Spokane Area Rocket Club

January 29, 2005

Download file I created this simple drift calculator to help with the discussion of how high we should launch rockets at our site. It includes all of the major effects except weather #######. I was thinking of running many sims in RockSim to include that effect, but decided I did not have the time (do I hear science fair project?). If the rocket goes downwind by over 2000 ft. or upwind in dual deployment mode by more than 1000 ft. the results are in red. I felt these were reasonable values to try to keep rockets (particularly larger rockets) on the main field based upon where we launch.

Posted by bonrocketsai at 9:24 AM | Comments (0)

Nike-Hercules Sustainer Sim Results J350

January 26, 2005

View image Here are the sim results for the sustainer on a J350. There is some distinct wobble in the boost. Speed off the rail is 53 ft/s which is adequate. However, I would sure feel better about a J570.

Posted by bonrocketsai at 8:42 PM | Comments (0)

Nike-Hercules Sim Results 5xJ350

View image Here are the sim results on a full compliment of J350s. It comes off the 11 ft. long rail at 77 ft/s so it should be stable and is even over 50 ft/s if only 3 of the four boosters light. By default run sims in light winds (3 - 7 mph) to check for wind ####### and such.

Posted by bonrocketsai at 8:35 PM | Comments (0)

Club Nike-Hercules 2D view

View image This is the RockSim 2D view of the club project in full 38 mm mode. Buck supplied the totally dry weights and I only had to add less than a pound to both the booster and sustainer designs to get them to match. I then added parachutes, shock cords, electronics, and 1.5 kg of nose weight to get the sustainer stable on a variety of motors. In the 38 mm version (posted here) I also added 110 g for each of the 54/38 mm motor adapters.

Posted by bonrocketsai at 8:26 PM | Comments (0)

January 23, 2005

Download file This is Mark Howe's fleet of 158 rockets in response to a post on NW Rocketry asking for fleet specifics.

Posted by bonrocketsai at 9:28 PM | Comments (0)

Next step for Spaceship One

January 10, 2005

Wired.com has an article about Richard Branson of Virgin Atlantic (and now Virgin Galactic) and his involvement with Spaceship One and his plans for commercial sub-orbital spaceflight. Click here to read the article.

Posted by terry at 11:10 PM | Comments (0)

John's 2.75X Alpha & Kellogg

January 9, 2005

This is John Weiser's (age 12) space related project. One of the options was to build a scratch built rocket and compare it to a NASA type rocket. John had been talking about doing upscales of his Estes Alpha Kellogg so we found some 2.56" phenolic tube and did the first one. He decided to show a HPR motor and the only one I had was a J570 which he thought was very cool - although too large for this project. He has plast grains and the case for a 38/360 to demo at school. John did some of every step except cutting out the fins on the bandsaw including turning the nose cone.

Posted by bonrocketsai at 8:58 PM | Comments (0)

Election Results

January 6, 2005

I am pleased to announce the results of SPARC's first ever contested election of officers (previous selections have involved arm twisting and such). For 2005 Ray Stoner was elected President and Mark Howe was elected as Vice President. Krys Davidson and Bob Yanecek agreed to continue to serve when no one volunteered as Secretary and Treasurer respectively.

Posted by terry at 9:21 PM | Comments (0)

Ray Stoner

January 3, 2005

My venture into rocketry started at a young age when I was in the cub/boy scouts. I remember looking in the back of the Boy's Life magazine and drooling over the rockets I saw there. I got catalogs and continued my drooling, but for some reason I never got a rocket to build. Either my parents decided that I was too young, or they didn't have the money to do it. My favorites at the time were the mosquito and the SR-71. The mosquito appealed to me just for the altitude it could get, advertised at around 1000 feet. The SR-71 was just damn cool. I realize now that I would have had to have a lot of mosquito's if I planned to launch more than a couple of times. Fast forward 20 years. I was walking through a store called Factory to You looking for Christmas gifts for the kids and saw a Quest ready to fly kit call the "Whiplash," it had everything I thought I needed to launch a rocket, and I decided to buy if for my son, Sean. As we went through the gifts that year, we realized that we had gotten way too many gifts for my son and that my step-daughter would be receiving less gifts, so to keep things fair, we put the rocket and some other gifts away to give him on his birthday. Christmas came and went, and his birthday rolled around, so we gave him the rocket and the other gifts. I guess some of the other gifts dazzled him and he kind of forgot about the rocket, so we didn't prep it and launch until the following March (his birthday is in June). The rocket came with 3 quest "A" motors. We had a nice warm day in March to fly the rocket and we did, two of the ignitions were successful and the rocket went about 200 feet into the air, we all loved it. Of course, it wasn't long till bigger motors were purchased and during that purchase at B&B hobbies I grabbed a flyer for SPARC. I saw there would be a launch soon and decided to attend. That launch got cancelled due to high wind. I had caught the rocket bug again. We flew Sean's whiplash a number of times on ever bigger motors, and decided that a "C" motor in the field where we were was too big. I stayed home from work one day, just to relax and decided to go and buy a rocket, so I went down to B&B and bought a StormCaster Kit. I assembled it following the instructions and spent hours painting it. I set it out on the deck to take a photo, and the wind promptly blew it to the ground. One of the fins broke loose. I guess my construction techniques weren't that good. I finally made it to the May launch and had a "blast" and decided that I would go whenever I could. That was the beginning of the end. I was dazzled by the big rockets that were launching and wanted to play in this hobby more. It wasn't long before I had an Aerotech kit (an Aereaux) and a reloadable motor (29/40-120). I kept attending launches and decided that it would be good if I learned more about building these big rockets. I came across a carpet tube at work one day, and grabbed it. I sent Marty an email and ask him if he would like it, because it would be just too big for the stuff I wanted to do at that time, he suggested we build a project together and Joseph was born. I learned a lot during the building of Joseph, and even more following the unsuccessful flight. I am now firmly entrenched in the hobby, and I am having a ball. I went to XPRS in Black Rock with Keith and Bob in the fall of 2003, and again was dazzled. I managed to get my level one Cert in September 2003 on the second attempt, something about a fully reefed 'chute (a rubber band around it) caused my first attempt to fail. I have to say that a big part of my involvement in the hobby is the camaraderie and the helpful attitude of the members of SPARC. Even when I was launching "b's", "c's" and "d's" there wasn't any attitude of "you should be launching bigger rockets." The pressure to progress was mild and could more aptly be called encouragement. Flying rockets was and is enough to be a deeply involved member of the club, it doesn't really matter what size.

Posted by ray at 1:13 PM | Comments (0)

July 2004 Photos

January 2, 2005

Photos from our July 2004 launch.

Posted by terry at 7:48 PM | Comments (0)