, but high winds scrubbed Saturday. Sunday was still quite windy, but we had a great time anyway.

I loaded up the car with some small rockets to fly, but wasn't expecting much because of the wind. When I got to the field I was amazed to see probably 50+ cars there.

I caught up with some friends and talked rockets for awhile, then I headed over to the launch control area to see what was up. On the way I passed a whole gaggle of high schooler's who were there with their Science teacher, prepping egg-lofting rockets. At the table I was drafted into helping do pre-flight safety checks because we were about to get swamped by all those students. I stayed busy for better than an hour, checking rockets, asking questions and making suggestions on things to do differently and/or better in the future.

Besides the egg lofters, there were a few high power flights made, including Mitch's Endevour clone on a J350. His rockets are so reliable that they're almost routine.

A young guy named Ben made a couple of memorable flights with a little orange rocket. By little, I mean about the length of your finger, and he stuffed the largest motor he could fit into this little thing, a C6-5. On the first flight, I watched it zoom nearly out of sight and somehow managed to pick it up on the way down and saw it land. It's too small and light for a chute or streamer, it does what we call tumble recovery. I had a line on it on the ground, and Ben and I walked out there and pretty much right up to it in the middle of the field. Unbelievable, because that combination is almost certain "fire-and-forget".

He did it again later, but lost it. After his family left the launch, Ben's orange rocket reappeared on the lost-and-found table. Someone else found it while looking for their rocket. Ben will be getting it back.

I picked several people's brains for ideas and suggestions for my Level 2 rocket. Then I admired Bart's photo album and stories about his successful Level 3 flight. Bart flew out to Arizona to launch with his brother at an event in the desert. His rocket flew on an "M" motor, weighed 40 lbs at take off and achieved an altitude of 7600 feet. It came down perfectly under chute and Bart now has his Level 3 certification so he can fly with the big big boys.

I did make two flights of my own, both small model rockets.

1. Vampyre - A10-3T - this minimum diameter ring-fin always screams off the pad and gives a great flight. Recovered undamaged on a streamer.

2. Groove Tube - B4-4 - a classic Centuri clone, you could see the wind pushing the rocket sideways as it ascended. It drifted a long way even though I used another streamer instead of a parachute.

Our next club launch is April 1 and 2. There will be contest flying (helicopter, chute, streamer and glider recovery models, plus an altitude event), and as always flying for fun is encouraged. I'm planning to be there both days, and I'll have something high power to fly too.

Y'all are invited.

Posted by: Ted at 04:53 AM | category: Rocketry
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There's been a cherry added atop the heap o' prizes for the winners of this year's Team America Rocketry Challenge (I'm quoting the entire press release below):

Raytheon to send TARC Winners to Farnborough International Air Show

Arlington, Va. – A trip to the Farnborough International Air Show near London in July 2006 awaits the Fourth Annual Team America Rocketry Challenge (TARC) winners courtesy of AIA member Raytheon Company.

The trip, which will be in addition to the winnerÂ’s share of the TARC purse of more than $60,000 in savings bonds and cash, will give the victorious students a hands-on look at applied aerospace engineering, the skill the contest is promoting, AIA President and CEO John Douglass said.

“TARC is a great way to introduce these kids to aerospace through the challenges of engineering a model rocket,” Douglass said. “Taking the winners to Farnborough will show them what these lessons lead to in the real world.”

TARC, the worldÂ’s largest rocket contest, pits teams of between three and 15 middle and high school students in a challenge to build and successfully launch a model without breaking a raw-egg payload. The final round of competition is scheduled for May 20 at Great Meadow in The Plains,Va. The goal is to launch the rockets as close as possible to 800 feet in altitude and 45 seconds in flight duration.

“Rewarding the TARC winners with a trip to Farnborough is right in line with Raytheon’s emphasis on promoting math and science education among young people through our MathMovesU initiative,” said Raytheon Executive Vice President for Business Development Thomas M. Culligan. “We hope that this will help motivate the winners and all the competitors to stick with science and math and ultimately pursue a career in aerospace.”

The Farnborough International Air Show is one of the largest and most prestigious aerospace events in the world. It includes flying demonstrations of both civil and military aircraft from around the world as well as static displays from thousands of aerospace companies. RaytheonÂ’s sponsorship will pay for four students and one adult chaperone, including air fare, lodging, a company tour, and a TARC champion recognition dinner.

The winning team will attend the air show on FarnboroughÂ’s International Youth Day, a program for 1,000 invited students between ages 15 and 23 aimed at attracting youths who show promise in areas that could lead to aerospace careers. Activities include presentations from test pilots, scientists, and journalists; a build-a-plane project; and test spins in aircraft simulators. In addition to commercial jetliners, business aircraft, and fighter jets, the air show includes special displays on space products and unmanned aerial vehicles.

