Flying Season Returns

After getting several days of rain last week, the BLM cleared the launch site for use. The weather forecast looked good for Saturday, so yesterday was our first launch of the fall season.

My daughter got to launch her new Dark Star Minion a Cesaroni 84-G88-11A ;to 1754'. The expected altitude was 2287', but the wind was blowing pretty good when she flew and that likely had a significant affect.

After recovering the DS Mini I flew Flying Colors on its ninth flight. I loaded an 819J354-16A, the highest impulse motor I expect to be able to load in this rocket and sent it to 8091' AGL, a new personal best. In addition to my AltimeterOne, I had my new AltimeterTwo mounted and was looking forward to getting data from it, but due to some delays after I armed it, it apparently timed out and turned itself off before launch. This flight was projected to be supersonic and I really wanted to see if I made it. I'll have to wait for spring now to see if I'm actually exceeding Mach 1 as predicted and to test if I exceed the single-axis G limit of the AltimeterTwo, as none of my remaining reloads for this season will do either of those jobs. In addition to my altimeters I was once again flying one of Vern's prototype "Kate" nose cones. She performed up to her usual high standards and did an excellent job reporting the events of my flight. Thanks to the landing coordinates she provided I was able to once again walk right to Flying Colors, which was recovered in excellent condition.

Unfortunately, due to other commitments, we were unable to stay for the entire day. The winds were calming as we left and it looked like a number of big rockets and motors were being prepped for flight.

Photo Album: 2011-10-08, Tripoli Idaho Rocketry 

Video: 2011-10-08, Tripoli Idaho Rocketry Launch Montage

I'm an author!

Issue #293 of Apogee Components' Peak of Flight newsletter was published today with the feature article I wrote about mounting the AltimeterTwo for use in high-G rockets. This is the first time I ever wrote an article for anything, so I'm quite pleased. I should have included thanks in the article to my friend, Jamie, who provided substantial feedback when I asked her to review the article for me. I should also have thanked John at Jolly Logic for confirming details about the construction of the AltimeterTwo which were necessary to correctly design the mount. Now I just have to wait a couple more months before I can fly the altimeter in Flying Colors. Presently Tripoli Idaho is in its summer launch hiatus due to the annual fire risk here. Come on Autumn!

Supplemental and higher resolution photos of the build are available in this photo album:


Photo Album: AltimeterTwo Mount

Flying Colors, Flight #8, "A Date with Kate"

Yesterday was our final launch opportunity of the spring season. We had a very good turn out with many launches. I shot quite a lot of video, capturing 15 launches in 13 segments. There were many more launches than that, but I wasn't always in position to take video. I was there to fly my own rocket after all.

We got to the site early so we could set up our own equipment and help with the launch equipment. I was still working on setting up the weather station when other people, including the person towing the club trailer, showed up. With a number of people working on it, the range was set up well in time for the opening of the launch window at 10:00.

Vern Knowles, "parent" of the ever-popular "Kate", is working on making a version of her available for sale. Kate is an automated flight data reporting system that receives GPS data transmitted from a rocket and announces the details of the flight in near-real-time. Vern had prototype transmitters, pre-installed in various size nose cones, available for test flights at this launch. For various reasons I was the only person to take Vern up on the chance to give Kate a ride at this launch. Having Kate on-board meant I would not be able to include my Walston Tracker, which is installed in my usual nose cone. I was still able to fly my AltimeterOne, which meant I'd have two sources of data regarding my maximum altitude. The Kate nose cone is also heavier than my usual nose cone, so I anticipated a lower than estimated flight. Based on RockSim v9.0 my expected altitude was 6830' AGL. According to my AltimeterOne I reached an altitude of 6210', while Kate reported 6449'. Kate did lose GPS during the ascent, but reacquired a fix before apogee and reported data for the rest of the flight. It is a good thing she did, as I never saw Flying Colors after it left the pad. There were people the spotted it, but I think they were able to due to Kate's reporting. Since Flying Colors landed 1.33 miles from the launch site I probably would not have received a signal from the tracker if I'd been flying it, particularly after Flying Colors landed. With Kate having provided landing coordinates it was a simple matter of punching them into a hand-held GPS unit and walking right to my rocket. Thank you Vern for letting me fly your transmitter for you.


