2016 Rocketry To-Do List

I walked into the Rocket Room today, and it hit me that I hadn't touched anything in there in maybe a week or more. The sun was streaming in through the windows, and it looks like my girlfriend tidied up in there a bit. It looks pretty in the sunlight.

This is much cleaner than it is when I'm working on something.

Time to put it to good use.

I've had a few things holding be back from being as productive a rocketeer as I was a year ago. My job sometimes has me starting at 4:30 in the morning, and sometimes has me quitting at 11:30 at night. This back and forth can be a bit draining. But things are about to get more regular for me, and I should have my Saturdays clear for launches.

So, here are some goals I have for the upcoming year.

1. Blog More Frequently

I was asked to be on The Rocketry Show because of what I had been doing on this blog - writing informative posts for rocket n00bs. But in the last few months, I really haven't written as much as I'd like to.

I have started about 8-10 good blog post topics, but haven't finished any of them. The kind of post I feel most proud of on this blog is a bit long (for a blog), but is clearly spelled out with lots of photos, so any rocket n00b who comes along can understand it. That takes time and energy, and if I'm too tired, I don't write. If there's not enough light, I have to wait on taking photos.

Yet, I'm still getting page views - usually between 25-50 per day. Some of these may be brand new people, but some may be previous readers checking back to see if I have anything new on the blog. I have no idea. Anyway, my first goal for the year is to create more content for rocket n00bs and rocket veterans to have something new to look at. A commitment to a little bit of writing each day might be called for, even if I don't finish a post in one sitting.

The new work schedule should help with that.

2. Figure Out the Painting Situation

Since my move to Boston, I haven't finished a single rocket. Not a single one - in six months. A major roadblock to completing a rocket for me is painting.

Back in Bloomington, I had plenty of outdoor space to paint rockets - and to do so privately.

Estes Big Bertha on a painting stand behind my old apartment

Here in Boston, I have to paint out front, and there's not much space between my apartment and the street. I don't want to get paint on the house. I need to figure out where to paint - especially larger rockets.

One option may be to join a makerspace - also called a hackerspace. These are a sort of co-op, where people get together to share tools and ideas.

I'm also considering building an indoor spray painting booth. But this must be done with care. A spray booth must keep paint inside, but must be properly ventilated. I've seen a few DIY spray booths online, but some of them are potentially dangerous. A box of sealed plastic sheeting is not enough if there's no ventilation. Spray paint fumes can cause brain damage in high concentrations!

A few weeks ago, I did manage to get a few small rockets primed, but that's it so far.

Estes Goblin

Estes Reflector

Imperius D - my own design. This was originally called "Donor's Rocket" on this blog. Mine will hold a D motor.

Astron Sprint XL Clone - this is a clone of an Estes kit. I'm building the kit, but wanted to
practice sanding the eliptical fins into airfoil shapes properly before trying it on the real thing.

3. Improve My Recovery Rate

The first several months I launched rockets, I had great success. Chad lost a ton of his rockets. I managed to keep all mine on the field and recover them with little to no damage.

Then, my first launch of 2015, I had my first loss to a tree.

3D Rocketry Nautilus II - my first tree loss.

The 3D Rocketry Nautilus II got badly tangled on a tiny tree branch very high on a tree on a steep incline. There was no retrieving it. It was still stuck there six months later, when I last launched on that field.

Most of my Bloomington launches went well. Some of them left the field, but I was able to retrieve them. Nonetheless, my record took a few hits.

Since moving to Massachusetts, I've had worse luck. Despite flying on a much bigger field, I have recovered far fewer rockets. Amesbury gets breezy. And I have been trying to fly higher. The higher you fly, the bigger the chance of losing a rocket. I've had several leave the field entirely and disappear in deep scrub, sticker bushes and swampy grassy areas. It has made me nervous to launch anything at all, and I only launch a few of the rockets I take out each time.

Since my first club launch, I'd say I've had recovery failures of over 50% of all my rockets. I look at the fleet in my rocket room, and it looks a lot smaller than I remember it. I need to fix this, and get back to launching with confidence.

