Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Orlando R.O.C.K. Launch Monthly, March 3, 2012

Roger Smith has posted pictures of the March R.O.C.K. launch HERE

Last Saturday's launch was warm with wind gusts over 20 mph.
There was a few holds between launches.
Still, we still had over forty participants.



The winds didn't stop Mark Birnbaum from flying a two engine C6-5 cluster in his SILVER BIRD.

A beautiful build and flight. Check out the ejection ducting from the engines in the side mounts. The low end of the central tube was capped with a rear facing nose cone.





This is Kline and Greg Jared with their modified RUBICON.
One of the body tubes was cut away for a small video camera. The adjustable dental mirror allowed a reflected image from the rear, side or top view of the flight.




Tom Dennon helped me get my staged CENTURION out of a tree.

Tom designed this collapsible PVC rocket grabbing tool. He had the rocket down in just a few minutes.
My Centurion was staged using a Semroc ST-16 booster nozzle. First stage boost was good to about 30' with the 13mm A10-0t engine. When the B6-4 sustainer ignited the rocket went horizontal and drove hard into the tree branches.
Tom's tool didn't hurt the rocket at all. The branches on the tree broke up the leading edges of three fins. The nose cone didn't have a scratch on it!




Today was a perfect day for Brian Coyle's Pool Toy with "Boink" recovery.
The center hole down the length of the foam noodle fits a BT-20 perfectly.
The black dot between the fins is an ejection charge "vent port".




Manuel Mejia brought his "AUSTERITY" rockets.
Manny's rockets are made from things you'd find around the house - Pringle's cans, plastic fruit cups and corks. All are very stable.

My also flowns:
Odd'l Rockets UP! CUP with a C6-3. It was very stable even in the wind gusts. Usually this one lands close to the launcher but the wind blew it to the far side of the field after ejection.
Eric Truax Carded THOR ABLE with a 1/2A3-2t. This was a carded model adapted for flight. Even with clay nose weight and larger fins it was wasn't stable.
I would have flown a few more, but I left my loaded rocket carrying box at home!

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