29 mm Projects

Ross Ohmen's Rocketry Obsession

29 mm Projects

Here's some of my mid-power projects. Note that 29mm is the BIGGEST motor these rockets can handle.

"F-Bomb" - 29mm min-diam, un-fiberglassed, with Apogee 29mm nose-cone.

1/19/08 - Flew on a C11-5 at TCC Fresno Nice boost, with some spin, and ejected at apogee. Broke slender Kevlar shock cord, and had to use Walston to recover the nosecone. The Perfectflite altimeter says 453 feet. Paint fluorescent orange and try for more altitude next time.

3/18/08 - Re-painted, and triple clear-coated. Almost ready to go!

04/26/08 - Flew at Newark on a D12-5 to 1046 ft Nice!

05/17/08 - Flew at DairyAire on an E18-10 to 2447 ft. High!!

F-Bomb - 29mm min diam with alt and tracker

Wasp" - 29mm minimum diameter "Arrow".

In the course of building the "Arrow" series, I decided to build a 29mm version of this rocket. Features:

1) 2oz fiberglassing

2) Fiberglassed Plywood fins

3) Perfectflight MAWD with 9v battery, (tight fit!)

4) Engine eject, with option for apogee-deploy with MAWD.

This is rocket can fit 29/360 engines!!

History:

7/18/04 - Flew first time at Fresno with an ancient E15-7. Did not eject until it lawn-darted, bending the body tube and ruining a great paint job. Repairing.

09/26/04 - Repaired all the damage. Flew again at XPRS - Great flight on F21-8. Reached ~1900 ft, and recovered fine.

05/07/05 - Flew at Snow Ranch on an F21-8 again, and had another great flight to ~1800 feet. Recovered fine.

07/17/05 - Flew at Fresno on an F50-9. Huge, fast flight to ~2200 ft. Chute wrapped around shock cord, so the rocket came down fast. That was good, because the swivel tore open!

07/21/05 - Flew at Livermove on an F23-7BJ. Went ~1100 ft on a nice flight. Note that I removed the swivel. Next flight: XPRS on a G80-10! Or more!

11/18/05 - Flew at TCC on a G80-10. Huge flight - ripped off the pad, and coasted forever, except the chute opened early! Tore off the chute, and it fell into the grape orchard. Used Walston to find it. Damaged nosecone had to be replaced.

07/15/06 - Flew at Lunar with an F37-L, with MAWD eject. Separated at Ejection, but landed without damage.

09/24/06 - Flew at XPRS with an H238, and MAWD ejection. Huge, fast flight, ripping off the pad. Didn't see anything after that, but had a fix with the Walston gear. Retrieved pieces fromt he desert - the rear separated, and the tube broke on landing. Recovered the av bay, and the MAWD said we went 5154 feet! Now to repair...

02/20/07 - Extended the body tube, and repaired the break, both with fiberglass. Fitted an Ellis Mountain I69. Now that's a large motor. Primed and sanded. Gonna need new colors.

05/18/07 - Flew at Dairy Aire on Desearch Day on an F40-7. Lit badly, and headed for the orchard! Saw a deployment, but couldn't find it in all those trees! The owner's son assured me it'd show up, though. Dang! It looked great in the new paint, too!

STATUS: MISSING/LOST

"H-Bomb" - 29 mm "Arrow"

02/09/08 - After months of re-building, I had another. Fiberglassed body, and (curiously) un-fiberglassed fins. Fluorescent Orange, instead of Black/Yellow. Kevlar shock cord, 15" 'chute. Tried flying it on a E28-M (S), but the rocket cartwheeled as it came off the pad! Found a canted nozzle when the rocket was recovered. Very little damage, and I'm ready to try again.

03/18/08 - Prepped and ready to go, on an F27-8(R). Triple clear-coated - should be tougher now!

04/05/08 - Snow Ranch. I flew the H-Bomb on an F27-8. Beautiful straight boost and ejection near the apogee. Gee, the parachute seems to be taking a long time to come down. Maybe because the payload section and nose are missing. Follow the body, because I can find the nose with the Walston! Hiked a long way, and got it off a hill. Faint Walston signal from the pad area. Past the pad area. (Gee - doing a lot of walking...) Becky G had it - nose broken off (damn those urethane 29mms!). Found the pieces! Now I can repair it.... 1400 feet on the MAWD.

04/29/08 - Completed repairs, and prepped with a G80-10T (old Aerotech).

Note that I've reduced the BP in the G80 to about .4 Grams. Too violent otherwise.

05/17/08 - Changed out the G80 for a RR F60-10. Flew at Dairy Aire toward the end of the (very hot) day. The delay was too short, and the BP was too much - separation. Lost the 'chute and damaged the forward body tube. Broke the nosecone, too. The MAWD says 2489 feet!

06/09/08 - Replaced the nosecone, trimmed the payload section, and glassed on a new section. Sanding and filling now, and trying to get the electronics tray to fit. Note that I had a hell of a time getting the 29mm motor that I used as a mandrel, out of the repaired forward body. This despite two coats of "no stick"!

Bottle Rocket -

After seeing all these nifty Crayon rockets ($6 at Toy 'R' Us) converted into rockets, I told E to look for a similar prop. At the next garage sale we went to, she found it: a big, plastic baby bottle "bank". It's just what I wanted!!

Well, transforming it into a rocket wasn't so easy. Had to add fins, nose weight, nose-cone mounting, and internal structure to hold the motor. Here's briefly what I did:

a) Bought acrylic for the fins, and cut to shape, with tabs agains the motor tube.

b) Put rings and the motor retention on the motor tube, and temporily mounted the main CRs.

c) Glued the fins to MMT, through slots in the clear plastic BT and rear structure.

d) Reinforced all fin joints with gussets of epoxy.

e) Glued in the main CRs, with paper next to the clear plastic to act a "milk".

f) Weighed out 4 oz of lead shot, and put it into the nose, along with a shock cord, imbedded in epoxy.

