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.
False launch detects on Estes Magician with TeleMini in clear payload bay.
Finally got a good flight (not part of this commit) by taping over the bay
to make it opaque.
Bdale Garbee [Sat, 5 Mar 2011 23:13:53 +0000 (16:13 -0700)]
Modified Sky Torpedo on an F24W-7 at Hudson Ranch. Used a twiggy
igniter from QuickBurst due to previous copperhead issues. Chuffed
like crazy before flying. Flight looked good except chute never
fully deployed. Came in fairly hard, broke off two fins and
cracked paint on airframe tube. Carried an Altimeter Two prototype
for Tim.
Bdale Garbee [Sat, 5 Mar 2011 23:12:14 +0000 (16:12 -0700)]
Sublime Grape on a D12-7 at Hudson Ranch. Didn't go very vertical,
as a result a -5 would have been better. elastic portion of shock
cord separated, both pieces found without incident. Fin can broke
one fin off due to descent without chute. Carried an Altimeter 2
prototype for Tim, too.
Bdale Garbee [Sat, 19 Feb 2011 22:51:36 +0000 (15:51 -0700)]
Vertical Assault on a CTI Pro38 6xl J595BS at Hudson Ranch
1.5 grams BP rear, 1.8 grams BP front
Perfect drogueless dual deploy flight, with no damage!
Bdale Garbee [Sat, 19 Feb 2011 22:41:45 +0000 (15:41 -0700)]
Sharp Stick on a CTI Pro38 3-grain I345WT at Hudson Ranch
Added more kevlar to the aft end, flew with 1.3 grams BP rear and 1.0 front.
Perfect drogueless dual deploy flight, and no damage!
Bdale Garbee [Sun, 30 Jan 2011 07:24:59 +0000 (17:24 +1000)]
Group project 5.5" Polecat Thumper airframe built in the Quay West Suites in
Brisbane, Australia, during LCA 2011 by Bdale, Keith, Mike Beattie, and
Anthony Towns. Flown at QRS club launch on an Aerotech J315R 54mm 2-grain
motor.
We believe this was the first time ever that an airframe flew with redundant
TeleMetrum boards! Test firmware in the sn 56 v1.1 board failed to sync with
the GPS chip for some reason, but both boards apparently fired their charges
exactly when expected. Sadly, we were stuck friction fitting the nose cone,
and observed the main deploy after the secondary altimeter's apogee charge
fired. Fortunately, it wasn't that high and the wind wasn't too strong, so
everything was recovered in good condition!
Bdale Garbee [Sat, 20 Nov 2010 23:52:27 +0000 (16:52 -0700)]
Civil Air Patrol project rocket led by James Russell, flying at Hudson Ranch.
The central Pro54 L1030 Red lit and burned fine, the two sets of 3 Pro38 J
air-starts never lit. Recovery system, controlled by other electronics,
deployed fine, though only one of the two redundant altimeter systems actually
worked.
All in all, a great experience despite the flight not going as planned. No
damage to the airframe, so we'll look forward to the next attempt!
Bdale Garbee [Sat, 20 Nov 2010 23:49:26 +0000 (16:49 -0700)]
Sharp Stick flying on a CTI Pro38 5-grain 650J270 Green3 reload at
Hudson Ranch. Bdale's first flight using ButtonBox ground station
code, sort of a test flight prior to the CAP complex project led by
James Russell later in the day.
Charges were 0.7g BP front and 1.0g BP rear. In hindsight, wonder if I
shouldn't have run them the other way, since the mains shook out at apogee
again. Landed 2.26 miles or so downrange in the side yard of a house on
the east side of the highway.
Bdale Garbee [Mon, 15 Nov 2010 16:13:24 +0000 (09:13 -0700)]
Bob Finch flight.
"One thing unusual about this flight was that there was successful
firing of the apogee and backup motor charges, but no separation.
Main was re-adjusted (to somewhere between 200-250m, I forget exactly
what) and did deploy successfully although again lower than I would
have hoped for."
Bdale Garbee [Sun, 17 Oct 2010 23:40:55 +0000 (17:40 -0600)]
Horizon Rebuild on CTI J595BS at Tripoli Colorado launch site near Hartsel, CO
Beautiful flight, except telem lost during boost and not recovered on XO
serving as ground station. No clue what that was about, was able to extract
eeprom data using RF after flight, so doesn't seem to have been a problem
in the airframe?