TARC is sponsored by the Aerospace Industries Association and the National Association of Rocketry, the nation's oldest and largest non-profit organization dedicated to sport rocketry. The contest is co-sponsored in part by 39 AIA member companies, NASA, the Defense Department, and the Civil Air Patrol.

I'll be volunteering to assist again this year, as I have every year since this started. Read about previous events here and here and here.

Posted by: Ted at 04:19 PM | category: Rocketry
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For Christmas this year, daughter Rachael found a copy of the out-of-print book Retro Rockets: Experimental Rockets 1926-1941. I've already read the first half, which deals mostly with Robert Goddard and his remarkable series of liquid fueled rockets.

One tidbit that really caught my eye though was a brief discussion of German Alfred Maul, who was a civil engineer for the city of Dresden. He patented an early version of a photographic rocket in 1903 and was using an onboard gyroscope for rocket and camera stabilization by 1906. By 1912, he had developed a fully functioning recon rocket that boosted on solid fuel and took photographs from 2000 feet.

[It was] battle tested in the Turkish-Bulgarian War of 1912-1913. Anticipating today's reconnaissance satellites, it produced clear photographs of Turkish emplacements for the German-allied Bulgarian Army.

Some of these photographs still exists today.

Recon by rocket had advantages over using balloons, but the arrival of the airplane soon rendered the idea obsolete.

If you're into rockets or space technology, the Saturn Press books are excellent references.

And for some amazing modern-day rocket photography, check out Ray Dunakin's work, which I linked to here.

Posted by: Ted at 04:33 AM | category: Rocketry
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1 Cool present Ted!Nice score.I've got my eye on several things from Peter,too.Mainly a copy of that Scale Bash book and one of his Saturn 5 kits.I've been thinking of nabbing them both from Uncle Mike's Rocket Shack along with one of Klyde Morris' Saturn 5 kits.I'd like to grab a copy of the Spaceship Handbook he sells sometime but I'm not big on paying sixty bucks for a book.At least not now,anyhow.Finding a copy of his original Rockets of the World would be nice,too. As you can probably tell I've got a thing for the Saturns.The hands down winner for most totally bad assed machine ever built by man.When you can crack the throttle on yer ride in southern Florida and have it peg a half a Richiter on an earthquake meter in Vermont,ain't no doubt you've got the baddest ride on the planet.Anyhow,on the subject of Saturns,I had been watching E-bay for like a month looking for a fine example of the Revell 1/96 Saturn or the Estes 1/100 scale version.Never found either for under a hundred shipped.In some cases we're talkin' way way over a hundred.There's an idiot on there right now that thinks his Revell is worth $300 Buy Now price.Good luck fella!Am I disappointed?No!Let me tell ya that it pays to do your homework.After researching both of these kits it turns out that neither are prime examples of the subject.While the Estes has a few quirks the Revell is really bad.Most sources I checked recommended tossing about 95% of it and scratchbuilding with Real Space Models Command Module and LEV along with tubing from Plastruct and "wraps" from New Ware.Plus,from what I get through the grapevine Estes is getting ready to re-release the 1B in 1/70 scale next year some time.If that isn't cool enough then I know that Semroc is getting ready to release their own 1/70 Saturn 1B and Little Joe in 1/70.Besides that they are also gearing up repops of Estes' V-2 and the Mars Lander.Even if it weren't for all of these options there's still the Apogee Saturns.Very pricey but very nice.The Saturn 5's are dicontinued for now but they'll be back eventually.The mold for the interstage wraps warped for some reason.I'm on the notify list when they become available again.Hopefully I'll have the cash by then.BTW,did you check out Chan Stevens'at NARAM?His made me want one for sure. Also,speaking of Peter Alway I had a chance to chat with him for a while at NARAM-46.Great fellow.He came along and started setting up while I was standing there talking to the guy who owns Balsa Machine Services.We where freaking out on the ultra slick cuts that his new LASER cutter was making.Peter came over to say hello and I asked him if he and I had not had an online discussion about the old North Coast Shuttle kits.He said;"Maybe" and that was enough to get a conversation going.I never did tell him that a few minutes into the discussion I remembered that it was George Gassaway that I had had the Shuttle dicussions with.Oh well!It was a good log for the fire anyhow.Speaking of Shuttles I learned a bunch from talking to George about them.How much?Well,Ted,do you remember the Revell shuttle I bought at Battlepark?Do you remember asking if it was for a PMC?Do you remember that less than enthusiastic look on my face and how I wasn't laughing?I have George to thank for that reaction.I learned enough to know that I'll probably never try one unless maybe it's an Estes kit.That's a shame because those NCR kits looked to have a bunch of potential.PMC shuttles,however,are almost a sure bet for disaster.The Revell kit I bought has it's own set of problems not the least being the raised panel lines used to try and recreate the Shuttle's tiles.As you probably know there ain't a damb thing "raised" on the underside of the Shuttles.I had pondered totally sanding them off and meticulously scribing recessed lines into the bottom but when you look at the number and shape of the tiles that could become a full time job itself.As luck would have I actually found a company that makes a huge decal set of the tiles just for that particular model. Well anyhow I scored enough cash for Christmas to come off my miserly rocketeer thing for a while.I'll finally be able to place that order with BMS and land the stuff I need to go ahead with my Upscale BT-80 based Big Red Max.I already have the custom cone from Sandman and the excellent decals from Fred Talasco at Excelsior Rocketry.Besides that I've decided to build another Estes Broadsword from scratch to replace the one that I crashed years ago.I pulled it out of the dead rocket box recently and entertained the notion for a while of rebuilding.Instead I decided to just go with a whole new one so that I can give it the same motor mount setup as the Max.That would be a BT-70 motor mount with quick change motor configurations constructed from BT-70 coupler tubes.Tons of combos.Besides all of that I also have a hankerin' to do the Dragonship 7 and the Space Cruiser Excalibur from scratch.Plus,there's the Excelsior Goony Goblin,Nike-G,Christmas Goony,Quest DC-X and the Flis Tumbleweed that are waiting in the wings.They come next after I get done with the Estes 18 mm Spaceship One,the Fliskit Corona,Custom Rockets Aztec and the Excelsior Goony Bird Zero that I'm working on now.Somewhere in there I'll find time to restore my crashed Loc Forte' as well as lay the finishing touches on my Mountainside 4" V-2.Then to top it all off maybe I'll get around to the Estes Mercury Redstones(I found a hobby shop that has 30 in stock)and the 29 mm Estes Eliminators I have on the board.All that should be enough to keep me going through the summer.......ya think?