All up weight - about 17 oz - kinda heavy, but this is not an altitude bird.

Flights

05/18/07 - EX day at Dairy Aire - TCC Fresno. Flew it on an F37 Med-Short. It flew well, but broke a fin on landing. Dang!
06/xx/07 - Mudrock - Flew on a G54. Great flight, and the "S" delay was the right one. High wind broke all three fins on landing. Dang!

Well, I'm starting to see a pattern here. The Acrylic is just too weak to handle landings, even with a 36" chute. And it's going to break on a hard flight, too.

I fiberglassed the fins. It turned out okay - the fins are much less clear, but they are an awful lot stronger. Next time, use high-strength plastic.
07/19/07 - Lockheed entertainment - Flew the Bottle Rocket on an F62, with an (M) delay element that had been drilled out .21". (Was .45"). Ejected near (but before) apogee, and hung around on big silk 'chute. Landed in the parking lot. Dang, that's gonna bust a fin or three. BUT IT DIDN'T. No damage - guess that fiberglassing paid off.
08/05/07 - Aeronaut - Flew on a G79W (RMS) - Great flight - went high, but spun a bit. The clear BT was damaged by the charge, which blew out a section. Easy fix, and no damage to the fins. Yeah!
10/19/07 - October Skies at TCC Maddox Dairy. Flew on a G33-5(4) - Great flight, with a tight spin.
11/18/07 - Thanksgiving at TCC Maddox Dairy. Flew on an F62 (M, shortened to an S). Great flight again. Pictures.
02/09/08 - Flew on a G54 at Snow Ranch. Spun hard, but flew fine and recovered without error.

Bottle Rocket in flight

Bottle Rocket on F62 at Fresno 11/18/07

Bottle Rocket under 'chute - 11/18/07

Up-rated Estes Canadian Arrow - 29mm motor mount, plywood fins, and fiberglassed body tube.

01/20/08 - Flew at TCC on a beautiful day, on an F23-7J. Great flight, except for the delay being too long.

04/29/08 - Prepped to fly at Dairy Aire on a G53-7FJ. Wearing new colors, and looking great!

Ranger - Purple 38mm body rocket with 29mm motor mount.

09/20/03 - Flew on a G40 at XPRS to a high, great flight.

12/29/03 - Flew at MDARs on an H128, to 3770 feet! Took two minutes coming down at 30 ft/sec!

05/07/2005 - Snow Ranch - Flew the Ranger on an F23-7, to a disappointing, low and arcing flight.

07/17/05 - Flew Ranger on G40-7 at TCC, for a great flight. Tried to zipper the tube again! Right where I patched it last time! Next flight - there's a bumper on the shock cord there...

05/06/06 - Snow Ranch - Flew the Ranger on a G38-7, (the sibling of the one that blew up and tore up the Io years ago). No problems, but it does decend fast on the two chut combo.

05/13/06 - Night launch at Lunar - Flew on an F20-7 - Tilt into the wind was a mistake - the rocket weathercocked badly, and headed out over the rodeo stadium. Saw an event, but not much more. Several folks got a bearing on it, and I set out after it. Had to climb barb wire to get into the rodeo area, and I was without hope, but I spotted it in the back of the land, and walked right to it. The big parachute didn't open, but the small one did. Other than some chipping, it wasn't damaged. Whew!

08/04/06 - Aeronaut at Black Rock - Flew the Ranger on G40-10 - Great flight - high and straight.

09/22/06 - XPRS at Black Rock - Flew on a G54M - 29/100 hardware. Nice flight.

09/24/06 - XPRS at Black Rock, again. Flew on a G40-7 - Nice flight.

12/02/06 - LUNAR at Snow Ranch - Flew the Ranger on a G64-10, after a long wait. Straight, high, flight, and perfect recovery!

03/03/07 - LUNAR at Snow Ranch - Ranger on a G33-7 - Great flight on a long-burn "G".

04/21/07 - TCC Fresno - Flew on a F62 - Great flight, and recovery. And I didn't have to walk for miles.

08/02/07 - Aeronaut with AeroPac, at Black Rock - Flew the Ranger on a G75 full "G". Went a long way on that baby. Arc'ed a little into the wind, but only came back a little! Not much wind up there in the early AM .

09/15/07 - With Aeropac at XPRS - Flew the Ranger on an H220. Another huge motor/small rocket combo. Used a Walston and a Perfectflite to help recovery. Ripped off the pad, and disappeared. Saw an event at apogee, but no 'chute. Dang! Eventually found with the Walston. Slightly burned 'chute (burned closed, of course), and a cracked fin. Rats.

11/18/07 - The TCC Thanksgiving Launch - Flew the Ranger on a G104. Great flight, and apogee eject. Drifted a long way on the 'chute, and had trouble finding it in the alfalfa. It was farther away than I expected.

Ranger - Ready for G104 flight

Upgraded Estes Big Daddy I bought a Big Daddy from a fellow rocketeer, then ordered the Piestrak (sp?) upgrade kit, with ply fins, ply rings, and a 29mm motor mount. Tough, and it looks great painted.

06/07/08 - Tried to fly this rocket on an E16-7(s). First the Copperhead failed to light it, then the Firstfire Jr plugged the nozzle and it blew! No damage, but a fair amount of frustration. And "Bang!!!" is always bad for your nerves.

06/14/08 - Got another shot at redemption. Flew it again on an E16-7(s), this time with LUNAR at Moffett, wearing black paint but no decals. Flew easily to 600 ft, but the 'chute tangled, and it landed in the weeds. No damage.