Minor ding on the front end of the airframe at the nose cone junction, not
really enough to call it a zipper, but clearly caused by kevlar harness.
Robert's Lil Nuke on a CTI Pro29 159G125 during Chili Blaster 2
at Hudson Ranch. Had a plastic elephant with parachute onboard that
got ejected at apogee, was supposed to be a timed parachute duration
thing. However, timers didn't do the right things, so the flight was
DQ'ed. Great flight, otherwise. We did not capture telemetry due to
Bdale flying No Nukes at the same time. Needed RDF to locate it after
flight. No real damage, but the airframe continues to unravel a bit
more each flight.
Bdale's 10" Goblin, flying on a CTI Pro75 M1300 Imax dual thrust during
Chili Blaster 2 at Hudson Ranch. First flight after rebuild to do dual
deploy from one bay with ARRD and 15' surplus "+ sign" parachute.
Beautiful boost.
Main was out at apogee, apparently due to a harness tangle mechanically
pulling it out of the deployment bag. ARRD fired on schedule around 400
meters, causing the fin can to drop somewhat less than the expected 50
feet due to severe recovery harness tangling. Thanksfully there was little
wind!
Airframe recovered with no damage whatsoever, approximately 0.7 miles from
the launch rail.
G-spot on an old Aerotech H125-20W single use 29mm motor. It appears
the ejection at apogee actually happened much later, perhaps as much
as 10 seconds late!
The fin can separated from the nose and payload bay assemble at
deployment poings sufficent to make something work.
Bdale Garbee [Sun, 22 Aug 2010 04:02:46 +0000 (22:02 -0600)]
Anthony Towns' LDDD clone, successful L2 cert on a CTI Pro38 5-grain 58J357
blue streak. Perfect drogueless dual deploy! 0.8-0.9 grams aft charge and
about 1.0 grams forward. Flew without ground testing charges due to time
pressure before waiver closed for the day. About as close to the waiver as
you'd ever want to be on a cert flight, again demonstrating that OpenRocket
under-estimates apogee ... approximately 6800 ft predicted...
Bdale Garbee [Sun, 22 Aug 2010 03:59:23 +0000 (21:59 -0600)]
Anthony Towns' LDDD clone, successful L1 cert on a CTI Pro38 2-grain 266H125
classic. Airframe was set up for apogee-only with motor based ejection. The
BP charge was larger than necessary, caused nose cone to snap back against
aft airframe. Minor damage to leading edge of aft airframe, big chunk of
the nose cone skin cracked away. Same problem Bdale saw on Sharp Stick's
nosecone, also from Performance Rocketry, where there was apparently an air
bubble below the gel coat. Determination was that damage was cosmetic and
would not affect cert... confirmed by successful L2 later in the day!
Bdale Garbee [Sun, 22 Aug 2010 03:57:15 +0000 (21:57 -0600)]
Tim van Milligan's 5.5" L2 airframe, flying on a CTI Pro38 6-grain 774J410 red,
TM indicated a problem with the apogee igniter continuity, noticed during
countdown, turned out to be a loose wire! Perfect dual deploy flight once
that was fixed.
Bdale Garbee [Sun, 27 Jun 2010 02:13:38 +0000 (20:13 -0600)]
Tripoli Colorado Spring Fling with COSROCS at the Buffalo Ranch
Bdale flying Trick-O-Treat on a CTI Pro38 6xl 985J595 blue streak.
Main out at apogee, otherwise a perfect flight. Visually saw the
main charge fire at 250 meters as expected, so this was not an
issue with TeleMetrum doing something wrong.
Was flying with a shorter apogee shock cord than sometimes, and
it's possible one of the nose shear pins might have snapped during
the ride over due to the unusual loading required because third-row
seat was present in the Suburban. Going with a longer apogee shock
cord and zig-folding with tape rap might help prevent shaking the
main out.
Bdale Garbee [Sun, 27 Jun 2010 02:06:28 +0000 (20:06 -0600)]
Tripoli Colorado Spring Fling with COSROCS at the Buffalo Ranch
Robert flying RG-2 on a CTI Pro29 3-grain 159G54 red moon burner.
Goal was to break a mile, rocket was a bit wobbly off the rail and
did not go vertical, so he didn't quite make it. Perfect flight
otherwise, rocket was 26 feet from GPS waypoint.