Joined: Aug 17, 2007 Posts: 146 Location: Oceanside, CA
Posted: Sat Apr 17, 2010 6:24 pm Post subject: Unfotunate News
I am sad to report we will not be able to fly the Talon at LDRS due to the contraction of malaria. Stay tuned for updates. _________________ Special thanks to our sponsors:
Joined: Aug 17, 2007 Posts: 146 Location: Oceanside, CA
Posted: Fri Apr 23, 2010 10:54 pm Post subject:
First, my apologies as I was joking about the whole malaria thing. We were working on the project last weekend and thought it might be funny to see what people said if we released that we were scrubbing the flight due to some obscure (At least I thought it was obscure) disease. In hindsight, it wasn't that funny, so I apologize. Next time I'll just tell people that Charlie got beat up by a monkey. Or a hamster. Maybe a hedgehog. Or an alligator. OK, I'll stop now.
With that said, I do have an actual update, albeit a small one for now. We received the go from TRA to fly the P motor and the paperwork and application has been mailed off to the FAA today.
That's all I have for now. We're in the finishing stages of the rocket now, so we should have some pretty good shots soon! _________________ Special thanks to our sponsors:
Joined: Aug 17, 2007 Posts: 146 Location: Oceanside, CA
Posted: Fri May 07, 2010 3:50 pm Post subject:
Special shout out to David Reese for securing the transport vehicle for the Talon. We were kinda wondering how we were going to get it to the launch site, but fortunately David came through:
Next, I just got off the phone with Misha from the Discovery Channel. Not sure what will come out of it as they won't be filming on the day of the launch, but she's very interested in the project. Hopefully we'll be making it to a television near you! _________________ Special thanks to our sponsors:
Joined: Aug 17, 2007 Posts: 146 Location: Oceanside, CA
Posted: Fri Jun 04, 2010 9:58 pm Post subject:
Well, it's getting to be about time to kick some tires and light them fires, so I figured I'd give you all an update.
First, I've spent about two hours interviewing with the kind folks at the Discovery Channel (HI IVA!) in preparation for their visit to our nifty little launch. While they were originally planning on staying until Sunday, general consensus is I'm friggin awesome, and because I'm friggin awesome, they decided to stay through Monday to witness the spectacle that will be "It Burns When I P."
I don't know that that's the real reason they're staying, but it makes me feel tingly inside and helps me meet chicks, so that's what I'm going with.
Go ahead and applaud. You know you want to.
Next, we finally got approved for launch by the FAA! I have the letter I could post, but then we'd have to kill everyone who read it, and frankly, where would we be without our fans? That's right, nowhere. So to show my appreciation and to spare all your lives, I'll keep the letter tucked away somewhere safe. Maybe in the back of a Volkswagen or something.
So since it looks like we're good to fly this thing, and become mildly famous in the process, I suppose we ought to actually finish the rocket. Here goes nothing! _________________ Special thanks to our sponsors:
Joined: Aug 17, 2007 Posts: 146 Location: Oceanside, CA
Posted: Fri Jun 04, 2010 10:08 pm Post subject:
If it's one thing I learned, it's that there's really and art to finishing a rocket. And by art I mean copious amounts of patience is required if you want to get that nice, show-room floor finish on your bird. (Like the word usage there? Copious was on the list of words for me to use today. Aren't I just swell?)
If there's something else I learned it's that Bondo sucks and makes horrible filler. I know, it's not very rocketeer like of us to use Bondo to fill our tubes, given it weighs a ton and what not, but a) it's cheap, b) comes in large quantities and c) see A and B.
Three days later, Joe was still sanding the half the tube we "filled."
It was then that I remembered a nifty trick Scott Ulrey of the late Just Rockets fame told me: For a nice, easy to work with filler, mix some polyester resin with bondo and use cream hardener. This makes it go on thinner, thereby filling the holes a bit better and being easier to sand.
So that's what we did. I'd post pics of the process, but we didn't take any. You'll have to settle for pictures of the cups we used instead:
Joined: Aug 17, 2007 Posts: 146 Location: Oceanside, CA
Posted: Fri Jun 04, 2010 10:13 pm Post subject:
Another thing I learned is that sanding Bondo works up quite a thirst. So much so that we did the unthinkable and ran out of beer:
It's hard letting go, but sometimes it's for the best. Saying good bye to a dear friend:
Fortunately for us, Beerwenchimus Prime loves us, and headed out to brave the world in search of more nectar of the Gods. Broseph takes a moment to see his dearly beloved off:
Joined: Aug 17, 2007 Posts: 146 Location: Oceanside, CA
Posted: Fri Jun 04, 2010 10:20 pm Post subject:
While the filler on the tube was curing, we began work on our cutting edge head end internal motor retention system of awesome. Here's some guy summoning all of the powers from within to make it so, while Joe laughs maniacally:
DJ SpeedyWeez back again:
Preliminary cutting edge head end internal motor retention system of awesome:
Joined: Aug 17, 2007 Posts: 146 Location: Oceanside, CA
Posted: Fri Jun 04, 2010 10:43 pm Post subject:
While that was curing, we figured we'd give the old P motor casing into the motor cage test fit a try;
Followed that up by the classic sequel, "Test fitting the motor cage in the tail cone":
And what epic trilogy would be complete without the ultra classic, "Shoving the P motor casing into the motor cage after it's installed in the tail cone just because you can!":
Looks fan-friggin-tastic, doesn't it?
On that note, I'm gonna call it quits for now. I still have a few more pictures to post, but I have beer beckoning my presence, so I'll leave you with these words of wisdom:
Joined: Aug 17, 2007 Posts: 146 Location: Oceanside, CA
Posted: Mon Jun 07, 2010 10:19 pm Post subject:
Man, I tell ya- If it wasn't for the last minute, nothing would get done! Prepping for LDRS seems to have become a full time job as of late. But all in good fun, eh? Besides, it will all be over soon. :dark:
This evening's build thread update is brought to you by Nonpoint, because A) They rock, and B) We're getting close!
Joined: Aug 17, 2007 Posts: 146 Location: Oceanside, CA
Posted: Mon Jun 07, 2010 10:49 pm Post subject:
Before this goes on too much further, I want to give a shout out to the World Cup fans out there:
Moving on.. We took a break from the endless sanding of the rocket to do something quite vital to the overall success and well being of our project.
Clean out the <censored> casing.
We're not really sure what happened between the last time the good folks at USC flew it and the time we got it, but the liner was more or less fused to the side of the casing. Certainly a flick of Chuck Norris' pinkie would have popped that bad boy out of there, but unfortunately he was regulating somewhere else and wasn't able to help us.
We tried a few things ranging from popping the bulkhead in place and pounding it with a mallet to dripping some motor oil along the sides and then popping the bulkhead in place and pounding it with a mallet. We even filled the thing with soap and water and let it soak for a bit before popping the bulkhead in place and pounding it with a mallet:
Looks like this might become my new beer glass!
Unfortunately none of those things worked. That's when we tried the only other thing left to try. When all else fails, use brute force:
Joined: Aug 17, 2007 Posts: 146 Location: Oceanside, CA
Posted: Mon Jun 07, 2010 10:59 pm Post subject:
We noticed some rather hideous looking spots we missed after the primer was laid down, so we filled them with some Elmers wood filler. Let me tell you, this is some pretty good stuff! Easy to apply, easy to sand, and reasonably strong:
Filled some missed spots on the tail cone as well:
Once they were all sanded, we hit it with some paint:
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