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2011 Missions
Most interesting BPASA flights of the year
Flights are grouped by project
Click on any picture to enlarge
Most cluster flights use
Rocketflite
igniters and Cluster Box |
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TOGinator fires 30 motors, many at
both ends!
build and earlier flights
Rocketry Forum thread
Flight 6
video: 3x G64 + 27x D12-0
11/19/11 CMASS
Amesbury, MA
800 Ns J cluster with onboard video
Including this flight the TOGinator has fired 161 motors in 6 flights.
Rocket has a fin design based on the FlisKits TOG, is 7ft tall x 4in
diameter and flies at about 14lbs.
Painted tail section with West 206 slow Epoxy tinted black and sanded. Done
to repair, harden and color tail section in one step.
Fired by cluster box which pushed about 110A
at about 12V (1300W) to launch this. Powered by 14.8V 5Ah Lipo (4S 40C)
battery, 200A Ford relay (triggered by a smaller relay to isolate from club
launch system) and 10awg power leads.
The TOGinator prepped with
motors. Used nearly a full roll of masking tape creating upper and lower
(thrust) retention rings. Had to use more tape than previously as the short
motor tubes "engine bikinis" have become sloppy with wear. The upper body
tube with flame graphic by Stickershock was originally used for the Hot Rod
Nitro FireBall project from a couple years ago.
The 30 Rocketflite igniters are arranged in series strings 2 long, then
connected in 15 parallel strings.
Dave Lindbergh
The TOGinator lifted off quickly on a column of fire and smoke at 2:30pm on
a sunny but windy Saturday. All 30 motors fired. As D11-P motors are hard to
get, used D12-0 engines. Many of the D12-0 motors burned at both ends
creating the fireball effect at the tail of the rocket.
In the 2nd to last picture can see five motors that were spit out by the
rocket after their tape burned off.
The rocket did a clean deployment on a 7ft chute after flying to 832ft.
 
Curtis Heisey
There was a fair amount of
scorching which will be repaired with more black tinted epoxy.
Will need to add fiberglass in some areas that burned through. The TOGinator
will return..... |
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Soyuz
- 17 motor cluster scale
rocket
Rocketry Forum thread
First flight video:
1x ProX 29mm
G125 Red + 16x Estes D11-P
4/30/11 CMASS
Amesbury, MA
Total impulse: 477 Ns, average thrust: 301 N = I 301
Modified build of the Vostok
kit by
Cosmodrome Rocketry. 60.5 inches tall, 1/33 scale.
Flight weight 8.5lbs, including 2lbs of motors and 0.5lb nose weight.
Mike Kruger of Cosmodrome Rocketry,
Bob Harrington's very nice my son
Paul and I prepping recovery
his son and I
paper Soyuz
Rocketflite igniters wired in series strings
of 2, then connected in parallel to cluster box
Soyuz went up for its first
flight early in the afternoon. Flame effect was dramatic and pleasing.
The central G125 and 15 of the 16 D11-P motors fired. Altimeter reported
apogee at 716 ft.
Initial liftoff was clean and straight up to about 400 feet, then there was
a
pronounced corkscrew to its flight path, which ended at deployment.
Deployment went as planned, however when the lower rocket hit the ground all
4 boosters separated cleanly from the core. This was coming down slowly onto
soft grass. Very fixable, but will require a much stronger connection method
going forward.
My son suggested telling everyone that the boosters were supposed to do
that...
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English Electric Thunderbird
2012 flights
Rocketry Forum thread
playlist of all Thunderbird videos
2011 flights video
Flown 3 times in 2011, firing all 33 motors loaded.
The English Electric Thunderbird is a very
cool looking surface to air missile deployed by the British from 1959 to
1977.
It has four drop off boosters with canted nose cones and engine nozzles.
FlisKits
makes a very nice Thunderbird kit. The first time I saw one, I had to buy
the kit, then decided to supersize it.
This is a 3/20x scale model of the actual
missile and a 2x upscale the Fliskits kit.
As built: 11x motor cluster of 24mm engines, 42.5 inches tall, 7.5 lbs
flight weight.
flight 5: 1x F30 + 6x D12-5 + 4x D11-P 4/30/11 CMASS
Amesbury, MA
flight 6: 1x F30 + 6x E9-6 + 4x D12 11/5/11 CMASS
Amesbury, MA
separate NC and body recovery
The 1x F30 + 6x E9 engines in the center give
a nice long 2.8 second burn and typically hit about 700 ft altitude.
Nice long fire and smoke flight effect and very recoverable for this single
deployment rocket.