Photo Album: 2011-06-04, Tripoli Idaho Launch



Video: 2011-06-04, Tripoli Idaho Rocketry, Launch Montage

Have Weather Station Will Travel

We infrequently have weather information, primarily wind speed, available at our launches. I own a wireless weather station that I've not been using much at home and decided that I'd see about arranging so I could transport it to the launch site and set it up. On Friday I picked up the hardware I would need to implement this decision and today I built it. I took a 56" length of 1010 rail that I acquired at a local recycling store, along with some accompanying hardware, and built a support structure I can attach to my Yakima roof rack system. I cut the 1010 rail into 36", 12", and 8" sections. I used the hardware to connect the 8" section at right angles to the 36" section. This forms the base portion, with 2.5" long, 1/4" carriage screws slid into both ends of the 36" and the end of the 8" section. These screws pass through clips borrowed from my bike rack to mount the base to the Yakima round bars. The 12" section is then mounted vertically, at right angles to both of the base sections. I used hose clamps to mount a 10' length of conduit to the 12" upright 1010 rail. The wind vane/anemometer of the weather station is mounted to the top of the conduit.

I assembled the support structure and mounted it on the car. Everything worked as planned. I'll probably mount the weather station's transmitter, which includes barometer, temperature, and relative humidity sensors, on the 1010 rail, but for today I just set it on top of the rail. After I had the system set up I went in the house to collect the receiver/display. Even in my office it was displaying the wind speed and direction, so I expect we'll be able to place the display on the LCO table and have it work, as I hope to do.

Presently I'm using a steel conduit. I had thought it was aluminum until I went to put it on top of the support. If I can locate an aluminum one I'll probably replace it in order to make the system easier to erect.

I also realized that I had to solve how to transport the conduit, since it won't fit in the car. That was easily solved though by using the hose clamps to fasten it along the 36" section of 1010 rail. We will need to be careful about opening the trunk of the car while the conduit is in this position. I think I'd better come up with some foam padding for the end of it, just in case.

Since photos provide the best explanation...


Photo Album: 2011-05-28, Have Weatherstation Will Travel

Another Successful Launch Day

Yesterday was our regularly scheduled launch day and the rocket gods smiled on us and gave us decent weather. We got stopped by a train across railroad tracks on the way to the launch site, so things were pretty much set up by the time we arrived. Our president had had to bring out the club trailer, meaning he didn't bring his personal trailer, which had his rocket tracker receiver in it. Since for now I'm borrowing his receiver when I fly my rocket, I was quite nervous about launching up over a mile and trying to find it. Given these considerations I decided to proceed with a flight, but use the I255 motor I had instead of the I303, since it was supposed to provide me a slightly lower flight. I armed my tracking transmitter and installed it in my nose cone as a precaution against my rocket going missing, the idea being that if I did lose my rocket I'd be able to go back out to the launch site with the receiver and locate it. I took my time prepping the rocket and ancillary gear so I didn't forget to do anything this time. I took my rocket out to the pad once I had it loaded up and inspected, but before I had everything else ready to go. I think I irritated some of the other rocketeers by tying up the pad for a while as I was getting everything else ready. I'll need to modify my preparations to make sure I don't do this again.

By the time I had video cameras ready to roll, GPS receiver up and running, and binoculars, camera, and FRS radio located and checked Coldfire was loaded up on the away pad and ready to fly. I re-situated my tripod mounted video camera so it could capture both Coldfire's and Flying Colors' flights. I asked Coldfire's owner if he would launch first so I could watch Coldfire fly without worrying about losing track of where Flying Colors landed. I don't think he understood my reasoning, but agreed and that is how things proceeded. It did prove to be a mistake in one regard in that I ran out of memory in my camera at the base of the launch pad prior to Flying Colors launching, so I have no video from it.