This can largely be improved with careful parachute selection. It seems that Estes kits often come with parachutes that are a little larger than they need to be. The Cosmic Explorer has a large, 18 inch parachute which brings the rocket down very slowly. It's beautiful to watch, but it does mean the rocket has more time to drift in the breeze. Replacing the chute with something smaller would bring the rocket down a little faster, and it would still likely land intact.

Some rockets may need to recover on a streamer. I admit I have only done this with rockets which come with a streamer as a kit. Streamers make me nervous otherwise. But my first scratch build, the Janus I two-stage rocket, which flew very, very high, was pretty lightweight.

A nice, big streamer would probably have brought it down closer to the launch site and it would have survived intact despite a faster descent. Instead, I lost it - the first rocket I flew at my very first club launch. Streamer recovery is something I need to experiment with.

Another tactic to improve odds of recovery is to angle the rocket into the wind. For safety's sake, the NAR Model Rocket Safety Code states that you shall not launch at more than 30 degrees from the vertical. But that does give you some leeway. How much angle to tilt the launch rod will require some practice on my part.

Of course, selecting the right motor for the day's wind conditions is also important. But I've seen plenty of rockets at CMASS launches which went much higher than mine, yet which recovered just fine while mine did not.

4. Launch an Electronic Payload

I've had a Jolly Logic altimeter for nearly a year now, but I have never launched it! Consequently, I really have no idea how high any of my flights have been.

Until I can more reliably recover my rockets, however, I'm reluctant to use a $70 altimeter. In the mean time, I'll probably pick up the much less expensive FireFly altimeter and try that out.

The FireFly altimeter, from PerfectFlite

The FireFly, from PerfectFlite Direct, is not as fancy as the Jolly Logic, but it's tiny, and at about $22, it's a good choice.

I also need to successfully launch a camera. I've had a few tries. I've had a few failed cameras, and lost one on a payload section which drifted far from the launch site on the wind. The closest I've gotten to success were a couple of bad flights.

5. Finish Building My Estes Pro Series II Kits

 Earlier, I wrote about beginning to build two of the Estes Pro Series II kits - large mid power rockets with 29mm motor mounts. I began with the Nike Smoke, a scale model of a NASA sounding rocket, and the Ventris, a cool-looking rocket with a fat payload section.

Nike Smoke

Ventris

These are great kits, and Estes has been selling many of its Pro Series II kits dirt cheap (there has been much speculation that Estes is getting out of the mid power market. I have a feeling they'll hold on to their E2X kits and maybe the Mega Der Red Max and Nike Smoke, but Ventris, Leviathan, Partizon and Argent will probably all be gone soon.). These are meant to fly mostly on F and G motors, but many people use them to get into high power rocketry, as they will also hold a small H motor. They're big and impressive in person, especially if you've only built small low power model rockets.

I've been chipping away on both the Nike Smoke and Ventris for months. They're nearly ready for primer and paint. I've also quietly been working on the Estes Leviathan, a nice fat model (now discontinued by Estes), and a pretty good choice for a Level 1 high power certification flight, if you choose to use a 29mm rocket for that purpose.

I need to finish these guys. I want to have them ready by April, when CMASS, my NAR section, begins flying again.

6. Find a Nearby Launch Site

Because I live in Boston, I go out of town to launch rockets with CMASS. In the summer, they fly at a smaller field in Acton, MA, which is not terribly far from where I live. In the fall and spring, I have to drive all the way up to Amesbury, which usually takes me much longer than it should - at least an hour and a half, sometimes two hours.

But, unlike when I lived in Bloomington, IN, there's no place for me to go and casually launch a few small rockets. This is a sad state of affairs. If I want to go try out a new design, or if I want to show someone a quick launch (I have a coworker who is also a nanny as a second job, and I told her those kids would love rockets), or if I just need a little inspiration... When I haven't launched in a while, my building slows down, because I forget that feeling of why I'm doing this. Launching a few gets me hyped about building again... Anyway, if I just want to do a casual, non-club launch, by myself or with a few friends, I have nowhere to do it.

