Launch Report: October 20, 2001
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Amesbury, MA |
| Temperature | |
low 60s |
| Wind | |
5-10mph, SW |
Mikkel, Lindsey, and I went up to Amesbury for this month's CMASS launch. I had added
a number of rockets to my fleet since the last launch, and I was excited to get them flying.
Most significantly, I wanted to launch my Nerd Magnet and get my level 1 HPR certification.
The FAA denied the waiver for this launch, so we were limited to a gross liftoff weight of
1500g. I wasn't sure what the Nerd Magnet weighed, so I brought it along and put it on the
scale as soon as I got there. Without a reload in the motor hardware, it came out to 1450g;
the propellant weighs 92g. Missed it by 40 grams. I'll have to wait until the November launch
for high power.
Another new addition to the fleet was the Estes Viking. I bought this after six failed attempts
at the NARTREK Bronze streamer duration flight with the Quest Pip Squeak. Mikkel had one of these
at the last launch and succeeded in a 30 second flight on his first try. At $3, it was well
worth it.
For its maiden flight I put an A8-3 in it and gave it a test drive. The flight looked great.
There was very little wind in the morning and most of the walk I had to make was due to the
angle of the launch rod. I had grafted on the streamer from the pip squeak for added drag
during recovery and improved visibility in the grass.
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I'm planning on building a rocket with one or more siren whisltes onboard to make lots of silly
noise during ascent. As a technology test rocket, I grafted three whistles onto the side of
my Quest Astra I and gave it a shot on a C6-3 to see if it was audible.
The test was a success, though not a resounding one. The engine noise covered up the whistle
sound for the first three seconds, by which time the rocket was so high that the whistles
sounded very quiet.
At least the Astra I is being used in a capacity that doesn't make me want to intentionally
prang the rocket every time I look at it.
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I had a couple C6-0's left from last time so I thought I'd launch my Estes Echostar -
the only rocket in my fleet that uses that motor. I made the mistake of tilting the
rocket into the wind significantly. Of course, with two full C engines powering the rocket
upwind and a relatively light wind, I had to walk pretty far to get this one. As with the
maiden flight of this rocket, some of the parachute shroud lines had broken off the flimsy
Estes plastic parachute.
As I was setting up the Echostar, I noticed another one on the pad next to mine. I tried
to find the owner to ask if they'd like to drag race, but it wasn't clear who belonged to
that rocket. So I went ahead and fired mine solo.
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Eventually, I determined that Ryan Sebastian was the other Echostar owner and we agreed to drag race.
Unfortunately, on his solo launch just before mine, his rocket separated and he lost the
parachute and nosecone assembley. We still drag raced, but he had to frankenstein on some
other nosecone. He used a C6-0 - C6-7 and I used a C6-0 - C6-5. I replaced the broken parachute
with a new 24" nylon parachute.
This time it was my turn to separate, though I managed to recover all the pieces. Nothing
actually broke, the shock cord simply pulled out of the crappy Estes paper cord mount.
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Time for another new rocket in the fleet, the Launch Pad Tan-SAM Type 81. I built this one
in a rush before the launch because I was anticipating not being able to launch the Nerd Magnet.
The rocket looks great and the camo paint job was a crowd pleaser.
This was the first time I had attempted a cluster launch and it went pretty well. Both
D12-5's lit and the rocket had plenty of power. The kit cautioned that the design was almost
neutrally stable and that some additional nose ballast might be required. This was evident in
the erratic wide cone flight, but I would not classify it as unstable. For the next flight,
however, I will definitely put some more weight in the nose.
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Next on the hit parade was my umpteenth try at finishing up my NARTREK Bronze by achieving a
30 second streamer duration flight with the Viking. I loaded it up with a B6-6 and made sure
both streamers were attached firmly. The Viking allows for serveral configurations, and I
built this one in the minimum cross section, three fin configuration. This makes for a very
high performance rocket. Most of the 34 second flight was trying to reacquire it after it
flew out of site. It floated down south of the launch pad gently for a successful recovery
and completion of NARTREK Bronze!
