Take 16:15 out of your day, and watch this amazing video… Absolutely incredible.
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One of my first large rockets that I acquired when I became a Born Again Rocketeer B.A.R. was the North Coast Rocketry (by ESTES) SA-14 Archer. I made it a tank: extended the airframe, added G10 strakes, and I swapped the 29mm (28.5mm actual) motor mount for a 54mm, which I later made into a 38mm. The SA-14 Archer was also fully laminated with 2oz fiberglass veil for strength. This rocket first flew in 1998 at HARA’s first Rocket City Blast Off (RCBO) on an Aerotech I161 (see attached pic). She was a looker, both up close and from afar. The Archer mainly saw life launching on I-class motors, and was eventually retired in the early 2001 or 2002 time frame. So now I am on my third B.A.R. journey, and I find myself with little or no fleet to start with. I retired a few special rockets, and I did not have much to start with anyways. Luckily, being as I would take on too many projects before prior projects were completed, I do have a few new rockets that are waiting in various stages of building or finishing. These are mainly mid-power rockets and the like. No, what I needed was to rebuild my higher power fleet, and the SA-14 Archer is a prime candidate. The rocket was built strong, and had a 38mm mount, and since I had already extended the airframe to include a payload section, I would only need to add some electronics in order to fly this rocket on J-class motors. Of course the last 13-years have taken its toll on the original paint job and original decals, so the first order of business was to start by stripping the rocket back down to it’s naked form. Continue reading Building/Re-building a Fleet…NCR SA-14 Archer I still retain much of my recovery items, and quite a few rockets, but where I am lacking, is in the propulsion department. In the last four days, I had to decide whether or not I was going to fly commercial or research, and whether I would go back to hybrids or start with solids. I will most definitely go back to research, continuing where I left off… Which reminds me, I need to read Experimental Composite Propellant Again. So hybrid propulsion, I decided, was not where I want to be. The support locally is near non-existant, what with fewer and fewer fliers taking advantage of the clubs GSE system. Heck, I have been away long enough, that the club may have sold the system off, or stored it away. Nevertheless, I have decided to return to solid motors, focussing my efforts on learning the aspects of APCP based propellant, as opposed to KNCP. The oxidizers are nearly the same in cost per pound, so the choice was obvious.
Today’s round of soul searching had me looking for motor hardware. I have submitted several requests to a few possibilities for price quotes on everything from 29mm to 76mm hardware, and I am close to making a clear choice… let’s just say I am not fond of the color green, but the mfg of this hardware has really provacitive pricing attached to it’s products.
Today, I was also struck with this recurring nightmare, that I will need to get a LEUP if I actually want to fly rockets again… Well that sucks! More as I go, I have alot to catch up on, so bear with me.
Hope to see you on the field again in the not to distant future…
Johnnie
I am on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/user/xxDRAGON64xx Long over due, but here is my latest video that I just uploaded: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mS8QkIDRY6s&feature=channel_video_title More to come, as I try to find myself back into rocketry.
 DragonWorks Update I have been absent here over that past few years, so I stopped in to do some cleaning up around on the website. I’m on the fense as to wheter or not I will make a return to rocketry… remains to be seen to what extent I will go forth. I will say that I miss it considerably. Oh, and I signed back up with Tripoli today, so at least my membership is current. Johnnie Paul TRA# 08705 L3 |
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