Bdale Garbee [Sun, 20 Jan 2013 03:52:25 +0000 (20:52 -0700)]
Robert's successful NAR Junior L1 cert!
He brought his Lil Nuke out of retirement for the event, and flew on an
Aerotech H165R. Beautiful flight, ejection appeared to be shortly before
apogee, PFND.
Bdale Garbee [Sun, 20 Jan 2013 03:51:00 +0000 (20:51 -0700)]
Sharp Stick at Hudson Ranch on an ancient Aerotech I211W, PFND.
This was a test of new GPS firmware from SkyTraq .. lag is gone, but it still
can't handle rapid Z translation. Oh well.
Keith Packard [Sun, 13 Jan 2013 02:04:31 +0000 (18:04 -0800)]
First real test flights of MicroPeak
Various rockets flown on A-C motors in Wilsonville.
There are some unexpected results, mostly where the landing height is
significantly off (5-10m). The rockets were launched from about 1m
agl, so some error is understandable. The pads were in sun at times,
and most of the rockets had transparent ebays, so perhaps the readings
were affected by light.
Keith Packard [Sat, 8 Dec 2012 23:48:22 +0000 (15:48 -0800)]
Keith's Mini Mmuchness on H140 at OROC Fillible's Folly
Flying TM sn 341 (v1.1). Battery measured 3.79V on the rail, and while
the drogue event occurred normally, the main event caused the computer
to reboot.
Bdale Garbee [Mon, 19 Nov 2012 15:43:03 +0000 (08:43 -0700)]
Steve Klausmeyer flights
Flight 1: Competitor 4 - 76mm motor with 20 in propellant - Wayside White
Flight 2: Competitor 4 - 76mm motor with 20 in propellant - Slow Blonde
Flight 3: Eagle Claw 4 - 54mm motor with 25 in propellant - Wayside White
motor blew the nozzle shortly after liftoff
Flight 4: Competitor 4 - 76mm motor with 20 in propellant - Slow Blonde
Flight 5: Eagle Claw 4 - 54mm motor with 21 in propellant - Slow Blonde
Bdale's Cherokee D Upscale, Tripoli Colorado Fall Frenzy 2012
This was a kit developed by John Boren as a club project for SCORE
a couple of years ago. Bdale finally finished his, and this was its
first flight, on a Cesaroni 108G68 White. Beautiful flight! Landed
near some horses, who studied it with great curiosity until Bdale was
able to retrieve it... PFND.
Robert's Maverick, Tripoli Colorado Fall Frenzy 2012
This was the Maverick's third flight, on a very old Aerotech I154J reload
using TeleMini for apogee electronic deployment only with no backup... the
reload was built using a plugged forward closure. This really isn't enough
thrust for the airframe, as the rocket layed over about 50 degrees from
vertical off the rail and took off to the East. TeleMini did the right
thing, and the build is stout enough that the airframe was recovered with
no damage whatsoever! Bottom line is that we probably want at least 200 N
average thrust, and a good kick off the rail, for this rocket to fly safely.
Robert's Maverick, Tripoli Colorado Fall Frenzy 2012
Second flight, this time on a Cesaroni 364I212SS, again with TeleMini for
apogee electronic deployment and motor backup. This was a much better motor
for the Maverick than the H! PFND
Robert's Maverick, Tripoli Colorado Fall Fling 2012, first flight!
Robert passed the Tripoli Mentoring Program test first-thing with a perfect
score. We think he's the first Colorado resident to qualify for TMP, and
perhaps the youngest person anywhere to date. He celbrated the creation of
the mentoring program by building a 1/3 scale Maverick missile that can not
fly safely on anything but high-power motors. This was the missile's first
flight.
Cesaroni 247H143SS using a TeleMini for apogee electronic deployment with
motor backup. PFND.
Bdale Garbee [Fri, 1 Jun 2012 06:05:17 +0000 (00:05 -0600)]
Bdale's big Goblin on a James Russell research motor, first flight of his
new "yellow" propellant. Nearly a PFND, minor cracking at the front of the
monkey bay on the rail side.
