First Launch of the Season

 The Thrifty Rocketeer blog continues...


The first launch of the season was held today, and while the turn out was small, those who showed up were dedicated and fierce.  A steady southerly wind threatened to drift rockets into the pond, but all were recovered in the launch field, with a notable exception.

It was my first attempt at a launch for a 3-D printed rocket, as I have described earlier.

 I learned a couple of valuable things.  

  1.   The fins are extremely thin, and the slightest pressure will snap them off. It appears that the fin was scored or had a flaw halfway down the fin, so that it snapped off cleanly in a parallel break to the bottom edge.  We decided to launch it anyway.
  2.  The loops on the side of the nosecone and the fin can are for the launch lug, not for any connecting shock cord.  As they were white, I snipped a short length of parachute line from a replacement chute and tethered the two together.  It was loose and floppy when we launched.
  3.   We're still looking for the A8-3 rocket which I described above.  On a field of grass, we never saw it again.  We heard the pop but never saw where it fell.  With a slight wind, we looked downwind but had no success.  That was the last of our efforts to launch 3-D rockets today.
  4.   The Whirl and Hurl 24 went like a bat out of hades.  It was a great launch, and the descent was fast, but fortunately did not injure the wheel at all. It is a tumble recovery.
Now the Whirl and Hurl 24 was deemed a success.  And it will likely launch on a D6-0 multiple times.

We also took the BlueJay Glider out for a launch, having forgotten to trim the glider as a final step to prime things.  However, the donation of some clay allowed us to pack the nose of the glider, and it started to respond.  We added more, and a touch to the left wing, and it not only responded well, but straightened out the flight enough that I was satisfied.


I loaded an A8-3 (should have been a B6-4) into the booster and aligned it onto the launch rod, and found the positioning of the clothes pin and the ignitor wires is critical to getting a good launch.  Despite the slight breeze, we launched her for the maiden voyage.

She rose well, arced over, but hadn't separated from the booster.  I held my breath as I thought the hook had been loose enough, but it wasn't separating.  That is, until the ejection charge fired, and then the booster separated with a nice unfurling of the orange crepe paper streamer, and fell to earth.  The glider separated and began to glide into the general downwind direction, but bobbed and stalled a little, making me think that we need a bit more clay...but where to put it?!
The glider stopped short of the pond, still in the launch field, and all were recovered well
My first thought was that a light coat of blue spray paint might be in order.  

(Upon further reflection, perhaps the nosecone will be red, and most of the glider will be blue, but I could play with the booster body tube color if I like.  We'll see.)

The last bird of the short launch day was a  Super Shot  that I got in the big score.  It had set untouched for 20+ years, and I got it second hand after an estate sale.  I thought I had examined it well, and determined that it needed a parachute...but there won't be time to create one as our launch window was ending.  I decided to classify this as a tumble recovering, and after checking the nosecone, the shock cord and the fin can as well as the launch lugs, it was deemed ready.  I put one of the older A8-3 motors into the bottom, but could not insert it all the way. Too tight.  But I let her rip.

Surprisingly, the rocket flew straight and true, hit apogee and popped the nosecone.  The unit fell to earth with a gentle landing.  I picked up the nosecone and discovered the shock cord had burned through...but there was also a tightly wound plastic streamer packed inside the body tube that I had overlooked.  It did not eject, but seems to have melted inside.  Still, enough of the gases escaped to blow the nosecone off, so I had a surprising success on my hands.  I'll do more of a post-mortem later tonight in the quiet of the evening. 

So, that's what passed for the first launch of the season, at least for my half of the equation.   I was a little rushed with other commitments, but still made it and got a couple of birds in the air. At least I know what I'm dealing with now.

This has been the Thrifty Rocketeer, saying, "remember to look down the body tube and pack with dog barf no matter how long ago you prepped that rocket."

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