+davetherocketguy Posted February 20, 2012 Share Posted February 20, 2012 Thanks to Bluedeuce I got my very first trackable item to go for a little launch today. Just shy of 2000' feet on a beautiful day (for February) in Three Oaks Michigan. So first up are the preparation pictures. For a flight that lasts a couple of minutes, there can be hours of prep. I bet I spent a little over 1/2 an hour on this guy. So here is the coin: Since it's such a nice looking coin and I don't want to leave tape goo on it I taped it up in some decent masking tape. And here it is attached to the shock cord with oodles of electrical tape. So for deployment and to reduce the drift electronics are used to control when the parachutes are deployed. This is refereed to as dual deployment. The first charge at apogee separates out a part of the rocket and it is a controlled free fall. At a predetermined altitude another charge goes off pushing out the main chute for a slower decent. In my case I programed the altimeter to deploy the main at 700'. I am also using 2 altimeters. A primary and a backup. I got an important passenger in there dagumit! That's before all the wires are attached. Next is the motor. This is a shot of the casing for an motor from Aerotech rocketry called the I211. Note the scissors for scale: And here is the completed rocket ready to go: So, after a nice flight this is where it landed - a little wet but no real damage: Hey look! The coin is STILL there: And in a few minutes, Youtube will be done cooking my on-board video here: Yes, the date on the video is wrong. It is supposed to be set to today but I forgot to set it before leaving for the launch. -Dave Quote Link to comment
+Gitchee-Gummee Posted February 20, 2012 Share Posted February 20, 2012 Pretty decent, I would say. Would look better if there were some SNOW, but then you folks in the tropics don't get much snow. Just the stuff we share with you now and again. 'grats on a successful flight. Quote Link to comment
+The Blorenges Posted February 20, 2012 Share Posted February 20, 2012 Wow... The Trackable Space Program. Sounds great. I was wondering whether you could creat a small certificate for each trackable you send up? With the name of the trackable, date, the approximate height it reached... Maybe BlueDeuce's could have "Second Trackable in Space" on it? I could be tempted to go for 'The First Welsh Trackable in Space' award... MrsB Quote Link to comment
+davetherocketguy Posted February 20, 2012 Author Share Posted February 20, 2012 Pretty decent, I would say. Would look better if there were some SNOW, but then you folks in the tropics don't get much snow. Just the stuff we share with you now and again. 'grats on a successful flight. Thanks...we did get about 20" in about 12 hours last weekend and that's plenty for me. Usually, the field we use is snow covered this time of year but it's been a VERY mild winter this year. To be blunt, I would much rather you not send anymore snow...No need to share. Wow... The Trackable Space Program. Sounds great. I was wondering whether you could creat a small certificate for each trackable you send up? With the name of the trackable, date, the approximate height it reached... Maybe BlueDeuce's could have "Second Trackable in Space" on it? I could be tempted to go for 'The First Welsh Trackable in Space' award... MrsB That's a great idea! -Dave Quote Link to comment
+BlueDeuce Posted February 20, 2012 Share Posted February 20, 2012 Very cool! This coin started its journey by being carried to the rim of Mount St Helens. Then it took a vacation to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico and now a trip in to the troposphere! I think it's having more fun than I am. Thanks davetherocketguy for an enjoyable trip. By the way, it's looks like there was quite the crowd for launch day. I hope no one lost any! Quote Link to comment
+davetherocketguy Posted February 20, 2012 Author Share Posted February 20, 2012 Very cool! This coin started its journey by being carried to the rim of Mount St Helens. Then it took a vacation to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico and now a trip in to the troposphere! I think it's having more fun than I am. Thanks davetherocketguy for an enjoyable trip. By the way, it's looks like there was quite the crowd for launch day. I hope no one lost any! Wow, didn't know that thing had been all over the place like that. Pretty cool if you ask me. Welp, I need to go to the post office soon anyways so it'll be back in the mail to you this week. Thanks for making the postage easy for me. This whole thing was a lot of fun. Having an excuse to fly one of my larger rockets is never a bad thing. I didn't really NEED to use a larger rocket to loft the coin to 2k but that's the excuse I am going with lol. As far as the crowd...This was the best attended launch that I can remember in the 6 or so years I have been a member. We had 106 flights in the span of 6 hours. We never got a count on how many showed up but I estimate somewhere around 100 to 150 fliers and spectators. Normally we might have that many flights in 2 or 3 launches together so we were VERY busy. Rockets lost? Well, I don't know if any were truly lost but there were some interesting crashes. But hey, that's rocketry for ya'. Not everything goes as planned every time. One of these days I will have my official Geocaching space-craft completed. It will be about 6' tall, 4" diameter and could easily haul most any size travel bug. Just need to find the right combination of time, motivation and funding. -Dave Quote Link to comment
+Team Triggerfinger Posted February 21, 2012 Share Posted February 21, 2012 (edited) Three Oaks, huh? I'm familiar with the area. You should hand out geocaching informational flyers to the people in attendance. Maybe pick up some new cachers. I'm thinking that I see Lake Michigan at 1:01 in the video for a brief second. Great job on the launch. Now go to the Swedish Bakery for a treat and then to Redamak's for a Cheeseburger and waffle fries! Edited February 21, 2012 by Team Triggerfinger Quote Link to comment
+davetherocketguy Posted February 21, 2012 Author Share Posted February 21, 2012 Three Oaks, huh? I'm familiar with the area. You should hand out geocaching informational flyers to the people in attendance. Maybe pick up some new cachers. I'm thinking that I see Lake Michigan at 1:01 in the video for a brief second. Good eyes! I never even noticed that before. Occasionally, you can see Lake Michigan from the field from one of the on-board cameras if it is pointed just right. It's about 8 miles or so due west of the field. Great job on the launch. Now go to the Swedish Bakery for a treat and then to Redamak's for a Cheeseburger and waffle fries! Alas, if only Redamaks were open this time of year! Mmmmm...waffle fries... -Dave Quote Link to comment
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