It's not that Boston doesn't have parks. It's that I don't want trouble.

Model rocketry is an overwhelmingly safe activity, despite the recent accident in California you may have read about. And model rocketry is legal in all but a few areas which have unfortunately banned it. I don't know for sure, but I'd bet there's nothing on the books banning model rocketry in Boston.

Despite this, I have heard of people having trouble. This guy in particular had the Boston police break up a scout launch, and it sounds like it was kind of a frightening experience!

Part of the problem is that model rocketry has a low public profile. Public familiarity with the hobby of model rocketry was probably much higher in the 1960s and 1970s, even the '80s.

From retroland.com

These days, however, despite the fact that the hobby seems to be growing, it's not as well-known a hobby outside the community of those who pursue it.

And despite the fact that rocketry is very safe, it looks really dangerous to an outsider. I've heard people say "that can't be legal!" People have mistaken model rockets for fireworks, for tiny missiles, etc. And if you're launching in a park and someone sees you and complains to the authorities, they have to respond. Not every officer can be expected to know every statute by heart, I suppose, and if something looks illegal or dangerous, they can shut you down. This is not an experience I want to have.

There is one giant park in a part of Boston I'm unfamiliar with. It's called Millennium Park, and apparently people do occasionally launch there. One local cub scout troop reportedly launches there each year. It's supposedly really big. I'll have to go check that out. Maybe I'll try to make some contacts at MIT - they do a model rocketry camp for kids in the summer. Perhaps they know of a good launch site.

7. High Power Rocketry Level 1 Certification

High power rocketry (HPR) is the big brother to model rocketry. Unlike low and mid power model rocketry, you must obtain a certification to fly, and launches must be conducted using a waiver from the Federal Aviation Administration. There are several criteria which define a rocket as "high power," but a really basic definition is a rocket which uses an H motor or higher.

A "Stretch Leviathan" by Jim Seibyl - Gheem of The Rocketry Show - lifts off

High power rocketry has three certification levels. Level 1 allows you to purchase and launch H and I motors. Level 2 will allow you to purchase and use J, K, and L motors, and a Level 3 certification will allow you to fly M motors and above, and to spend all of your money.

To obtain a high power certification, you must be a member of either the National Association of Rocketry or the Tripoli Rocketry Association. A Level 1 certification can be pretty simple if you do not try to make it complicated.

You have to build and fly a rocket on an H motor (which you may purchase if it is for the certification flight). You have to have one or more witnesses who are NAR or Tripoli certified. The flight must be successful and the rocket must be recovered. The recovered rocket must be judged to be able to fly again without major repair. In other words, minor damage, such as a chip in the paint job, will not disqualify your flight, but a broken fin will.

You can make a Level 1 certification flight more complicated by adding electronic parachute deployment, but you may keep it as simple as a very large model rocket launch.

The idea is that you must prove you are capable of building, launching and recovering a high power rocket safely, because these things are larger and heavier, so the risks are greater. Once you pass your certification flight, you may purchase and use H and I motors.

At one point, I thought I might have obtained my Level 1 by now. Then I realized I was in no hurry. Mid power rockets are quite impressive, and have a lot of the thrill of HPR with less of the cost and no certification requirements. And I haven't launched many MPR rockets yet, so I have that to look forward to still. HPR is costly, so I probably won't launch much. And yet...

And yet, there's a certain pride to be had from having a high power certification. Besides, I have the rockets and casing.

At a CMASS launch this fall, I went to our club vendor, Animal Motor Works - which sells kits and Cesaroni motors. Gloria of AMW had made turkey soup for the occasion. I'd arrived late, so I missed the famous CMASS hot dogs. I went to have some soup and introduce myself to Gloria.

Gloria's a charming lady. We chatted for a bit, and I said I might want to get some F or G motors. After a bit, she said "Why don't you have your Level 1 yet?"

