New SSS/SSSS Thread

[denverdoc]

I owe an apology to John Wilke, in reviewing the e-mails I was indeed sent a copy of the current list of rules in april 2005 where explicit mention was made of commercial altimeters.

To all, sorry for any confusion/irritation/etc my post might have caused.
John S

[Anonymous]

Ah, shucks, NOBODY owes ME an apology for anything. No worries.

Also, Warren, have a good time on the river. Can I have your big monitor just in case you…. ah, nevermind 😉

[Bruce R. Schaefer]

Does the club, or anyone who’ll risk a G80T CATO nested inside, have a tower launcher that’s been waxed instead of WD-40’d? While WD-40 is slick and nifty, you really don’t want any residue getting on the rocket’s AF–more drag.

[Warren B. MusselmanModerator]

We could clean and wax the tower…

Warren

[denverdoc]

What about liquid teflon? Been a while since I thought about friction coefficients, but close to zilch. Personally, I’m converting my daughters air hockey table so that compressed air jets blown out of finely spaced holes in the tower struts prevent any actual physical contact…
J

[Bruce R. Schaefer]

Waxing the tower guides does work and it eliminates any residue left on the rocket… providing everyone waxes theirs. This is something I did way back when and got good results… when the only choice for oil was from my Dad’s motor oil can that he kept on the workbench. I don’t know if WD40 was around then. Teflon sprays, depending on which you use, can leave a moist residue like WD40. I found one that dries and doesn’t rub off. Kent of GLR recommends teflon sprays for their rails, and that’s how I was introduced to it. I have a can that I use on my GLR rail. But you know, John (Denverdoc), the more I think about your hockey table idea, the more I think it might be possible. Do we have tanks of nitrous oxide that we can use to feed the lines? 🙂 I saw that John Wilkes has a well-made wooden tower at MHM. John, don’t you wax the guides? Don’t have to answer if it’s proprietary. Warren, it’s just something to think about. If everyone else launches from the same tower, under the same conditions, then it doesn’t matter so much.

[Anonymous]

The “wooden beast” of a tower that I use has no special prep whatsoever…. other than a millenia of charring, it is just wood.

JW

[Warren B. MusselmanModerator]

You DO know that Cavemen used to char the tips of their spears to harden the wood and make them slide into the animal easier… That tower is almost old enough to qualify. Heck, if we were ever trapped at the North Site with no food or water, we could use that tower to kill an antelope… heck, just think of the survival possibilities…

Warren

[Anonymous]

The sad thing is that I very nearly used this tower for firewood a few years ago. It weighs something like 3 metric tons, is too long for the truck bed, and until you doused it with a gallon of adhesive and clamped it back together it was pretty rickety. Now it seems to be stronger than ever.

That tower was built for an Aerobee project years ago. I was told — though I never verified — that the real Aerobees flew in a wooden tower, and this tower is a scale version of an actual Aerobee tower. I didn’t have much to do with building it. I will say that it is pretty much a work of art, and I’m glad it never made it to the fire pit. I’ve personally flown out of it perhaps 50 times, including my L blast to 23K. It is the only tower in the club that has nearly 8′ of rails…

[denverdoc]

well come on guys, as much as we are altitude nuts, lets breakdown and spend 100 bucks or 200 to get it right. Seems to me we need 10 feet of something which will accomodate 29-75mm rockets. I’ll toss in 50. Hell my own ssss tower cost twice that and end up with more dust than residue.
J

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