El Mirage launch a Success!

Hey Reece -

Gary says Crapperheads work fine so they must have been working the way that he thinks that they should.

Also, can you post proof of this Jerry sighting. I saw a Jerry imitiator at a launch recently and want to be sure it's not a bad imitation. Also saw a crossdresser but that's another story. 8-)

Phil

Yes, and it was so much fun! :) I have loads of footage on tape, but I'm going to have to edit a lot of it since most of it was trying to figure out how to work the camera. :P I do have a couple nice shots of you putting the rockets on, we'll just see how the whole thing turns out. Sadly, Billy Bob (the egg) died, so that part didn't go well, but our rocket stayed together! I think I will come again next year, I might use my old one or build a new one, who knows. Thanks Mr. Talley!

Reece Talley wrote:

Yes, and it was so much fun! :) I have loads of footage on tape, but I'm going to have to edit a lot of it since most of it was trying to figure out how to work the camera. :P I do have a couple nice shots of you putting the rockets on, we'll just see how the whole thing turns out. Sadly, Billy Bob (the egg) died, so that part didn't go well, but our rocket stayed together! I think I will come again next year, I might use my old one or build a new one, who knows. Thanks Mr. Talley!

Saturday in Muncie, I had 3 straight failures with the pre-rusted in the package Estes Solar Ignitors, in a C6-3. I finally replaced them with a Quest Tigertail (just a small copperhead), and it worked perfectly.

Hey cangle, who might ye be?

Oh, I'm sure ye knowest who I am. Is this perhaps why thou hast not responded to mine question? And it's cangel. ^_^ Billy Bob says hi, ok, enough for now, I'm just saying it was tons of fun and I'd like to thank Sir Talleyman for exposing his students to this truly awesome experience.

~Billy Bob

P.S. Did you know when egg mixes with an eng> Hey cangle, who might ye be?

We had a Lucerne launch on Sunday.

100% copperhead success rate on the dozen or so that I was watching (or using myself).

There does seem to be a lot more pyrogen on the tips now - or am I just imagining that?

-Fred Shecter NAR 20117

I haven't seen rusty Estes igniters since the very old productions runs that had the orange/rust colored pyrogen. Those tended to rust the leads near the pyrogen.

The newer black pyrogen tipped igniters do not seem to rust in the package.

of course, I don't store them in super humid conditions, or store them for 20 years.

-Fred Shecter NAR 20117

You know, I forgot to mention one flight that was absolutely amazing. It was a two staged D to D rocket. Lift off was perfect and the rocket climbed very quickly and straight. I noticed however that it emitted a smoke trail and had a long coast. I began to suspect the worst when it nosed over about 900 feet up. I figured this was going to be a classic "lawn dart"... little did I know! At about 500 feet, the second stage lit with the rocket pointing straight down. there was a brilliant yellow flame trail as the rocket full powered straight down. It hit the lake bed at maybe 400 fps and penetrated

6 full inches into the ground. The tail acccordianed onto the front section and formed a perfect collapsed form. Abso-freeken- lutely, amazing.

And the cause of failure was...?

David Erbas-White

Reece Talley wrote:

The usual suspects - time / gravity. Timing is everything and gravity sucks.

I've got rusty solar igniters with the black pyrogen. Since I tend to dump all my ignitors into a seperate box, I can't tell what came from what motors, but most of them are recent, at least on a scale of what I've got lying around here.

If the pyrogen doesn't COMPLETELY cover the fine wire, including the part where it's wrapped around the heavier leads, it seems to rust. And / or break. Recent ignitors are way skimpy on the pyrogen.

It's not the amount of pyrogen on the tip. It's does the pyrogen on the tip light at all?

If you ever fire a Solar and a Tiger Tail side by side, you'll see how much more enerjet-ic the Tiger tail is compared to the solar.

THe best tip for these ignitors is to duuble the voltage used with the. THe Tiger Tails are very reliable at 12v. I'll bet the Copperheads work a lot better at 24v too.

