19th and 20th launch. ?????

[muleParticipant]

OUCH! I’m really sorry to hear about the carnage and personal pain…. I’m cringing just from reading about it. I was out at the tower helping with that launch setup when Art came back in and gave us the heads up – sorry I don’t know who it was I was helping but he had an awesome flame job on it…. I’m SOOOO glad he decided to abort though. The ground winds were starting to whip through pretty good at that point.

I talked to the company on the 50-100# one and he said they were about $1200 a year ago. They won’t work with anything under 50#. So, back to the engineering table…..

[Jeffrey Joe HintonModerator]

Beautiful flame paint job was Scott Harless’ bird – I’m sure we’ll see it fly sooner rather than later and really, most of the bigger projects weigh in over fifty pounds but the cost is rather daunting. Maybe a group project purchase or a bad check from an out of state closed bank (thanks Bert).

[muleParticipant]

I’d be willing to kick in a couple hundred just on principle alone, some day I may have one that heavy and it would be nice to have something available….
I have an idea that I will toss out on the build/recovery thread.

[Anonymous]

I want to say THANKS to a lot of folks for my M boost.

Skuba helped me prep and track. Art’s services were absolutely invaluable in the motor assembly, as the liner was a bit short which made the upper closure a bit sloppy which in turn put play into the joint. Art fixed me right up with a very clever field repair. Dale whipped out a tower that was PERFECT, and I sure couldn’t have done it without that!

I’d have never gotten off the ground without Joe’s work on the window. Tim Thomas lent me a casing. I borrowed a patch of shade under Doug’s EZ-UP, and on Saturday that was no little thing, either. Mike Konshak figured out the doggie collar tracking in the first place. Elvis worked wonders on foaming the nosecone and creating a perfect bay for the tracker. Of course Ray LaPanse’s photos were the icing on the cake.

I probably forgot someone. If I did, I apologize. I’m so grateful. It was a grand weekend

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see you at MHM!

[AdrianParticipant]

Sounds like a fun design problem. I could program a Parrot for the smarts to do the release after it hits the ground. On the mechanical side, on NASA programs we commonly use a split spool or a split nut that is held together with a lot of wraps of a wire that gets broken when the current goes through. I can imagine using something like a FG coupler tube with a bulkhead glued in each end, and then sliced lengthwise into 3 pieces. If the center hole in each bulkhead has a countersink on the inside, then eyebolts on each end would be trying to pull the three sections apart. The sections could be together with wraps of small kevlar shock cord with a pyro charge on the end.

[Doug GerrardParticipant]

I found a few kinds of parachute ground disconnect devices most of them rated for large cargo, possibly for hummers and tanks. The smallest one I’ve found is rated for 50-100 pounds and weighs only 3.5 ounces.

Art and I discussed the item above (thanks Steve) but Art pointed out that it may have not been useful in his case. The nose cone and upper body tube never hit the ground. So unlike a cargo payload that touches down all at once, with dual deploy the tension never completely goes away. It’s nice that it is automated but considering it’s price we are working on our own design before Odyssey flies.

I have a design that will test out over the next few months based on the principal of the method I used to attach the booster on to Freeze Frame. I believe it will work and I’ll be glad to post the design for anyone that would like to see it. The boosters had K700’s with about 250 pounds of thrust and lifted the rocket before the main kicked in and the held on until they were suppose to detach. They will require some method to activate like the WRC.

Doug

[Bruce R. Schaefer]

I probably forgot someone. If I did, I apologize. I’m so grateful. It was a grand weekend

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see you at MHM!

Don’t forget Conway’s igniter (my last one) that lit Casey Mae up! 😉

[slh56]

Glad to see that the idea of the disconnect got some people thinking. When I was searching around on the internet for these I found about a million different patents for them I read that for some models the disconnect is activated when it senses a reduction in the weight of the cargo upon impact so not all of it has to touch the ground. Adrian has a great idea having the parrot to do the work, I’m sure you could set it to detect the landing and have it trigger a bp charge or even a mechanical release.

This is something that is definitely possible for us to figure out and it would solve a lot of problems by keeping the rocket stationary once it lands.

When my rocket was being thrown around for a half mile in the desert it knocked all of the batteries loose from the altimeters causing one of them to loose its data not to mention the damage to the airframe and fins.

This seems like a rather common problem among large rockets so lets put our minds to it.

-Steve

[Bruce R. Schaefer]

Excellent, Steve.

Another launch that was fantastic was Cliff’s Prometheus that flew just over two miles on a modified Russell Red N1850… and landed just on the other side of the road from the flight line. 8)

sorry I don’t know who it was I was helping but he had an awesome flame job on it…. I’m SOOOO glad he decided to abort though. The ground winds were starting to whip through pretty good at that point.

Greg, that was Scott Harless you were helping. Art called him on the two-way as we were heading back and recommended that he not fly because of the wind. Good advice. That would have been two beautiful paint jobs trashed.

[Jeffrey Joe HintonModerator]

Not to brag, but the launch of my Croc-a-Do Sunday morning was epic. I stuck the landing and the East German judges only gave me an 8.5

There were really some amazing flights both days and the paparazzi were all over. Looking forward to seeing pictures everywhere.

[Author]

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