I bought a few rockets because my daughter thought they were cool. Here are a few pics from our first outing.

Nice pics; it's cool to see your daughter into something like rockets, hope it sticks with her. The one that's blurred looks like the Estes X-15, right?

here's a couple of my last rockets, from about 1991. The first one is a 1/4 scale Honest John, which was an Army surface-to-surface missile from the late '50's. The full size had about a twenty-five mile range and was capable of carrying a small nuke. My model was 6-1/2 feet long, scaled up from the Estes kit. Mine flew on "J" and "K" motors and would reach 5000+ feet. It had an electronic altimeter which could be used to deploy the parachute.

The second one was the upper stage of my 1/3 scale Terrier/Sandhawk (a sounding rocket used for high altitude research), being readied for launch. It was a bit over 8 feet long, and the booster was 6 feet. The booster could use as big as an "M", but I only flew it once as a two stage, and used an "L" for the booster. The upper stage could use a "K". The day I flew it as a 2-stage, I had a "J" in the upper stage, an "L" in the booster, and got just over 11,000 feet. The rocket weighed35 pounds with engines, chutes and electronics. My booster chute failed to deploy correctly and it crashed, but I got the upper stage back, it landed about a mile away.

I mostly fly HPR, so here are a few pics that might be of interest...

First, here is a "Q" motor launched at BALLs 15...neat rocket, it was 16" or so diameter and around 18 feet tall. Successful flight and recovery from around 25K'...

Barry

Here's some pics from the past, circa 1974 or so. First pic was a demonstration launch my club (Hypersonics) did inside the LA Coliseum. I am the midget in the center holding the rocket with the chute out, and with my hand on my scratch built scale V-2...a big deal back then!

Next pic is of a Enerjet 2250, an early HPR triple cluster (F's and G's) rocket that was state of the art back then... and a 1/2 scale replica I built a couple years ago. Flies great on three C's.

Barry

Here's an interesting pic showing the big...a 10" diameter, 80" long 1/6 scale V-2 that flies on L and M motors... and the very very small, a 5" long, 3/16" diameter scratch built that flies on the smallest commercial rocket motors available, Micro-Maxx 1/8A's. [8D] Even has a 3" diameter parachute. Flies awesome but very hard to see...

Second pic shows two Micro-Maxx's leaning against the fincan of my 4" full scale ARCAS...

Barry

Here's a buddy (Andy Woerner) and his scratch built minimum diameter powered with an M2500...on its way to a 28,500' flight and a succesful recovery. Andy is the owner of Polecat Aerospace and What's Up Hobbies, the largest HPR retailer in the US. Andy is also a very active RC pilot here in San Diego.

Barry

Now for the "down" side...you can crash rockets just as thoroughly as a big RC model! here are the results of a recovery system failure (probably altimeter battery) and a ballistic landing from around 11,000'... this was a filament wound fiberglass body rocket that was 86" long, now compressed into a stack only 24" tall...

Barry

The "art deco" results on the nose cone... and the pretzeled remains of what was once a 12" long piece of steel All-Thread from the avionics bay....

barry

Here's what different motor types look like...the other pictures I posted show a "White Lightning" or "Blue Thunder" propellant formula, which burns with a bright white flame... here's a couple shots of the "Black Jack" and "Redline" propellant formulas.

Barry

Barry....Hardcore! You have (had) some serious rockets. I see that red and white one next to the yellow tripple, looks like a big bertha? Thats the last rocket I build and have not done it since I was 13 or so...

Most MPR and HPR motors are reloadable - the engine case and front and rear "closures" are made from precision machined aluminum and are re-used. The motors are assembled much like the Space Suttle SRB's - using a sacrificial liner (insulator), pre-cast propellant sections (cast in cardboard tubes), a single-use nozzle, and various O-rings to seal up the works.

The motors are very simple to assemble, but like NASA, sometimes mistakes get made...here's the result of forgetting to install a forward closure O-ring...makes for a spectacular result! I should add that this is an extremely rare occurence.

Barry

That's what I used, mostly. I had the 29mm, 38mm, and 54mm cases from Aerotech, but occasionally I got a good deal on some disposable or other.

How fast did that M2500 min. dia. get on its way to 28.5K? Are the hybrids still being used, you know, the ones that used nitrous and rubber? They were getting a lot of P.R. from the mfg's about the time I quit.

Was anyone close to that ballistic landing? Everybody needs to see at least one, hard to believe the kinetic energy when one of these things comes straight down. We launched an M once, 5 or 6 inch diameter, about 15 feet long, and it lost a fin at about 3000 ft on the way up, caused it to tilt about 10 degrees. It came down about 5 miles away in somebody's back yard and trashed their dog house, apparently it was a streamered chute. We had a locator beacon in it or we'd never have found it (unless of course, we'd read about it in the paper later ). We paid the homeowner $300 for the damage and to try to keep him happy. Even though we had a CFA at our launch site, it was always in the back of our minds that we weren't out in the middle of a desert, even though, relatively speaking for eastern NC, we were in the middle of nowhere, not a lot of houses.

Remember the Challenger.....

That is a Nike Smoke, right, Barry? Nice looking; how big is it, difficult to get a sense of scale sometimes.