Upper stage motor in the booster and booster motor in the upper stage.

just from the description I would suspect the mentioned rocketeer pulled a Gomer, done it myself a loooong time ago. If one is not paying as much attention as one should and gets the D12-7 in the booster and the D12-0 in the sustainer this kind of thing happens. I did it with an Estes Astron Omega back in the mid 70's, luckily the camera was not on for that flight. It made quiet an impression on the 8th hole of the local golf course/rocket field, the golfers loved it but I cried as I had just finished it with the decals the day before, but day of launch was yacking and not paying attention and the results were as described to a T. And yes I did replace my divot!

Well, it seems that the students involved used a D12-7 in both the booster and the sustainer stage and I didn't catch it.

I think I should add a short commercial here. First, the Vaughn Brothers made some outstanding launch equipment. I have one of their 4 station controllers and it is amazing to say the least. I can light clusters of up to 5 motors off of just one lead or, using all four circuits, I can easily launch clusters of dipped igniters such as copperheads, igniterman or "poppers". Just push the button and "bang" the igniter goes right now. For Estes Solar igniters it can actually burn the main leads as well as toast the pyrogen. Too bad they went under. Great kits, excellent launch controllers, great prices.

OK, now for my annual homage to Doug Pratt. I have his Sure Fire I launcher (the dog pee special) and it too works flawlessly. Here's just one example: I put it away last May with a full charge (14 volts) and when I took it out last week, it was still holding at least 13 volts. Of course, it will light Solar igniters, Copper heads and clusters of igniterman style igniters as large as 5 igniters. It might do more but I've never tried. I think next year I may upgrade to the version III and trade "old Yeller" off to some up and coming newbie. Doug, you were gonna give me a sweet deal on a new unit once upon a time. I'm still game. FWIW, folks out at the launch who saw the SFI were really impressed. I passed Doug's web addy on to about five different people who were looking for a stand alone unit with some "cajones".

Finally, a further hat's off to the folks at the now defunct RocketVision. I'm still using their QuadPod as my heavy launcher. It is a wonderful piece of over-engineering. Flawless function, extra sturdy and easy to use. Too bad they folded. They had nice rockets too. I flew my old Grymm on the last launch and it still worked a well as it did when new and that was maybe 20 launches ago.

Thank you for the kind words. I haven't forgotten you, but several factors have combined to delay things. My son Brian is graduating from high school in a few weeks, my day job has turned up the heat (got kicked into Program Manager on one contract, big reports due on another contract, and in the third half of my day I write proposals!), and there has been a gratifyingly strong reaction to my new Tomahawk kit.

On top of that, I'm redesigning the RTLS and Surefire systems to make them more robust in a couple of areas, primarily the cable. Those RJ11 plugs don't like being stepped on, and neither do the banana plugs. I've been testing 5-pin DIN plugs for the control cable and they seem to hold up a lot better. I've gone to two-prong plugs for the igniter lead, so you could use a common household extension cord to get farther away from the pad if you want. I also plan to have the internal battery available as an option, rather than built-in. The new battery pack fits into a compartment on the box lid. You can have a spare battery charged up and waiting for a long day's flying, and just swap 'em out.

All the internal components are still potted in RTV and hotmelt glue, so they appear to be dog-pee-resistant. I don't think I'll put that in the warranty, though. Did I tell you about the guy who spot-welded his clips to his steel blast deflector plate with a Surefire? He must have been standing on the button...

Best, Doug

Reece Talley wrote:

my advice, dont. get the anderson powerpoles and use them, boths for battery and igniter leads. can carry 30 amps, designed for such use and should be cheaper than AC plugs. they are an accepted standard for ARES/RACES ham radio emergency communications equipment. ALL my 12 volt gear gets powerpoles now. almost indestructible.

standard modification on the mars club launcher. I am planning on cloning all the other parts, making them standard, and wiring up a 6 pad control system.

heh, welded the crossed igniter wires on the last launch, plus burned a hole in the alligator clip. 7ah gell cells can deliver quite a punch