What did you do rocket wise today?

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I ran a rocketry workshop at one of our local elementary schools with a couple students from our TARC team. 15 third graders got a rocket to take home after flying it on a 1/2 A in the schoolyard.

That school is the North Seattle center for students learning English, so every one of the kids had English as a second (or more) language. A couple needed translation by teachers or other students.

I also flew a silly oddroc and did a static fire of one of the TARC motors.
 
Club launch today. Got cut short due to weather moving in but the morning included clear, blue skies so we got a couple of the kids rockets up and I got to send a Leviathan clone on its maiden launch on a G74. Nice flight but an updraft caught it and made for a long walk.
 
Actually it was yesterday and it was what didn't happen. How's that for screwed- up.

What didn't happen was the monthly Spaceport Rocketry Association Launch (Palm Bay FL). It was canceled due to a burn ban. No launch report.
 
Yesterday, I built my very first L motor, an L900DM. I am an L3 that's never flown an L, lol.

Today, I built my K805G, J275W, and G61W. These four motors, along with the J350W and I303BS that didn't fly last month, will all be flying at LDRS in 3 weeks.

I also taped the shockcord on the main side of my 5.5" Bullet.

Next, take all rockets being brought to LDRS out to the living room and given a once over.
 
Tried to fly new rocket glider. Only one of my homemade igniters worked. I think maybe they don't age well or something. Short fuel pellet was not powerful enough to fly it.

Watched a couple of young guys practice for competition. One with a streamer duration rocket, other with a two stager. The sustainer vanished, I don't know how anyone can follow something that small and high. After a bit, we discovered the rear eject part and streamer lying very close by, which is amazing, considering how high it looked like they went. Both of these guys build very light. The streamer got hung up part way out of the tube, but the rocket came down sideways with no damage. The booster came down sideways with no damage, too.
 
Spent all afternoon trying to get these Black Brant XII fins to shape up and submit to 60 grit sandpaper. I can feel the arthritic hand pain comming on. This isn't my first attempt to get that elusive diamond cross-section. A hardwood core increases the challenge They're not great, but not awful either. I'm not sure if I am completely done shaping them. I'll look at them again in the morning.
 

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Joekeyo said:
Spent all afternoon trying to get these Black Brant XII fins to shape up and submit to 60 grit sandpaper. I can feel the arthritic hand pain comming on. This isn't my first attempt to get that elusive diamond cross-section. A hardwood core increases the challenge They're not great, but not awful either. I'm not sure if I am completely done shaping them. I'll look at them again in the morning.
Click to expand...
Have you tried doing this with a small wood plane? It might save you some pain.
 
Working on finishing an Estes Black Brant II and an Estes Bullpup. I put a second coat of white on the Bullpup. Yesterday I put black on the back end of the BB so today I untaped it and started with the first couple of decals. The back end of the BB has 4 black stripes and there are 3 fins. I haven't found anything online that describes how to fit the stripes on the fins so I did a layout in CAD. One way or another I have to trim some decals to clear the fins. I can start on that tomorrow. The Bullpup will be ready to start with its decals too, a lot of decals.
 
I built a new tail for my Polly R/C. I’ve been looking at, and pondering the first one I built - a simple mod of the free flight kit, and just not liking it. Binding controls, sloppy action. I set it aside for canning season.

Now that canning season is finished, I’m looking at rocket projects again. And I picked up a Cuda kit. I’ve been studying it a lot, and tonight I got out the new sheet of balsa a got to work.

This time I’ve flipped the tail front to back compared to the Polly C. That was to get more elevon area and match the Cuda. I built it on a pylon, scanning the Cuda balsa and adjusting the size in Illustrator.

The Cuda instructions say to notch the elevons according to the plan drawings. Except the V tail drawing isn’t notched, and the T tail variant is. I estimated it after gluing the V.
@Aeronerd

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Did some sanding on the third flax laminated fin, then started the finish by brushing epoxy over the surfaces.

Also read through the 2024 Q3 report that the State Explosives Inspectorate sends out to all us HPR fliers as we have to have a state explosives licence to possess and fly any HPR motors.
 
Yesterday I started on my upscale Citation Patriot using the mod kit from Bad Boy Rocketry for the Big Der Red Max... Yesterday I assembled the motor mount, I used a longer 29mm tube than came with the BDRM kit to help direct the ejection charge in the longer airframe of the upgrade kit.

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After work today, I installed it into the lower airframe, and then I decided to apply the decals to my SBR Diablo. Now to clear coat it.

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bjphoenix said:
With that many centering rings on the motor tube- how many of them can you glue to the outer airframe and how do you do it? And if you put the motor tube in the airframe first how do you glue the fins to the inside structure?
Click to expand...
Its still very light weight with the three plywood rings and the one paper ring. I actually have no clue what possessed me to do that... I just did!
As for installing the fins, this bird will not see more than a H motor, so I will use epoxy to install the fins, and I will double butter them. The overall forces on this rocket wont be much, and so with fin root tabs epoxied in place, and good fillets on the outside, they will be strong.
 
krislhull said:
Its still very light weight with the three plywood rings and the one paper ring. I actually have no clue what possessed me to do that... I just did!
As for installing the fins, this bird will not see more than a H motor, so I will use epoxy to install the fins, and I will double butter them. The overall forces on this rocket wont be much, and so with fin root tabs epoxied in place, and good fillets on the outside, they will be strong.
Click to expand...
I have pushed the motor tube partway into the body, blobbed some glue into the rear of the tube and then slid the motor tube all the way in. This gets some glue on the front of the middle ring. Then I glue the rear ring from the back and the front ring from the front.
With through the wall fins I would glue the front ring to the motor tube but not the rear ring. The rear ring holds the tube centered while the fins get inserted with just enough glue to hold them to the motor tube and then thin fillets on the outside of the main tube. Now that everything is stable I pull out the rear ring and fillet everything on the inside, then put the rear ring in place and fillet it from the back. This still only allows gluing 3 rings to the outer tube.
 

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