HARA Newsletter – Jan 2013

Greetings members and friends. First, thank you Ray for your years of service as HARA President. Secondly, thank you David, Bill, Josh, Vince, and Fred for volunteering as officers for 2013. We are already hard at work preparing for the upcoming flying season. I want to share some news with you from the Officers. Read more

Estes on steroids

by Bill Cooke

Mention Estes to a rocketeer these days, and you usually get a smirk; they are famous for Ready-To-Fly (RTF) and other easily built low power kits. Not much thrill to many in flying birds using 13 mm, 18mm, and 24 mm motors (1/4 A to E impulse). But that’s changing…  Read more

Rocket Design/Simulation Programs for TARC

by Bill Cooke

TARC is like the real world of rocket design in that the teams must resort to design/simulation software to help flesh out the initial concept, making sure it can meet the goals before pressing on to actual construction/testing. Here the vendors have come to the rescue in providing three outstanding packages, any one of which can be used to design a winning TARC entry. Read more

Thoughts on the 2013 TARC challenge

by Bill Cooke

NAR and the AIAA have just released the objectives for the 2013 TARC season. In brief, they are

  1. Altitude mark of 750 feet
  2. Flight Duration of 48-50 seconds
  3. 15″ parachute must be used to recover the egg and the altimeter
  4. Egg must be placed horizontally (“lying on its back”)
  5. Section of rocket containing the egg must be at least 60 mm (2.362″) in diameter
  6. Gross liftoff weight of under 650 grams
  7. Motor impulse must be 80 newton-seconds or less

At first glance. this seems simple; after all, each of these has been used in past years. No surprises, so pretty easy challenge for the TARC teams, right? Read more

Pack 351 Rocket Blast – and indeed it was!

by Bill Cooke

Every year Cub Scout Pack 351 has their annual ‘rocket blast’, in which the cubs fly rockets they have recently bought or built. HARA – in the form of Chuck Pierce and various others who show up to assist – always provides the launch setup and range control, which has been fairly easy for the past couple of years due to the use of the USSRC/Space Camp launch facilities. Read more

HARA’s School Launches

by Vince Huegele

As the 2012 school year winds down HARA has been busy with launch demonstrations. On May 3 we were set to fly for the 4-H Urban Youth Farm Day at the A&M field in Hazel Green, but steady showers scrubbed the launch. The facility has a building that could hold all 300 kids so 4-H held the event inside. Read more

Building Rockets, Finale – Decals

By Bill Cooke

A lot of the new rockets come with “peel ‘n stick” stickers these days, rather than decals. Many rocketeers call these “peel ‘n cuss”, because they are not much fun to apply (especially roll patterns and long names) due to their stickiness – very little room to make a mistake. Read more

Product Review: LG Keychain Alarm / Adept SB1 Sonic Beacon

by Daniel Cavender

Last year, the field at Manchester, TN was planted half in sod and half in corn posing certain logistical challenges regarding recovery. There were several rockets that were lost in the tall corn and never recovered. One rocket made its way into an unfortunate combine and did significant damage. That issue is being resolved, and to our benefit, the field is all sod this year. HARA is implementing some new range safety practices to mitigate any further such incidents, but good launch site stewardship is the responsibility of every flyer. All flyers with rockets built using fiberglass, metallic, and other dense materials may be asked to outfit their rocket with a sonic beacon (if not already equipped with GPS or radio beacon). To help flyers find these beacons, this product review will examine two products: the LG personal security keychain alarm, and the Adept SB1 sonic beacon.

LG Personal Security Keychain Alarm

The LG keychain alarm is a very cheap and very loud device that can be quickly pressed into service as a sonic rocket recovery beacon. The alarm needs to be taped to the shock chord. The trigger device is a pull pin that takes about 2 lbs of force to trigger. HARA President, Ray Cole, flew one of these beacons at the March launch and it worked great. They were on sale for $4.95 at Lowes. The batteries are replaceable and the case is robust and provides protection from moisture and BP residue. At $4.95, this is a piece of insurance that will pay for itself time and time again.

Adept SB1 Sonic Locator Beacon

The SB1 is a small 90 dB sonic beacon designed for rockets. It can fit in the body tube of a 29mm rocket. The trigger device is a jumper tied to the shock cord that pulls off of two wires on the back of the SB1.The SB1 needs to be taped to the shock cord against the trigger and jumper. This is a poor design and did not work too well in the field. The jumper fell off easily during packing. The open unit made it prone to damage from the littlest amount of moisture or BP residue. Compared to the $5 option from a hardware store, the SB1 did not hold up.

Building Rockets, Part 6 – Paint

by Bill Cooke

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Estes Executioner built and painted by Kimble29 on Ye Olde Rocket Forum

Now that the primer has been applied, we can move on to the paint. The type of paint is the rocketeer’s choice, with many choosing Rustoleum spray, while others use the same Testors enamels used to paint model cars or planes. The more artistic among us will break out the air brush, producing magnificent finishes like that on the Executioner seen at right. Whatever your paint choice, be sure you read the directions on the can or bottle, and follow them – a lot of weeping and gnashing of teeth can be saved by knowing the drying and recoat time of your paint.