I wanted to give the Astra I whistle mod rocket (or "Sounding Rocket" nyuk nyuk) another flight,
but this time on a short-burn engine. I put an A8-3 in it hoping the motor would stop making
noise while the rocket was still closer to the ground. The flight was OK, but apparently the
A8 wasn't enough muscle to get the static pressure on the whistles high enough for them to start
making sound because it was silent. Also, the ejection was apparently somewhat violent because
it broke the tieoff point on the nosecone. It did not separate, but when I picked it up the
plastic piece fell off and the parachute detached from the rocket.
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With my NARTREK attempt out of the way, Mikkel suggested we drag race our Vikings. They are
both visible in the picture at left. Mine is the orange rocket in the foreground, Mikkel's is
the navy & silver rocket to the right.
We put C6-7's inside, which is enough engine to send this high performance rocket to the moon.
The LCO warned us that we'd never see them again, and he was half right. Perhaps we should
have listened to him.
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At first movement it was clear that something was wrong with my rocket. It went wildly
unstable, flying in a strange helix up over the spectators and towards the cars. In short
order it powerd right into the ground about 10' in front of the car line.
Mikkel's rocket, unwatched by anyone as everyone was fearing for their life from my wayward
flight, went into orbit and was never seen again. Someone said they heard the ejection charge,
but no one ever saw the streamer.
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My rocket was moving so fast when it impacted that it buried the entire nosecone and an additional
inch of body tube into the ground. Clearly the ejection charge had fired post impact, and neither
the nosecone nor the motor were capable of giving, so it blew the weakened bodytube apart and burned
the tube on the inside.
The rocket was thouroughly destroyed. I managed to salvage the nosecone [with the help of Bill
Spadafora's pocket knife as a spade] and the streamers.
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I needed photographs of my Estes Phoenix to send in with my NARTREK Bronze packet, so I
launched it on a D12-3. I recently read some information about the actual Phoenix air
intercept missile and was astonished to discover that it was 13' long and 15" in diameter.
It is huge! The fact that an F14 can carry six at one time is mind boggling.
The flight went well, and because of the thick grass this was the first time I didn't have
to catch the rocket on recovery to avoid breaking off a fin. Ironically, this rocket was
one of only two I would launch today that didn't get damaged in any way.
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With the Viking destroyed, Echostar and Astra I damaged, and not wanting to press my luck with
the Phoenix, I went on the last new addition to the fleet - the Estes Omloid.
I didn't bring any Eggs, so I put a squishy brain toy [from the MIT career fair] in the payload
cannister. I'm sure there's a joke to be made here about "This is your brain on drugs," but
I'll leave that as an exercise to the reader.
The flight was good and I nearly caught it on recovery. Not surprisingly, the squishy brain
toy survived the landing. Bill Spadafora gave me a funny look when he read the payload contents
over the loudspeaker.
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Back to the Tan-SAM. I looked around for ballast clay but no one seemed to have any.
So I took a banana peal from Lindsey's lunch and stuffed it in with the parachute.
I wrote on the flight card that the rocket employed an "innovative banana peal nose weight system."
When Bill announced this flight, he declared that I was "a very weird person."
Unfortunately, only one engine lit so the flight arced over and ejected about 4m from the ground.
There was no damage, but the banana peal was lost.
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I had to eat another banana for ballast before I could launch the Tan-SAM again. It was tasty.
I made the mistake of leaving the unburnt engine in the rocket and trying again for a successful
cluster launch. The same motor failed to light again. And this time with disasterous
consequences. The rocket arced over again but didn't eject in time and pranged hard.
The nosecone telescoped into the bodytube about an inch and was un-removeable. The body tube
didn't tear, but it looked very very weak along the joints near the nosecone. One of the
motors pushed out about an inch and pulled the retainer hook along with it, ripping up the
motor mount tube. The other engine was somehow recessed up into the MMT and could not be
removed.
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The worst part is that the damn banana peal is still stuck in there. If I don't do some
rocket surgery soon, this is rapidly going to become the smelliest rocket in history.
Despite the widespread damage to my fleet, the launch was a good one and we had fun.
The Wendy's at exit 57 on I95 has terrible music in the dining room, but hot patrons.
Additional photos from this launch:
Videos from this launch (courtesy of Doug Gardei):
| My drag race with Ryan Sebastian. Mine is the first one
off the pad, but his burns past me because it has a lighter body. |
| The doomed final flight of the TAN-SAM as it powers into
the ground. Ouch! |
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