Bdale Garbee [Fri, 1 Jun 2012 05:52:34 +0000 (23:52 -0600)]
Robert's Nuke Pro Maxx on an Aerotech G67R at Mile High Mayhem 2012
Had igniter trouble, delay ended up very short in flight, perhaps due
to some burning during previous ignition attempts?
Robert's RG-1 on a CTI 84G88 SS at Hudson Ranch
The main shook out at apogee due to a loose nose cone fit, excessive apogee
charge, or both. Otherwise looked like a perfect flight, no damage.
Bdale Garbee [Sun, 18 Dec 2011 00:18:22 +0000 (17:18 -0700)]
Trick-o-Treat at Hudson Ranch on a CTI Pro38 4-grain J290 White
TeleMetrum v1.1 sn 209 flew the rocket, TeleMetrum v1.2 sn 836 was payload.
Two e-matches were attached to sn 836 with lead lengths approximating a
quarter wavelength at the UHF operating frequencies to maximize potential
interference.
The accelerometer cal on sn 836 was "sloppily done" which may account for
some of the variation in data, but overall, this was a great first flight
of the new v1.2 boards!
Keith Packard [Mon, 17 Oct 2011 01:02:52 +0000 (18:02 -0700)]
John Lyngdall's 24mm airframe on Aerotech F39? at Oktoberfest 2011
Quite a bit of coning out of the launch tower. Very poor telemetry
reception all the way up. Ejection delay was supposed to be 15
seconds, but the charge fired about 9 seconds after burnout, 4 or 5
seconds early. 1011m max height. Lost visual contact during boost,
tracked via RDF and recovered successfully.
Keith Packard [Mon, 17 Oct 2011 01:00:23 +0000 (18:00 -0700)]
LDDD on CTI J335RL at oroc Oktoberfest 2011
1.1g in both charges. 2372m max height. GPS lost at main deploy, not
re-acquired before landing. Found less than 20m from the reported GPS
position just before main deploy. PFND.
Bdale Garbee [Sun, 16 Oct 2011 22:58:50 +0000 (16:58 -0600)]
Trick-o-Treat on a CTI J595BS at Tripoli Colorado near Hartsel
Great flight, no airframe damage.
The v1.0 board flying the rocket, sn 209, apparently stopped transmitting at
launch, and after flight it was not possible to extract data from the board
over RF. The v1.1 board, sn 341, maintained solid RF through the flight and
data extraction post-flight was over RF. Must have just broken something on
the older board?
Keith Packard [Mon, 10 Oct 2011 18:08:45 +0000 (12:08 -0600)]
Civil Air Patrol air-start flight at NCR Oktoberfest 2011
Two separate air starts clearly visible in the acceleration data.
TeleMetrum crashed at Main deploy; backup altimeter successfully
recovered the airframe.
Keith Packard [Mon, 10 Oct 2011 18:03:11 +0000 (12:03 -0600)]
Robert's Nuke Pro Maxx on a CTI 150G50 at NCR Oktoberfest 2011
Good flight with no damage. Firmware version 1.0.9.1. Noisy
accelerometer in TM v1.0 board marked apogee a couple of seconds
early; should be fixed in 1.0.9.2.
GPS receiver not working on this board. Recovered via RDF.
Bdale Garbee [Sat, 8 Oct 2011 17:52:44 +0000 (11:52 -0600)]
G-Spot on an Aerotech H250G-L at NCR Oktoberfest 2011
Kevlar gave way just forward of protective tape wrap at leading edge of new
airframe tube. Robert spotted fin can while recovering his airframe, one
fin popped loose on impact with ground, otherwise no damage. Located nose
cone and payload bay ~ 3.3km down range thanks to GPS fix from TeleMetrum,
was about 0.69 miles NE from OHV parking area, roughly 2 mile round trip walk
to retrieve from among the cows. With a new kevlar harness, this airframe
will fly again!
Bdale Garbee [Sat, 8 Oct 2011 17:50:45 +0000 (11:50 -0600)]
G-Spot "Return To Flight" on an Aerotech H165R-L at NCR Oktoberfest 2011
Minor fraying of the kevlar at the leading edge of the new airframe tube,
added tape to avoid further fraying. Beeped 1239m apogee.