All motors fired these 3 flights.
flight 7: 1x F30 + 6x E9-6 + 4x D12 11/19/11 CMASS
Amesbury, MA
these 4 pictures by Dave Lindbergh
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Autonomy
Rocketry Forum thread
(includes multiple flight videos starting with post #86)
Flown a total of 9 flights on 10/22/11, 11/5/11 and 11/19/11 at CMASS /
Amesbury, MA on engines from RR G80 to ProX H110.
Team project with fellow CMASS
flier Dave Lindbergh. Dave has been doing advanced electronics work and
field tests in the pursuit of GPS guided rocket recovery.
Dave's website
Rocket is a delta wing
designed for fast gliding, built with LOC 3.1" diameter body tube and nose
cone and reinforced 1/4" balsa fins/wings. Flight weight 3.3 lbs, 47 inches
tall.
Target flight profile:
1) straight up liftoff from normal rail
2) near apogee, control unit (with input from GPS and altimeter) adjusts
elevons to glide position and guides rocket on a fast glide back towards the
pad
3) at 100-200 ft altitude over the pad, elevons are raised to flare rocket
and a conventional chute is deployed
Over the series of flights we were able to build on the level of autonomous
control successfully executed by this project. However, there were
persistent problems with GPS lock that were not resolved. Unfortunately,
Dave and I walked away from the pad on its ninth and final flight without
activating the onboard electronics and Autonomy did a fast spinning dive
into the swamp. It was a very interesting project and we hope to go forward
with an Autonomy 2 project in the future.
Dave and I with the boys
Dave and his son
these 2
pictures by Curtis Heisey
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Apollo Saturn V
build and earlier flights Rocketry Forum thread
flight 9
video: 1x AMW J440 + 4x G64
10/22/11 CMASS
Amesbury, MA
Beautiful Scale High Power kit by Sirius
Rocketry of the Greatest Rocket Ever Built
Modified for Level 2 Certification, dual deploy and clusters.
5 feet tall by 6.3 inches diameter, flight weight 16 to 20 pounds.
Good flight to 1372 ft. Fired my last classic
AMW reload.
Rocketflite ML pyrogen at the top of each motor assisted with quick
ignitions.
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HellBoy
2012 flights 2010 build and flights
Rocketry Forum
thread
2011 flights
video Flown twice in 2011, firing all 38 motors loaded.
playlist of all HellBoy videos
Built from the
Polecat Fat Man kit - a 2x upscale of Estes Fat Boy.
Modified for dual deploy and 19x 24mm motor cluster flight.
27 inches tall by 5.5 inches diameter, flight
weight 8 pounds.
flight 3: 7x E9 + 12x D12
10/22/11 CMASS Amesbury, MA
Upgrading 7x center D engines with E9's gave
nice long burns and pushed the altitude to just under 1000ft.
Added 4oz more nose weight to maintain stability.
Both flights started with a big flash from the flashpans and fired all
motors, hissing and rising on a tall column of fire and smoke.
flight 4: 7x E9 + 12x D12
11/5/11 CMASS Amesbury, MA
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Turbine Rocket Saucer
2012 flights
2010 build and flights
Rocketry Forum thread
Turbine Rocket Saucer is featured in the Dec/Nov 2011 issue of Sport
Rocketry
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2011 flights video
includes
a Cool Night Flight Video and 2 flights in snow
Turbine Rocket Saucer 2011 year-end update:
10 more
flights in 2011, firing 54 of 55 motors loaded
As of 2011, rocket has
flown 25 times, burning 128 motors
All 2011 flights were on
5x or 6x D11-P motors
Established that an
unbalanced load of 5x motors flies well and used this at all low power
launches to maximize impulse while complying with propellant limits
Flights 16-23 were day
flights
Ended the season with
night flights for flights 24 and 25, shown in the video above and
the amazing long exposure pictures to the right
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photo by Jason Nadeau
photo by Dave Lindbergh |
Paul launching TRS - 8/13/11
flight 22: 6x D11-P 10/22/11
CMASS Amesbury, MA
Flown 3
times in deep snow CMASS / Acton, MA - 1/15/11. Flight 16 pictured.
Only launch I've been to where recovery required brushing snow off rockets.
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Applewhite Saucers
14 flights in 2011 from F to H impulse
artapplewhite.com
Stealth and Classic Saucer
Saucer of DOOM / Applewhite 18" saucer
deep snow / CMASS / Acton, MA - 1/15/11
flight 22: ProX H143 SS - 4/30/11
Paul launching Applewhite Stealth 8/13/11
Paul as RSO while I stand a safe distance away 8/27/11
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