Posted by: Russ at December 28, 2005 11:02 PM (ObxzR)

2 You're right,Ray's photos are amazing.I have the 2/01 issue of HPR with one of his articles in it.His photo on the cover,too.

Posted by: Russ at December 28, 2005 11:04 PM (ObxzR)

3 I've got all those books you've mentioned. Santa's been very very good to me. Except for the Scalebash book, which I bought at NARAM in Muncie directly from Peter and he autographed it for me. Great references.

I'm going to get serious about my level 2 rocket here in the next week or so. I've decided to redesign since I've got some G10 to use for the fins, and my original plans (upscaled Yellow Jacket) won't work with the dimensions of the G10 I have. Since it's gonna be powered by a hybrid from Skyripper, I'm thinking about calling it Moooo-Gas.

Posted by: Ted at December 29, 2005 02:52 PM (blNMI)

4 Ted I know that wars have been started and small nations have been crushed for saying what I am about to say but......"I hate G10!"My PML Black Brant 5B has G10's.IMHO heavy as hell and not worth the weight.I'd go with glassed ply before I use G10 again.I do have to admit that they where plenty tough though.The two times I flew it I wound up shattering multiple fin fillets but the fins themselves survived just fine.Sadly the last flight was at a NOVAAR launch where it came down on a fence.Not only did it shatter the fillets on both sides of a fin but it also split the phenolic along a good deal of length.Too much to repair safely.It has a date with the ol' table saw so that I can salvage everything forward of the fins.Plus,I would have really liked to see the Yeller Jacket.That would have been extra cool to upscale.The Mooo-Gas sounds interesting,too.Can't wait to see it.I believe I once mentioned something about doing an upscale Max for an L2 if I ever got that far.Truth is that I would probably just do a Loc Magnum first and then risk the custom stuff after I figure out what I'm doing.I like the Magnums.Good combo of looks and utility.I think I would set it up to fly on different combos,too.Hybrid or AP in all sorts of configurations.I don't think I'd have the nads to pull a hybrid cert.Then again I don't know as much about them as you and Doug do.I'm still waiting for Doug to write that book!HEHEHE!!!!
Speaking of "glassed",the Estes Eliminator I mentioned before may be my first glassing project.I've even got this really weird idea about glassing the motor mount/stuffer tube/centering ring unit instead of the outside of the airframe.Just a thought to ponder,though.Max altitude just for the sake of it is the goal.Doing it fairly cheap is another.The Sport Rocketry article "A Mile High for Under $25" was a bit of inspiration.Who knows what won't develope from there.A serious altitude record attempt?Given the alt numbers on the books I'd say it's a long shot but being a drag racing fan I should know better.Now,if we can just get Aerotech to churn out some more F-10's and some G-20's.... Another long shot.Plus,about glassing,one way or another I've gotta get some good glassing experience that will eventually lead up to carbon fibering my VB Extreme 54 that I have recently decided not to sell after all.It's just too nice of a kit to wanna part with.Good for cutting my teeth in electronics,too.One way or another the ultimate goal for that bird is to go up on a K-250.Aerotech is reintroducing them again.I wonder what the chances are of talking Mike into applying for one of those 35,000 ft. windows like they used to do?
Well,there I go yappin' off again!One last happy note before I go.After many,many moons(too many)I can finally say that my Mountainside Hobbies 4" V-2 is finally finished!The removable bulkhead setup looks great.This will allow me to add and subtract weight from the nose in the form of washers.I have yet to weigh it but if it comes in at under three pounds I may go with a G-64.If not then I may have to catch up my NAR dues and go for an L1 cert.