Bdale Garbee [Mon, 22 Aug 2011 00:33:15 +0000 (18:33 -0600)]
Robert's RG-1 on a CTI Pro29 2g 110G250 Vmax at Chili Blaster 3 (Hudson Ranch)
PFND
Visible motor backup puff after drogue deployment, main as expected, all good!
Bdale Garbee [Mon, 22 Aug 2011 00:32:07 +0000 (18:32 -0600)]
Robert's RG-1 on a CTI Pro29 3g 138G106SK at Chili Blaster 3 (Hudson Ranch)
PFND
Visible motor backup puff after drogue deployment, main as expected, all good!
Bdale Garbee [Sun, 21 Aug 2011 15:46:18 +0000 (09:46 -0600)]
Robert's RG-1 on a CTI Pro29 3g 159G125R at Chili Blaster 3 (Hudson Ranch)
PFND
Visible motor backup puff after drogue deployment, main as expected, all good!
Bdale Garbee [Sat, 20 Aug 2011 21:22:35 +0000 (15:22 -0600)]
Sharp Stick on a Pro38 6xl J420 Classic at Chili Blaster 3 (Hudson Ranch)
Testing 0.9.6.0 firmware in a v1.1 board with kludged antenna, lost telemetry
during ascent, but maintained visual to landing. On recovery, eeprom data
looks good. Motor chuffed some late in burn, as if spitting bits of casting
tube, these seem to show in the accel data.
Keith Packard [Wed, 3 Aug 2011 02:48:02 +0000 (19:48 -0700)]
Trim some garbage off of the end of old .eeprom files
These files had some extra data, after the 'landing' indication,
written to the file. Removing this stuff makes ground testing on old
flight data easier.
Bdale Garbee [Mon, 27 Jun 2011 15:54:52 +0000 (09:54 -0600)]
Trick-o-Treat on AMW J450ST at Tripoli Colorado Spring Fling 2011
The rocket was flown by sn 209, a v1.0 board running production 0.9 firmware.
Flew sn 341 adjacent to it in the same ebay running 0.9.3 firmware, set up
for redundant apogee with 2 second delay, with e-matches hanging out through
the aft bulkhead. After flight, both e-matches had fired.
Robert reported hearing "max speed 0 m/s" from the voice synth during flight,
and in fact replay of the sn 341 telem file says that.
Used a QuickBurst igniter, ignition was slow enough that Warren as LCO was
in the process of calling "no joy" when the motor came up to pressure.
Bdale Garbee [Mon, 27 Jun 2011 15:45:33 +0000 (09:45 -0600)]
Robert's Nuke Pro Maxx at Tripoli Colorado Spring Fling 2011
First flight of this airframe, on a CTI 84G88 Smoky Sam. Delay set too long
for conditions, flight looked good despite late deployment, but discovered
nose had impaced fin can hard enough to shatter leading edge of one fin, and
some damage to airframe tube just forward of that fin. Will require a fair
amount of work before it flies again.
Had trouble with sn 286, so dropped back to sn 215. Then discovered battery
connector was flakey, so sn 286 is probably actually just fine. Went ahead
and flew with the older v1.0 board this time.
Bdale Garbee [Mon, 27 Jun 2011 15:37:59 +0000 (09:37 -0600)]
Robert's LOC Legacy on a CTI 159G118BS at Tripoli Colorado Spring Fling 2011
Beautiful flight, long walk over the ridge to the east to recover due to
winds at altitude. Had visual until it dropped over the ridge, recovery
aided by RDF'ing from the top of the hill.
Files renamed .. telem had flight 0 in filename, eeprom had wrong date due
to not dumping data until day after flight.
Keith Packard [Tue, 31 May 2011 08:25:20 +0000 (01:25 -0700)]
Horizon on CTI Pro38 6xl J530 Imax at Mayhem 2011. TM + Tm
Testing redundant apogee and main deployment modes. TM doing redundant
apogee charges and Tm doing redundant main charges.
No apogee charges were fired. One main charge was fired. Ballistic
flight destroyed two airframe sections and separated TM from the
sled. GPS antenna separated from TM, ripping beeper off as well.
eeprom logs successfully recovered from both flight computers.