Descon14: June-27 Update

as soon as the lander challenge deadline is passed, i'll be able tto devote full time to the descon entry

I've had a successful 2-stage clustered flight on my 'ETV2' Entry. I lost the (homebrew) timer, but the flight was v.cool. I think some of my pictures and description are wrong on the site, but its only a placeholder right now.

BTW I have some photos at

And its currently in gray Plastikote primer - that stuff is weird, seems to take ages to harden off fully, even with light coats.

-- Niall Oswald ========= UKRA 1345 L0 EARS 1151 MARS

"Gravity assisted pieces of the rocket raining from the sky should be avoided. It is also financially undesirable."

-Portland State Aerospace Society

Is that a technical term?

Jerry

Yes - it was v.cool but electronics recovery was sub-optimal while audible location beacon performance was excellent, and the woosh coefficient was optimised by generous use of quickmatch :-)

-- Niall Oswald ========= UKRA 1345 L0 EARS 1151 MARS

"Gravity assisted pieces of the rocket raining from the sky should be avoided. It is also financially undesirable."

-Portland State Aerospace Society

Great pictures on the web site!!! What did you use to capture them?

Also, did you scrape out the BP before you put the epoxy plug in the tops of the motors?

nOrM

Thanks! A Canon Powershot A20 digicam. It's about 2-3 years old, nothing fancy by today's standards, but shoots in VGA and XGA mode at a resonable rate.

The motor problem was my own doing - I mis-mixed the epoxy and it didn't ever cure. The motors were D12-0s so it wasnt ejection charge that was my problem, but booster burn-through. The motors I plugged at home with 30 minute (which cured fully and hard) were no problem. I'll try and get some more D11-P's for this Sunday, flying with 2 timers this time to stagger sustainer ignition.

Aim: Go overly complex with BP motors!

-- Niall Oswald ========= UKRA 1345 L0 EARS 1151 MARS

"Gravity assisted pieces of the rocket raining from the sky should be avoided. It is also financially undesirable."

-Portland State Aerospace Society