Loki Research
Motor Manufacturer
- Joined
- Aug 20, 2011
- Messages
- 1,414
- Reaction score
- 625
I was waiting to post this until I had all the photos sent in, but I didn't want to wait to long.
Friday began with the assembly of a pair of 54/4000 reloads. I weighed out 35g of West Systems 105 resin and 7g of 205 fast hardener and then placed it on ice in my cooler. With the extra hands of Kyle Cornelius, we taped together the 4 white grains and then the 4 red grains for each motor. A few minutes later, I poured the epoxy down the grain stack of the red motor and completely covered the stack with epoxy, then I slid the XX liner down over the entire load all at once. We put the nozzle in the back end (covered with Saran Wrap) and set it aside. Then we repeated the process with the remaining mixed epoxy on the white L~2300 that Kyle would fly.
In the mean time, Mark Brown was prepping his rocket to fly on a 98/12500 N-4400 with about 14,500Ns. The N-3800 Loki White has exactly 12,500Ns and has all 1.5" cores with a #64 nozzle. This motor had 3 grains with 1.125" cores, 2 with 1.25" cores and ran a #60 nozzle. Anyway, this was Mark's first flight in 7 years. He's flown his share of big motors, but he still had a few butterflies using this motor for the maiden flight.
He had "Run For Cover II" prepped & ready to go by late afternoon, and by 3:45 we had the rocket on the pad and were ready to launch, complete with 3 brand new Loki Research stickers.
Unknown to both of us, Kent from Giant Leap Rocketry had an aerial drone out at the away cell filming the launch and got the most outstanding lift off video. I'm hoping to get a flash drive back with it and I'll post it then. It's awesome to say the least. Terry Smemo might also have some really good lift off shots as well. I watched the flight from near the LCO table through my binoculars and held my cell phone in line with them as best I could shooting video. So please excuse the horrible quality.
Marks rocket reached a hair over 11,000' and even broke mach. Pretty good for a 12' tall 7.5" diameter rocket weighing 75lbs on the pad!
[video=youtube;PfUhkETljJM]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PfUhkETljJM[/video]
We recovered the rocket less than a mile away, but it sustained a bit of damage. The 14' surplus military main chute failed to fully inflate, though it didn't appear to be tangled at all. It looked like the airframe impacted itself, damaging a coupler tube and smashing a 1/2" thick centering ring. There were about 3 spots in all that suffered damage.
Saturday was busy,....people everywhere and lots of spectators watching. The big Loki flights were the pair of 54/4000 motors to be flown by Mike Hall and Kyle Cornelius. Both were flying in minimum diameter rockets. Mike had flown the L~2300 white for it's maiden flight, but his rocket shredded. This time he upgraded to a CF airframe and shortened the rocket, but it proved to still not be enough. Looking at the flight data's acceleration curve, he was very close. Standing on a 6+ foot Loki Red flame, it moved out in a hurry. When the rocket broke up, most of the parts from the motor up came back fairly close to the away cells. The motor however continued upward. On the way in to the field Sunday morning, I took the time to scan the field for the booster. Having done the same thing back in February, I had a pretty good idea what to look for and where. Sure enough, I found the Black Momba booster poking out of the ground about a mile down range to the east and about an 1/8th mile to the north. Needless to say, Mike was pretty happy when I returned with it. Mike had also had a threaded ring made for the new extended bulkhead, something I've not had the time to get to. With a 1/2" thick ring secured at the end of the case, and the bulkhead locked in position, it appeared that the motor didn't sustain any damage upon impact. I haven't heard back from Mike yet however to see if he was able to completely disassemble the motor and verify that everything is undamaged.
Then came what I think many would call the highlight flight of the day. Kyle's rocket was awesome. I would have been extremely hard pressed to find anyone with a rocket better suited to fly one of these 54/4000 motors. It was the motor, about 6" of coupler tube housing the electronics and a nose cone on top. He launched it from a lug-less tower as well. He had 600F degree BBQ paint on the fin can and managed to cook most of it off. His smile says it all!.
I watched the assent through my 10x power binoculars and after burnout, it just disappeared. However, after the rocket got closer to apogee and began to slow down, I was able to pick up the tracking smoke and I watched as it arced over at the top and separate. Then, I continued to watch it trail smoke for another good 15-20 seconds. The smoke grain on this motor is about 2.4" long, enough to visually track a rocket to at least 29,472 feet! Kyle successfully recovered the entire rocket later that day. Unfortunately the electronics power cycled on him and the direct velocity readout had to be calculated from the flight data later. Kyle determined that it reached mach 2.96 (3,246ft/sec) and pulled 83 G's.
Kent's drone battery was running low before Kyle's flight, but a kind passer-by said he had one in his trunk. A few minutes later he was up and running, but only just in time. I tried to shoot video with my cell phone but it went out of focus at the worst possible time. It sounded more like a clap of thunder than a rocket launching! LOL
[video=youtube;9KN5WBqeZLg]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9KN5WBqeZLg[/video]
[video=youtube;tLWVAxIN_xs]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tLWVAxIN_xs[/video]
More in a bit shortly. I've reached the attachment limit.
