INTERNATIONAL ROCKETRY WEEK, IRW2000 (LARGS SCOTLAND)

This would be the first year my Dad had been to the rocket festival at Largs in Scotland. This year we would enjoy the comfort of my Dad's caravan rather than the damp tent we have being using for many years. Sean and Andy would be meeting us on site. Sean this year would be going for his level 1 certification with the first 'long awaited' flight of his upscale Phoenix. Andy was keen to try out his new tracker system that he had developed and we had planned to try it out on my Delta clipper. This year would be my first attempt at a two-stage rocket at IRW. I had made an upscale Estes Delta clipper (5 x upscale) being 11 feet in length, 5 inches in diameter and was planned to fly on a K550W to J570W. The rocket would also carry a video downlink used at UKRA2000. (Pictured left is Marcell, Myself (Dave Thomson and John Bonsor inspecting my son's Pokemon rocket prior to flight on a G35W.)

Myself (Dave Thomson), my Dad and my son left early Wednesday morning with the Caravan on tow for Scotland. We decided to go around the headland, through Glasgow and Greenock to Largs. We arrived mid afternoon and set up the caravan and awning and began prepping some smaller rockets to fly in the early evening session. John Bonsor cam over to welcome us and brief us on the weeks flying. The weather was good and the outlook was not too bad also.

I had made a Pokemon rocket for my son complete with a Pokemon payload that would come out on it's own parachute on recovery. We loaded this with a G35W. Sean had his upscale thunderhawk with an F25W. As usual he was keen as ever to get more flights in than anybody else, and be first up as well (and I think he managed the most flights all week?). We collected all our stuff and moved over to the main field adjacent the pavilion. Many others where flying too.

Images shown are of the Pokemon rocket. These are of it's first flight. The rocket flew well, but the recovery of the payload was a little delayed and the parachutes only just opened in time. This rocket flew a total of three times over the week. The last flight being rather a disaster!! Loaded with a G40W the rocket lifted off and immediately at the top of the launch rail did a 90 degree turn downwind!! It was heading for the tree's at the perimeter of the filed. The 'THWACK' as it hit one of them was unreal!! Sean could not stop laughing…. The rocket was totaled!!

My Son (David) flew both his Haribo rocket (which also flew last year at IRW1999) a few times over the week and his Estes (RTF) quite a few times also. All flights recovered ok..Images of these are below. The Haribo was D12-3 powered and the Tidal wave C6-5 powered.

True to form, Sean had many flights with his upscale Estes Thunderhawk. Most flights in the main field where on F power. He got lucky on one flight at least when the chute did not open properly, the rocket turned over at apogee and headed for a core sample. The chute eventually came out but very late. The body came in straight first with a thud, but amazingly was totally undamaged..!! The construction of these rockets using the 2 inch drain pipe is light and VERY strong. Gives a great paint finish too..

Thursday was the first big day for Sean and myself. It took me all morning to prep the Delta clipper. I then went to see Pete Davy to collect the motors, but unfortunately, not due to Pete, they had not arrived (along with many other motors too). Pete suggested flying on a J415 to J350. I decided that this would still be impressive enough (and enough power) for it's first flight.

Delta Clipper construction

Booster

The booster was loaded with the J415 on a short delay. There was not much room left in the design for the Timer2, beeper, ejection charges, budgie and parachute. The Timer2 for staging and parachute deployment along with the beeper and associated batteries where all mounted on a long bracket in the space between the motor mount tube and the airframe. Concerns of heat transfer after motor burnout where combated by aluminum sheet as a heat shield. The parachute was neatly installed around a 3inch-pretruding section of motor mount tube running beyond the last forward bulkhead. This would be protected by a 5inch-diameter blast plate between the end of the booster motor mount tube and the Upper stage motor. This blast plate would also be ejected from the booster ejection charges also mounted in this space. The plate would then pull out the chute (I hope!). A static test had been done at home to prove the design and it worked fine.