I left with a belly full of soup and a Cesaroni Pro 29 Starter kit, which includes 29mm 3-grain reloadable motor casing, which can hold F, G or H motors. It would be perfect for a Level 1 cert flight. I promised Gloria I'd work on it and do my flight some time up at the large field in Berwick, Maine. What can I say? She talked me into it.

What rocket will I use for the cert flight? I haven't decided yet. Perhaps the Nike Smoke. Perhaps something else. I quite like the LOC Precision Iris, a scale model of another sounding rocket.

The Iris has a 38mm motor mount, which is more versatile than the 29mm, as there is a wide variety of 38mm diameter motors in various impulse classes. And with a motor adapter, you can use a 29mm motor in the 38mm mount.

These are my main goals for the year. I'll keep you all posted on how they're coming along - by sticking with Goal #1.

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My Rocket Anniversary

July 5 was the anniversary of the first time I ever went out to launch a few model rockets, with Chad, David, Lee, and a few other people. On that day, we just flew a few of Chad's rockets. We had fun, but I wasn't sure whether we'd do it again.

One year ago today, July 20, 2014, was different. We decided to hold a rocket launch/picnic around the 45th anniversary of the moon landing, and make it an event.

By then, I'd decided to get a few rockets of my own, including the Estes Der Red Max. This rocket required assembly. It took me four days, as I was being very careful, worried I'd mess the whole thing up.

It turned out great.

Launching ready-to-fly or easy-to-assemble rockets is fun, but nothing compares to the thrill of taking something you built yourself and making it fly. I quickly became obsessed, bought and devoured The Handbook of Model Rocketry, and a few weeks later, I started this blog.

Some people thought it was weird that I'd suddenly gotten into rocketry for some reason. A lot of people see it as sort of a childish hobby. But I'm fond of saying "Rocketry: it's not just for Webelos any more."

I've found this hobby so satisfying. In the last year, I've learned a lot, built much larger rockets than your typical cub scout would ever do, and even taught rocketry to kids - many of whose parents told me they were surprised at how much actual physics the kids learned.

I still have lots to learn and lots to build - and, I hope, lots to teach other rocket n00bs, either through this blog or other avenues. I'm still settling in at my new place in Boston. But soon, I hope to join a club, and in the next year, get into high power rocketry.

Here's the video of that first launch. I haven't posted it on the Rocket N00b Youtube channel until now. I needed to edit it for language (when I shot this, I wasn't thinking about starting a semi-educational rocketry blog).

Also, note a few things: This was before I'd heard of the Model Rocket Safety Code. A couple of times, we launch without doing a countdown - something I would not do now. Also, our comment about the airplane was a joke - be assured, we never launched with aircraft flying overhead. We were n00bs, but we weren't stupid!

That said, I hope you find this entertaining. It sure makes me feel nostalgic for my friends back in Indiana.

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Rocket Camp Keeps You Busy

I feel guilty for not blogging much recently. Between teaching rocket camp, my day job, and preparing to move to Boston a week from Tuesday, I don't have much free time.

But camp has been going well. Several parents have told me that their kids have learned a lot. Which is great - and sort of surprising. These kids have absorbed a lot of technical information. Sometimes I've mentioned something once on one day, and half the kids don't look like they're even listening, and two days later, I'll ask a question, thinking I'll need to re-teach the information - but the kids know it! Concepts like total impulse and center of pressure are not easy to grasp at first, but these are some smart kids.

Anyway, rather than writing up each week in separate posts, I'll take what I've learned about teaching rocketry when I'm all done, after Friday. While this blog is partly for people who are n00bs to rocketry, maybe there are a few more experienced rocketeers who are n00bs to teaching rocketry, and maybe my experience will help you prepare.

In any case, I was able to get a little painting done. Ivy Tech has a really nice spray painting booth, and I was able to get Keith's Rocket painted. I'm pretty proud of it.

