Sunday, December 8, 2019

LAUNCH! Orlando R.O.C.K. Monthly, December 7, 2019

Cool weather and no wind in the morning!




First up was the GOONY X-15 using a Quest German B6-4 with the shiny, silver nozzle.
Clean launch with an estimated altitude of 325'. No damage at touch down






I rarely launch a C6-5 in a model this size, the old FRANKEN GOBLIN. I'm guessing the altitude was 650'.

It was aimed a little to the East, under the kite tail streamer it landed in the adjacent field.


Jim Lytle brought some holiday spirit with his Christmas Tree rocket.
He said it only cost $2.00 to make using a metallic tree and a large Christmas light nose cone from the Dollar store.
It was conically stable with the D12 motor!


The new SLAT/s model had a first launch with an Estes A8-3 to check stability, those fins seem small.
We had some problems with the third "C" bank launchers. It took three tries to get it in the air.
Altitude was low at about 200' with no damage.







Dave Ribikoff showed his "spinner" parachutes today.
These were made from some JonRocket chutes, the symmetrical slits were hand cut in the sheet plastic by Dave.
All his recoveries today had spinning chutes!

I always thought a spinning chute had to be made from rip-stop nylon! I'll be experimenting with these -






My Odd'l STEALTH was flown using an Estes B6-4 to about 350'. I thought the offset wing fins and side intakes might send it off a vertical axis, but boost was straight up!
The 12" chute brought it back with no damage.






David Hofmann wanted to get his 3 engine cluster Scrambler in the air but there were continuity problems with the third "C" rack. He promised to try again at the next launch.







An Estes A3-4t engine got my GAUCHITO to 275'.
A textbook launch and recovery.

The wasted engine of the day was a C6-3 in my Centuri DRACONIAN MARAUDER. I gave it a second chance after the last flight went horizontal. Today it was unstable doing a few flips before ejecting the chute as it hit the ground. I could add some nose weight, but it's already too heavy.
Surprisingly no damage. It will not fly again!

Six up, six recovered - the Draconian Marauder is retired.

5 comments:

  1. Do you think the Draconian Marauder could use more thrust? Like a C or D Q-Jet?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi BAR,
      After two bad flights I don't want to waste any more motors on it! A D Q-Jet might be a little heavier, that would lead to even more nose weight cancelling out any increase in stability. Oh well, it's on the shelf!

      Delete
  2. The FrankenGoblin’s streamer rocks! Thanks for sharing the pix - I could’ve been launching here Saturday but it was CFB conference championship day so I built while I watched the games instead.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Openroad,
      The kite tail rip stop streamers work well! Wide and very colorful. I found them on Amazon.

      Delete
  3. "I always thought a spinning chute had to be made from rip-stop nylon!"

    A few people have flown Bama Recovery's plastic rotating parachutes at the ROCK launches. Tom Tweit was selling them. He may still have some.

    ReplyDelete