Upper stage

The upper stage would be ignited by the timer2. The upper stage had a Gwhizz Deluxe for CPR deployment. The CPR module was made form a 5inch coupler and two bulkheads. Each bulkhead had two ejection charges (never keen on only one). These where also home made. The housing bolted to the bulkhead are made from 15mm copper end stops with a short length of copper pipe to extend it's length. 3mm bolt fixes these firmly to the bulkhead. The ejection charge uses a 10mm diameter piece of thin plastic tube from BQ cut to 20mm length. One end is well tapped with masking tape. BP is loaded into the plastic tube along with the igniter. One piece of masking tape is then put over the open end and loaded into the copper holder with the one piece of tape end up.This then bows out tape on ignition.

The nose cone holds the video transmitter, camera and supply.

Decals

All colour is done using solar trim available from good model shops. It works best on smooth surfaces but is cheaper and quicker than paint and gives a great finish on the plastic tubes I use. Estes logo and other decals where made by a local sign making firm and are excellent quality at a reasonable price.

This was the biggest, best finished, most complex and in the end most spectacular rocket I have made to date !!

Flight time..!! We all arrived at Birtlebog farm and finished our prepping. The weather was ok but a little windy. Sean had the Pheonix ready in no time at ll (as usual) and was flying the Pheonix for the first time on his first Level 1 attempt using an I211W short delay. The rocket looked great on the pad and got a lot of attention. Sean was ready well before me and was one of the first to go. The flight was very realistic and spectacular. Unfortunately it did arc a little towards the end of the flight into wind towards the trees at the perimeter of the field. Deployment was only a little late but all three chutes came came out fine. LEVEL 1 achieved!! But not all was well as the rocket came down right at the edge of the field in one of the highest tree's!!

Below image shows the first flight of  Sean's Scratch built Phoenix on I211W power.

Sean and his recovery team (Geoff Reagn and my Dad included), went to recover the rocket while I continued prepping. The rocket was well stuck, high up in the tree with the chute and lines well tangled. They tried for ages but decided to come back to get more help.

Ooppss....I think they call this rocket-tree....

I loaded the Delta Clipper onto the pad and checked out all systems and camera. All was well and we waited for clearance from Bobby Walk who was the RSO. The video was running and the receiver was pointed at the rocket. Bobby gave the all clear and the countdown began. The J415 lit and it took to the skies very gracefully. Time up came for staging but nothing happen. The rocket peaked at apogee and turned over. The drogue deployed and all looked ok for recovery. The height dropped and then the first stage charges fired. The booster separated and the chute was out. At around 400 feet the main also came out and all sections landed without damage.

Later inspection showed that the igniter had not gone for staging. Conclusion was that the J415W did not give quite enough umpf for the Timer2 to see launch !!! Everything else worked great, including the onboard video. We would try again tomorrow, but this time put a J800 in the booster to give more kick at launch.

FRIDAY

Early morning and we had good weather. Geoff Regan and Dave Owen had turned up ok overnight and were looking forward to a good days spectating.

I began a detailed look at the rocket for signs of any damage that I may have missed yesterday, a little scorching around the base, but all seemed ok. I began prepping as yesterday, setting the altimeter and timer, making and loading the ejection charges, checking the batteries, loading the chutes, checking the camera for transmission etc etc..One things for sure, the bigger and more complex they get the longer they take to get ready.! Sean was flying his newly completed upscale Optima with the onboard camera (so long as we got it back from mine ok). The Optima was completed in a very short space of time and looked the business. An I211W seemed a little underpowered, but with a short delay it simmed out ok.

With time running out, as usual, we loaded up the car and headed off up to the farm again. I finished loading the J800T and the J350W. Same as yesterday the 54mm reload is not exactly the same build as the 38mm reloads. This was easy when shown by Ben, just a for more bits and a little different in assembly than the 38mm, once shown I had no trouble putting the 54mm reload together.

Images above show myself (Dave Thomson), Sean and My Dad gettin the Delta Clipper ready for launch.

Above shows the VCR, TV monitor, invertor, extension leads etc required to save the images transmitted.

Above images show the ground receiver and the small CCD camera mounted in the nose cone.

The rocket was loaded on the pad and all systems checked. The camera was working fine and the sound was better than yesterday due to less wind. The sky was clear and blue and I got the all clear from Bobby Walk. The J800T certainly gave it more kick off the pad, and MUCH louder also.!!