I'd originally bought the copper paint for the fins on the 3D Rocketry Nautilus II, but that rocket was lost before it was finished. Still, it looks great! I'm going to have to build one of these for myself.

The rocket has a payload compartment. Four small holes - known as static ports - allow you to fly with a barometric altimeter, such as the Jolly Logic. An altimeter needs to breathe to function, so you put static ports in your rocket to allow the payload compartment to equalize in pressure with the air outside the rocket.

I have four more Donor's Rockets to finish painting. I hope to launch these next week - after rocket school!

Here, the Ivy Tech Rocket Kids launch one of Chad's rockets:

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(A) Little Time for Rockets

I'm in the final week of rehearsals for my final show at the Bloomington Playwrights Project, the theater which is also responsible for me discovering rocketry.

As a result, I've been rather too busy to blog much, so my final post in the mid power Quest Big Dog series will be out in a few more days - maybe a week.

But I'm going to launch on Wednesday - and this time, I'll be lucky enough to launch at a farm! One of my fellow cast members has a huge place, and he's having us over for some rocket time.

This is great news, because this will be the last time Chad will be in town before I move to Boston, so it will be our last launch together here in Bloomington.

So I'll be pulling out all the stops, and launching everything I've got - including the Big Dog, the recently-built Estes Cosmic Explorer with an E motor mount, and the Quest Quad Runner - which I've had ready to go since December, but haven't wanted to risk losing on its maiden flight.

Here are the never-flown additions to the fleet that I will finally be launching:

Estes Cosmic Explorer with a larger motor mount

Quest Big Dog

Sounder I - a small scratch built rocket which will go high and fast

The Ceres B booster, from Mike Westerfields book
Make: Rockets: Down-to-Earth Rocket Science

Trident 1A - a 3-motor cluster, my first ever design

The Quest Quad Runner - a 4-motor cluster

Janus II with a camera payload bay.
This also holds an altimeter.

Aside from these new additions, I'll launch the rest of the current fleet as well. Pictures and video to follow!

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Great Launch Day!

Saturday, I went launching rockets with Chad, David and Jeff. Chad is only in town for about a week every month and a half, and the weather doesn't always cooperate. This week, it was beautiful, despite the weather report saying it was going to be rainy and windy all week.

Chad was in town, and really wanted to launch some rockets. I've had a few losses lately, and it was supposed to be a little windy. The field where we launch is pretty big, but a little wind (and the presence of a pond) can make it feel small.

But it had been a while, and I love launching rockets when Chad's around, and it's more fun for other, non-rocket friends I invite. Seeing two or more nerds geeking out over rockets is kind of a comedy show, but when I'm the only rocket guy there, the civilians get bored. Chad and Jeff both love model rockets, and David loves watching them when those guys are in town. These are funny guys.

So the four of us and Ted, a retired vet who used to produce theater for the Army in Berlin during the cold war (I heard some great stories this weekend), went out to the park to light some candles.

Chad left me a box of rockets when he moved to upstate New York - mostly ready-to-fly models. So I started with a little orange and white rocket I'd never seen, the Estes Scrappy, a kind of ugly little thing which flies on mini motors. Most of Chad's parachutes were a mess and had to be cut off. Re-doing parachute shroud lines is a real pain, which is why I like to use snap swivels to attach chutes to the rocket in the first place - it's easier to untangle the lines. But this rocket only had a tiny, 6-inch parachute. I've seen enough plastic models come down with no deployment that I decided to cut the chute off altogether.

I've always been a little skeptical whether a streamer really slows a rocket's descent that much, but after seeing the Scrappy descend with no recovery system (other than "tumble"), I can say I'm a believer. It landed in the grass about 50 feet from the pad with no damage.

Next I flew the Estes Shuttle Express. This is an easy-to-assemble model I got for my birthday, and it carries two gliders which deploy at apogee. I was surprised how cool it looked going up. Those gliders made it look kind of hulky, which was fun.

The "gliders" don't so much "glide" as "dive straight into the ground." But the chute opened beautifully, and David went to recover the rocket.