Thanks for posting these pics; but somebody hold me back before I run out and buy another rocket

Not sure as I did not see the altimeter data, but I'd guess it was just transsonic. The hybrids have been somewhat flat, as the initial start-up costs (ground support equipment, etc) have scared some people away. But if the ATF is succesful in their efforts to further restrict and regulate access to APCP (ammonium perchlorate propellant), then I would expect a large growth in interest. In the old picture I posted a few posts back, at the LA Colisuem - the tall guy with the long blond hair is Dave Griffith, who developed and popularized the "monotube" style hybrid (Rattworks).

The ballistic arrival was (fortunately) nowhere close to anyone - it landed about half mile away. We are fortunate enough to have the open desert areas to fly out here (and get high altitude waivers from the FAA). They sound cool on the descent - followed by that loud "THUMP" - but it does raise the hair on your neck!!

Barry

This is the Polecat Aerospace 1/3 scale kit, it is 5.5" dia. and 76" tall. It has flown on everything from H's to small M's!! The one in the pics I posted was not mine, but I do have one - it is one of my favorite models. I really like flying mine on a long-burn (4 secs) L730 that takes it up to 10K' or so. see here: http://www.polecataerospace.com/nikesmoke5-5.htm

I don't have any full/clean pics of mine - I had an altimeter setting problem and had a premature chute ejection while still ascending, so have some repairs to do. But it is a tough rocket and will fly again!

Barry

very cool - the Sandhawk is one of my favorite scale rockets. Did you scratch build this, or is it a PML or Performance kit? I had ordered (and paid for ) a 1/2 scale kit from Performance but never received it (a common problem with them, apparently).

Two stage HPR's are a challenge, as you know. It took two tries to finally get Double Trouble's upper stage to fire (though everything was recovered OK). I now use thermite ignition for my large multiple stagers.

Your point about cost is well taken...current motor reload costs are in the $20-25 range for H's, $75-$120 or so for J's, mid-$100 to $250 for K's and up to $600 for M's.

Barry

Here is my Quest Penetrator Quick kit rocket (It sure was quick to destroy!).

I assembled the rocket according to the instructions, and first 2 launches were with B6-4s, which went relatively low but were successful launches.

But when I used a C6-5 on launch #3, it took off then in flight the rocket motor broke through the plastic engine mount tabs and went up inside rocket, causing it to ballistic into ground!

I'm not upset as I caught it all on video!

It was scratchbuilt, as were all my models. I also had a Dragon III that I scaled from Alway's book. It wasn't as big, only eight feet total. I had a single 38mm mount in the upper stage, and a 38 in the bottom center with 4 29mm mounts around it. I had it set up to boost on the center 38, I used an "I-295" and then airstarted 4 H-100-s just before the "I" burned out, then staged to another I-295. Looked really cool going up on a column of white smoke, then changing to black, staging and turning white again. Timing the airstart and staging was critical, or it would tip over as the thrust dropped off. I lost it when I had a failed airstart; the booster trashed itself, the chute ejected too low to save it. Since the upper stage was timed to fire at the end of the center engine burn PLUS the airstarted engines, I had a couple of seconds of no thrust before staging. The upper stage tipped over almost horizontal at a couple thousand feet, it ignited and we never saw it again. Luckily it was pointed toward an area we knew had a large swamp and no houses.

I liked scale models; most of my rockets were in the H to K range and 3 inch to 5 inch diameter. I built an ARCAS, a Black Brant, a Mercury Redstone, a Standard, and a Little Joe II. The Little Joe was neat; it was only about 4 feet high and had a ring of 6 29 mm mounts and the engines canted outward 5 degrees. I used to launch it using G-25's, I could fly it with either 3 or 6 and it made this huge column of smoke for its size because of the engines' cant outward.

Cool new forum!

A picture of one of mine, the two stage, three engine Orca. Built as a Heavy lift vehicle, it has a Estes AstroCam on the nose.

That looks like White Lightning propellant - I didn't know there was a WL M2500..?

And a few of mine..

Binder's Stealth Jr. (the favorite)
Thrustline's astral Lance
A 'stormcaster'
PML's AMRAAM 2.1
and a Blue Bird Zero Clone

Ah yes, the Estes Stormcaster...great flying model, I have a couple. Stock they are an excellent flyer on C's (with an 24-18mm adapter) and D's. Modded one (slightly extended w/ an altimeter bay, double glassed BT and G-10 fins) that I flew on F's to H's...shredded it on an I200.

Barry

Yes Barry.

One of the best kits I think Estes put out.. The Stormcaster..
Cheap, rugged (TTW fins!!) and upgradable to 29mm.

A powerful loking classic 3 fin design.

I have a few, and have been used as bash-up kits..

Lots of pics of my rockets here: http://www.rockethigh.com
Any one here ever see a R-10,000 Rocket Motor ???

I have a few pictures lieing around I could post. The three rockets with yellow flames are pban motors I made. One picture is of my 29mm duece's wild I built. Unfortunately only the Aerotech 180 case or smaller fits in it. The rocket with the red flame is my level three shot a few years ago, it had a AMW m1480 red rhino in it. The second orange rocket picture is a AMW L666 skidmark flight, I love sparky pictures. Lastly is a batch of swampgas I made recently for Midwest Power this fall.