Friday began with the assembly of a pair of 54/4000 reloads. I weighed out 35g of West Systems 105 resin and 7g of 205 fast hardener and then placed it on ice in my cooler. With the extra hands of Kyle Cornelius, we taped together the 4 white grains and then the 4 red grains for each motor. A few minutes later, I poured the epoxy down the grain stack of the red motor and completely covered the stack with epoxy, then I slid the XX liner down over the entire load all at once. We put the nozzle in the back end (covered with Saran Wrap) and set it aside. Then we repeated the process with the remaining mixed epoxy on the white L~2300 that Kyle would fly.
In the mean time, Mark Brown was prepping his rocket to fly on a 98/12500 N-4400 with about 14,500Ns. The N-3800 Loki White has exactly 12,500Ns and has all 1.5" cores with a #64 nozzle. This motor had 3 grains with 1.125" cores, 2 with 1.25" cores and ran a #60 nozzle. Anyway, this was Mark's first flight in 7 years. He's flown his share of big motors, but he still had a few butterflies using this motor for the maiden flight.
He had "Run For Cover II" prepped & ready to go by late afternoon, and by 3:45 we had the rocket on the pad and were ready to launch, complete with 3 brand new Loki Research stickers.
Unknown to both of us, Kent from Giant Leap Rocketry had an aerial drone out at the away cell filming the launch and got the most outstanding lift off video. I'm hoping to get a flash drive back with it and I'll post it then. It's awesome to say the least. Terry Smemo might also have some really good lift off shots as well. I watched the flight from near the LCO table through my binoculars and held my cell phone in line with them as best I could shooting video. So please excuse the horrible quality.
Marks rocket reached a hair over 11,000' and even broke mach. Pretty good for a 12' tall 7.5" diameter rocket weighing 75lbs on the pad!
[video=youtube;PfUhkETljJM]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PfUhkETljJM[/video]
We recovered the rocket less than a mile away, but it sustained a bit of damage. The 14' surplus military main chute failed to fully inflate, though it didn't appear to be tangled at all. It looked like the airframe impacted itself, damaging a coupler tube and smashing a 1/2" thick centering ring. There were about 3 spots in all that suffered damage.
Saturday was busy,....people everywhere and lots of spectators watching. The big Loki flights were the pair of 54/4000 motors to be flown by Mike Hall and Kyle Cornelius. Both were flying in minimum diameter rockets. Mike had flown the L~2300 white for it's maiden flight, but his rocket shredded. This time he upgraded to a CF airframe and shortened the rocket, but it proved to still not be enough. Looking at the flight data's acceleration curve, he was very close. Standing on a 6+ foot Loki Red flame, it moved out in a hurry. When the rocket broke up, most of the parts from the motor up came back fairly close to the away cells. The motor however continued upward. On the way in to the field Sunday morning, I took the time to scan the field for the booster. Having done the same thing back in February, I had a pretty good idea what to look for and where. Sure enough, I found the Black Momba booster poking out of the ground about a mile down range to the east and about an 1/8th mile to the north. Needless to say, Mike was pretty happy when I returned with it. Mike had also had a threaded ring made for the new extended bulkhead, something I've not had the time to get to. With a 1/2" thick ring secured at the end of the case, and the bulkhead locked in position, it appeared that the motor didn't sustain any damage upon impact. I haven't heard back from Mike yet however to see if he was able to completely disassemble the motor and verify that everything is undamaged.
Then came what I think many would call the highlight flight of the day. Kyle's rocket was awesome. I would have been extremely hard pressed to find anyone with a rocket better suited to fly one of these 54/4000 motors. It was the motor, about 6" of coupler tube housing the electronics and a nose cone on top. He launched it from a lug-less tower as well. He had 600F degree BBQ paint on the fin can and managed to cook most of it off. His smile says it all!.
I watched the assent through my 10x power binoculars and after burnout, it just disappeared. However, after the rocket got closer to apogee and began to slow down, I was able to pick up the tracking smoke and I watched as it arced over at the top and separate. Then, I continued to watch it trail smoke for another good 15-20 seconds. The smoke grain on this motor is about 2.4" long, enough to visually track a rocket to at least 29,472 feet! Kyle successfully recovered the entire rocket later that day. Unfortunately the electronics power cycled on him and the direct velocity readout had to be calculated from the flight data later. Kyle determined that it reached mach 2.96 (3,246ft/sec) and pulled 83 G's.
Kent's drone battery was running low before Kyle's flight, but a kind passer-by said he had one in his trunk. A few minutes later he was up and running, but only just in time. I tried to shoot video with my cell phone but it went out of focus at the worst possible time. It sounded more like a clap of thunder than a rocket launching! LOL
[video=youtube;9KN5WBqeZLg]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9KN5WBqeZLg[/video]
[video=youtube;tLWVAxIN_xs]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tLWVAxIN_xs[/video]
More in a bit shortly. I've reached the attachment limit.