Posted by: Russ at December 30, 2005 03:23 AM (ObxzR)

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Ok, I did some math and have details about this weekend's high-excitement rocket launch.

The motor was a Contrail Systems L1222 "sparky" (none of us know if it really was, by the way, we were kinda too busy to notice). The motor itself is about 3" in diameter, it's 54" long, of which the bottom 12" is the combustion chamber where all the flamey zoomy stuff happens. The oxidizer tank holds 3200cc's of nitrous oxide, which comes out to .85 of a gallon. Doug estimated that about half of that had been vented when the ignition happened.

The burn time for that motor is listed at 3.1 seconds, but I would guess that it ran out of nitrous (oxidizer), and hence the oxygen need to burn, long before that, so the thrust would've fallen way off from the specs.

But at ignition, well, there was plenty of oxidizer for that, and that sucker lit up with a peak thrust of 2892 newtons/second, which works out to 650 pounds of thrust right off the pad.

I've heard it said more than once at a rocket launch: even our failures are entertaining to watch.

Posted by: Ted at 12:29 PM | category: Rocketry
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1 Aah, but which is more entertaining? Your spectacular successes or someone else's spectacular failures?

(And I don't mean that in a shodden fraude [sp?] kinda way -- just that a spectacular failure is prolly more entertaining if it's not one's own effort.)

Posted by: Tuning Spork at November 07, 2005 08:42 PM (W2gEq)

2 Even when watching one of your own disassemble itself on the way up, it's still kinda cool.

Posted by: Ted at November 07, 2005 08:45 PM (+OVgL)

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Today was an absolutely beautiful day for flying rockets: 70's, sunny, very little wind. Lucky for us, it was also day two of the three-day BattlePark 2005 launch held in Culpeper, Virginia.

I only flew two rockets myself, but there's a story to be told, and we all know how much I love that. So first, the details, then the good stuff.

My first flight was my Centuri Groove Tube upscale. 2.6" diameter tube-fin design, launched on an H165-Redline motor. Typical great boost from this rocket, and she arced over at apogee and just after going nose down the chute ejected. Recovered about 150 yards from the pads, undamaged.

Second flight, Barenaked Lady on an F24 with a seven second delay. This rocket is ultra-light, and the F24 seriously overpowers the rocket, which is fun as hell and why I do it. Waaaaaaaaay up there in a hurry and recovered about 100 yards away undamaged.

So that was all I flew. I had a few other rockets, but I had a great time anyway, picking a friend's brain for altimeter bay ideas (his always work, and I've never been completely satisfied with my designs), and shooting the breeze with fliers I haven't seen in awhile (frequent commenter Russ was there).

"I've done everything I know how to do, so if this doesn't work then we'll learn something." -- Doug Pratt

Later in the afternoon, Doug Pratt readied the rocket he's going to eventually fly for his Level 3 certification. Twelve foot tall, six inch diameter, all fiberglass, he was going to use a hybrid L-something motor.

They had the rocket on the pad (very big motor, so it was loaded on the "away" cell, much farther than normal), and I headed out to ask if there was anything I could do to help. Doug said something about giving them good luck with the flight.

Ha! That'll teach him.

Filling the nitrous tank for the motor seemed to take an unusually long time, and after the countdown there was no ignition. Ivan (another friend) started to vent the nitrous back out of the motor, and while that was going on Doug, Ivan and I walked back to the pad to see what was wrong. There was smoke coming from the pad, and we saw that the igniter wires were smoking. This put us all on guard, and we started visually checking the setup.