This picture turned out looking really dramatic. David Sheehan - bravely recovering the astronauts...

Next I sent up another of Chad's RTF rockets, the Estes Hi Jinks.

Up to now, I'd been launching rockets on Estes C6-5 motors, and this one was no exception.

Liftoff was great.

The rocket flew straight and high. But then, it disappeared over these woods...

It's not too densely forested, and I thought perhaps I'll be able to recover the rocket. But more likely, it had landed in a tree.

Now I decided it was time to launch one of my built kits. I selected the Estes Crossfire ISX. I said "This might be the last flight of the Crossfire."

It's a pretty high-flying model. I launched it...

And then I remembered I had packed a B6-4 motor in it, to be on the safe side.

The guys and I often joke about "hubris" when we're launching rockets, but I suffer from it. Even though I know it's sometimes better to put a less powerful motor in a rocket, I like to see them go high, and I like a longer burn on the motor. But the flight was great - and I didn't lose the rocket.

That sealed it - from this point on, I'd stick with B motors, with one exception.

Next in line was the Estes Der Red Max. This was my first build, and I love this rocket. It's what got me into rocketry in the first place. It flies really straight, and I didn't want to lose it, so I swapped out the C6 motor for a B6.

Chad decided to tape his phone to a long pole to see if he could get some video from below the rocket as it lifted off. Chad's full of brilliant ideas.

But actually, it turned out not bad...

Jeff's phone also got great pictures.

The rocket didn't go as high, but I got it back. Sometimes you have to sacrifice a little altitude so you don't lose the rocket you spent hours, days or weeks working on. Take it from me, the feeling of loss outweighs the thrill of the initial flight.

Next up was the Cosmic Explorer - another favorite.

The ascent on a B6 was great - no roll!

For rocket n00bs, roll is that spinning motion a rocket gets around its vertical axis. You see it a lot in rocket-mounted camera POV videos, and sometimes it can make them hard to watch. Most rockets do it, but trying to build a rocket so it doesn't is the goal. The Cosmic Explorer flies straight, with no roll.

While the ascent was great, the recovery was... well, I'll just let you watch.

Stuck in the mud, about an inch and a half.

But when I pulled it out - no damage!

Whew! That was a close call!

Finally, we launched the Big Bertha, this time going back to a C6 motor.

The Bertha is what's called overstable. This means, in short, that it's really prone to arcing into the wind - for newbies, a phenomenon known as weathercocking. I have never had a straight flight with the Bertha, and I was sure it was going to end up in the dog park. Remarkably, though, it flew nice and straight, and it also landed short of the pond.

It's in the upper left-hand corner of the sky.

Once again, Chad got out his PVC camera boom, and I kind of got some good video out of it. I decided to make it dramatic...

The guys had to go back to the BPP, so they packed up and left. I went in search of that Estes Hi Jinks rocket.

The wooded area was very marshy, and I sank a couple inches into the earth quite a few times. The trees were sparse, but close enough together that I was sure I'd see it up in a tree. I looked up and down, and didn't find it in a tree or on the ground. I searched for 45 minutes to an hour. I even found a swamp, and a sign about wetlands. I didn't even know Bloomington had wetlands!

I got into some thicker forested area, and circled the school to the left in the above pictures - nothing. Eventually, I realized I'd gone farther back in the woods than the rocket could have possibly gone, and was about to turn back, when I decided to head further down the wide trail. And this happened...

For a day of launching mostly smaller rockets, it was a great launch day, and I wish more people could have joined us. And in the end, we didn't lose a single rocket.

In other news, the Trident 1A and Sounder I scratch built rockets are finished, and I'll have pictures to follow. The Quest Big Dog and Cosmic Explorer with an E-motor upgrade are also coming along, nearly ready to paint. The Big Dog series will continue in a day or two, and the Cosmic Explorer build series will start when I'm done with that.

And I need to finalize my rocketry camp plans and build the Donor's Rockets. A lot to keep me busy.

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