Also, it is important to avoid mixing paint brands or types, as this can lead to “crazing”, in which incompatibilities in the chemistry of the paints cause huge cracks and wrinkles in the finish. However, there may be times – usually due to the unavailability of a certain color – when you have to mix brands or types. In these cases, remember that enamels can be applied over lacquer-based paints such as Rustoleum or Krylon, but lacquers cannot be applied over enamels. Similarly, fluorescent paints should be the last coat, as they will craze any type of paint applied over them (I know this from bitter experience). When mixing different brands, such as Rustoleum and Krylon, the best thing to do is to test out the application on a unpainted scrap piece of body tube. Spray the paint on in the order you intend to use with the model, and see if there are any issues. If nothing materializes, you are good to go.

When working outdoors or in an open garage, be mindful of the wind and humidity. The wind part is obvious – you don’t want paint going everywhere and creating a spotty finish on the rocket. Avoid spraying when the humidity is higher than 50%, as this will lead to the paint dulling or “blushing” (areas where the paint appears duller than its surroundings). Here in the South, we have constant high humidity, but it usually drops below 50% between 2 and 4 in the afternoons, providing a couple of hours suitable for painting.

When painting, spray continous light coats down the entire rocket – don’t “spot paint”, as this will create an uneven finish (which means sanding) and don’t lay it on too thick, as this will cause the paint to run. With Krylon, I usually hold the spray can about 10 to 12 inches from the rocket; this same distance should be about right for Rustoleum and other sprays. Start with the lightest color first and then move on to successively darker colors, saving black for last – be sure to allow the right amount of drying time between coats! No matter what the paint scheme, I always apply a coat of gloss or semi-gloss white above the gray primer to serve as a base coat, as applying yellows or other light colors directly on top of the primer results in very dark versions of these colors. White is always a good place to start.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I use Tamiya masking type to mask off areas of the rocket when painting. You can avoid bleeds and smudges by

  • Burnish down the edges of the tape with your finger – make sure the rocket surface is smooth and that the tape has good contact, else you will get bleeds.
  • It is a good idea to apply another light coat of the prior color, as this will create a “seal” on the tape edge, also avoiding bleeds. If you use Scotch tape for masking, this is a must.
  • Be SURE you have covered/masked the areas of the rocket that are not supposed to receive the paint – you would be surprised to find how easily that fin color can find a way to get on to your nice white body tube. Black is particularly evil in doing this.
  • Remove the masking tape as soon as the paint can be touched – if you wait until it is fully dry, you run the risk of the paint chipping when you remove the tape. Pull the tape straight up when removing it.
  • Use 1000/2000 grit sandpaper to smooth out rough areas and imperfections between coats.
  • Above all, be patient! Wait for the right conditions and take your time.

Here are the Rogue and Aero-Hi after painting – note the nice sharp lines. I am reasonably pleased with how these turned out, so we are now ready for the final step – applying the decals, which will be covered in Part 7.

Sunburned on St. Pat’s Day

by Vince Huegele

Westminster Christian Academy won the regional TARC contest March 17, 2012 in the best attended launch since HARA began hosting the event at Bragg’s farm. Westminster Christian has been in TARC since 2006 with only modest results each year, but this team scored a ‘4’ for a school record. These points are likely good enough for an invitation to the finals in Virginia, May 12.

A TARC rocket sits on the pad in the last second before lift off

Westlawn Middle School took second place and Williams Middle was third. Ten teams from seven schools participated and flew their egg carrying rockets in unseasonably warm and calm skies. This was twice the number of teams that came out last year so we thank everyone for supporting this very successful launch. There were a total of twenty-five TARC flights, most of which were for practice but ten were formal qualification attempts. Six flights were successful and scored points.

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Liberty Middle 1 and Ridgeland High of Rossville, Ga. made practice flights only. Ridgeland’s second flight was great and would have been a ’27,’ but rocket damage in a subsequent flight kept them from attempting points. Madison Academy had parachute deployment problems and Bob Jones had an uncooperative altimeter.

All capsules contained two eggs and had to be flown on an “F” motor or less. The target altitude was 800’ but those flights that hit the 43-47 second duration window were rewarded with a zero time deduction.

This year’s trophies

The trophies were beautiful models donated by United Launch Alliance and were awarded to the top three places. Over seventy people were on hand to watch the launches. Vince Huegele and Bill Cooke provided the local officiating to qualify the flights as well as mentoring the teams throughout the year. Teams have until the deadline on April 2 to complete their qualification attempts.

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Vince Huegele presents the first place award to Westminster Christian Academy team members Charles Nottingham, Nicholas Kromann (Team Lead), Ben Cyr, and Shane Nelson.

Ray Cole and David Bishop also had the HARA range set up for whatever members wanted to fly. There were 27 sport flights, nine of which were HP and three of them L1 certification attempts.

A Madcow Patriot takes to the skies on an I motor