Doug switched off the power to the pad, making it safe. Moving over to the base of the rocket, he lifted the ignition wires and the motor instantly ignited! I was farthest away of the three of us, maybe 10-12 feet. Ivan dived away, Doug wound up with all the hair on one arm singed off, and I twisted and turned my back to the roar of this big honkin' motor going on right next to us.

Summary so far: big motor, too close, accidental ignition.

We were busy making sure that Ivan was ok (he hit the ground and rolled) when people started yelling "heads up!" at us. I confess that I had two thoughts before looking up:

1. Uh oh, the chute didn't open and it's coming in ballistic.

2. This was a weird motor ignition, so the sucker coming down on top of us is probably on fire.

When I did look up, I was relieved to see it descending normally under chute. Even better, it was going to miss us. Then came the second bit of excitement.

Fire.

Ivan started yelling, and we ran about thirty feet downrange to start stomping out a brush fire caused by... well, we're not sure what caused the fire. The motor ignition, certainly, but why or how... no idea. Anyway, the three of us were stomping and stepping, holding the fire at bay more or less, until folks with water buckets made their way out to where we were and saved the day.

Ok, failure analysis. While the rocket was being loaded, the igniter wire insulation were chafed or otherwise broken. This caused the ignition wires to short out when they touched bare wire to the metal launch pad. That was problem number 1.

Next, when the ignition button was pressed to light the motor, the short prevented the current from reaching the business end of the igniter, but the relay in the circuit welded itself open. What that means is that although Doug shut off power to the pad, the relay had enough juice in it to fire the igniter, which happened as soon as Doug moved the wires, which unshorted them.

Whoosh! A helluva lot closer than I ever want to be ever again.

Nobody was hurt (beyond that singed arm hair), which was the main thing. The relay box is being disected this evening to figure out why it stuck open and how to prevent it from ever happening again.

Just to give you an idea of the power of the motor: even with only half a tank of nitrous to work with, the motor lofted the forty-plus pound rocket over four hundred feet into the air.

Hanging out with Doug always makes for an interesting day. Afterwards, we hit Country BBQ for some excellent ribs and fixin's and then I headed home; happy, tired, and with another cool story to add to my collection.

Posted by: Ted at 09:49 PM | category: Rocketry
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1 It's a shame you didn't think to get pictures of the look on everyone's faces when that happened

Posted by: Victor at November 05, 2005 09:59 PM (Hfd2P)

2 And for a useful comment: It seems welding gloves and automatic welding helmets might be useful equipment to have on hand, if only to guarantee you'll never need them again.

You mentioned the nitrous tank seemed to take an unusually long time to fill up. Did anyone confirm if that was, indeed, abnormal, or are they filing that away in the "Hmmm, that's strange," file? Might it have had something to do with the small brush fire?

Posted by: Victor at November 05, 2005 10:04 PM (Hfd2P)

3 Next week: Ted experiments with hydrazine and RFNA! Be there or miss the excitement!

Posted by: Pixy Misa at November 05, 2005 10:30 PM (QriEg)

4 Victor, the reason for the slow fill rate was discovered, but it had nothing to do with the launch. Nothing more than a slightly kinked tube.

Posted by: Ted at November 05, 2005 10:33 PM (+OVgL)

5 Whooooaaaaa,Ted!I missed all of that action and adventure yesterday.Glad no-one was hurt.I'll bet Doug woke up this morning smelling burnt hair.That odor will linger in yer nostrils for days.
My own biggest adventure was almost getting konked in the noodle by that Skunkwerks Saturn 5."Look mommy,I gotta Saturn 5 stuck in me favorite hat!Unfortunately it's on me favorite head."
Anyhow this shows how far behind I've gotten in the last few months because I always thought that the largest Saturn was the Apogee which is on temporary production hold.Why?I don't know.That Skunkwerks is major cool though and for $600 it had better be.
Also,I had a great time yesterday hookin' up with my friend Dwayne.Sorry I never got a chance to introduce y'all but we where just sorta going with the flow in making the rounds.We actually didn't leave till well after dark last night.We sat there and bs'ed about anything and everything catching up on news.
Well anyhow Ted it was great seeing you again as well as everyone else too.See ya in a few weeks.

Posted by: Russ at November 06, 2005 08:14 AM (ObxzR)

6 Wow! That was pure excitement reading it, I can only imagine being there!

wish I was there!

Posted by: michele at November 07, 2005 09:03 AM (rxsqq)

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Pratt Hobbies has a new T-Shirt for that cool kid in your life.

Perfect.

Posted by: Ted at 04:18 PM | category: Rocketry
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