We all willed the rocket to stage after burnout of the J800 then……..boom…..the J350W kicked in and the rocket accelerated way up into the blue. The first stage came tumbling down without the chute and hit hard. The rocket coasted up and up. The drogue then appeared to come out a little early, which caused strain on the main coupler, separating the upper body too soon and pulled out the main chutes. All chutes came out ok but the main worry was drift. The video transmitter seemed to be working fine. It looked as if it was going to come down beyond the plantation but no…it had to come down in the middle..the transmitter could not be received once it was in the trees.

We could hear the beepers and Andy could pick it up on the tracker also. We headed off and began to scramble under the canopy of trees to find the rocket. It was found quite soon but was well tangled in the treetops. Andy managed (after getting many pine needle cuts) to get it down with no damage..

Images below are a sequence of captured images from the video. The fourth one is almost a white out as the rocket stages to the J350W. The Gwhizz reported 2800 feet, but it looked higher than that to me and others..?

We got back to the flying field and removed the camera for Sean's flight in the Optima. Meanwhile the MARS crew had slightly modified (with permission) the launch rail for a K1100T flight. This flight bent the deflector plate FLAT !! before this it was strong enough to stand on! A nice flattened crop circle around 20 feet in diameter emanated form the pad.

Sean below, with his scratch built upscale Estes Optima prior to its maiden flight.

Sean loaded the Optima ready for launch on I211W power. Time was running out and it looked at first that he might miss the final launch window. Bobby gave a final all clear and we just hoped that the igniter would not fail. The countdown was called and the rocket lifted off gently for a very stable flight to a lowish altitude and popped the chute out fine. The video transmission was 100% and recovery was good also, still in the field. Next flight for this rocket will be at least J570W me thinks?

Images below are of my Dad and my son (David, eyes shut) on a rocket-free trip across to the Island of Cumbrae.

Images below show Andy getting involved with setting up a Bull Pup scale model. Nice rocket but it was damaged a little after a major malfunction after launch casuing the rocket to go horizontal on full power and dissapear over the adjacent hedge.Amazing flight if you had been there. Other image on the right is of one of the smallest  RTF rockets at the event flying on 1/2A power I think? A quick hiss at it was gone..!!

Myself, Sean and Andy decided for a change that we would have a go at one of the competitions. We rummaged through the bits we had and decided to have go at the sweetie competition.

We used an empty plastic bowl (clear) of Haribo sweets, a wire coathanger for three legs, a motor tube and some model aircraft undercarriage clamps. Andy supplied the parachute also. It would fly on a D12-3. Within a few minutes the design was formulated and the basic rocket was together in less than an hour. We where a little concerned that the chute would not come out in time and that the lines of the chute would get tangled in the legs. Sean climbed ontop of his van to get some height for an unpowered test flight to see if the chute would be sufficient and to see if it would stay upright on landing.

Out of three attempts twice it stayed on its legs. The main problem seemed to be too much spring in wire the legs causing it to bounce on landing and flip over. We had run out of time t to any more modifications, so we posed for the group photo and went over to the field where other flyers where gathering. In the end there where so many others flying we did not have our first launch for a couple of hours. First up where the rocket powered gliders. These proved to be very entertaining with (if I can recall) most stuffing hard into the ground soon after take off !!! Some did a loop first, some stalled, some spiraled, some ripped off their wings at max q. Distance for spectators at launch from these is WELL advised..!! I nearly got one in the head, as it became unstable..!! I think the RSO needs to check out the quality of construction and stability of some of these models BEFORE they are allowed to fly.

Our turn came and Sean approached the pad. The countdown was given and the rocket rose gently off the pad in a surprisingly stable flight. The rocket turned over at apogee and headed for tera firma. The delay seemed a little too long and the chute only just managed to fully deploy. As suspected the rocket landed correctly but then bounced and flipped over..damn.! Another flight was more successful, and again a nice stable flight..

We all enjoyed it so much, even though it was not HPR that we will be back next year with a much better design. Having fun and taking part is the main thing.

This was the best IRW yet, and we all owe a great deal, and give many thanks to all who organised the event. We will be back next year..!!