For this flight there was a high layer of thin clouds. This is exactly the kind of situation where I lose track of my rockets. I simply can't see them against the clouds. I think everyone lost it this time, so it may have actually gone above the clouds, but it is not clear. We watched and listened and for what seemed for an eternity there was no sign of Flying Colors. Finally somebody called out that they saw it and soon many people were tracking it. Eventually even I spotted my brilliant red parachute. In this case I think I would have been blind to not ultimately spot my descending rocket as it landed a mere 288.8' from the launch pad, per my GPS. I made the short walk out to it and did my usual post-flight inspection, including checking my AltimeterOne to see how high I actually flew. I was disappointed in this case to find that my altimeter had malfunctioned and was only reporting a peak altitude of 953' AGL. This was with the altimeter installed in my ported payload bay in the same configuration as the previous 5 flights.

I returned to base with my rocket and contemplated the skies. Soon we had a large patch of blue develop right over us and I decided to go for a second launch, this time on the I303 I had brought along as my primary motor. I reset my AltimeterOne and, hoping for better results, assembled my rocket. Since I already had my gear lined up from the first flight I was much quicker getting ready to fly when I took Flying Colors out to the pad. Soon the LCO gave the count and hit the launch button. Flying Colors flew beautifully up into the clear blue skies and I watched it from launch to landing. I walked straight out to it with no difficulty, though before I reached it I was really beginning to think I must have some how walked past it. It had landed beyond a small ridge and once I crested the ridge the parachute was easily spotted. I really didn't think it had landed as far out as it had, at 1244' from the launch site. I popped open the payload pay to see how my AltimeterOne had performed on this flight and found it reporting a perfectly normal looking reading of 6661' AGL.

So, with one small hiccup I had a really nice day of rocket flying with two successful flights of Flying Colors. In all there were 6 HPR launches, though I only managed to record 3 of them. There were a number of LPR rockets flown, at least one of which went AWOL. It was a rather detailed model, so I hope it can yet be found.


Photo Album: 2011-05-21, Tripoli Idaho Launch Day



Video: Montage of Tripoli Idaho Rocketry launches on 2011-05-21
Video Playlist: 2011-05-21, Tripoli Idaho Rocketry Launch

Blood & Tears

Here's hoping that I've met the blood and tears quota for my new rocket. I was sanding out the latest fiberglass work on the new airframe tube this afternoon. After getting the sanding to a point where I was satisfied I dry fit all the pieces together (fin can, 2 airframe tubes, 1 coupler, and nose cone) and showed it to my younger daughter. I had started disassembling the parts when my older daughter came out. I wanted to show her so started reassembling the rocket by attempting to insert the nose cone in the upper airframe tube. Despite the fact that I'd just had it all together and easily assembled and disassembled it, the nose cone wouldn't go in. In fact it got stuck and wouldn't go in or come out. I applied more force and suddenly it popped loose. Of course my elbows bent and the nose cone described an arc right into my face. Thank goodness I was wearing my glasses. They took a good bit of the energy and deflected the nose cone such that it hit my brow ridge. I still ended up with cuts on the bridge of my nose from my glasses and a puncture wound in my eyelid from the tip of the nose cone. That is far closer to losing an eye than I ever hope to come again. I'll be lucky if I don't get a black eye from this. So consider this an object lesson you need not repeat. If that nose cone gets stuck and you are tempted to apply more force to get it out, at least put on your safety glasses/goggles before doing so.

SpudRoc 16

Yesterday was the 16th annual spring launch for Tripoli Idaho, named SpudRoc. We had beautiful clear skies for much of the day, but the winds were blowing between 15 to 20 miles per hour most of the time. This resulted in most of the high power rockets, including my own, remaining grounded for the day. I did get brave enough to launch my Aerotech Arreaux, named Dragon Fly, on a G76-10 to 2775'. It landed approximately .75 miles from the launch site. I forgot to record the GPS coordinates, so all I have is the distance the GPS was reporting when I glanced at it. Many model rockets were lost at least for a while, but I'm aware of at least 2 not having been found at all. We're scheduled for another launch next weekend and hopefully the weather will be better. This now means I have more motors for Flying Colors than we have remaining launch opportunities. At this point I don't know if I'll attempt to do two launches in one day or save a reload for the fall launch season. I think it will largely depend on the kind of weather we see from here on out.


Photo Album: 2011-05-14, SpudRoc16


Video: 2011-05-14, Dragon Fly, Flight #5