NICE!!!! I've been to Orangeburg, they run a very, very nice launch. LDRS was there ~5 years back. Those folks fly from a sod farm. It was perhaps the most organized launch I've ever been to.

Good luck with that gorgeous rocket, Steve -- we'll expect some photos...

Man, is that beautiful! VERY NICE WORK!

Well done Steve - as always. You ever going to get back out this way to fly with us again?

Warren

You ever going to get back out this way to fly with us again?

Great idea Warren! Steve will I see you at Oktoberfest? Nice job on the Dragon. Are you going to cluster it?

Doug

You ever going to get back out this way to fly with us again?

Great idea Warren! Steve will I see you at Oktoberfest? Nice job on the Dragon. Are you going to cluster it?

Doug

Thanks guys, it was a fun project. I did not put mounts in the outer tubes, they are for show, but if it survives the first flight I will. The whole MM assembly and all fins are removable .. very modular, so changes or repairs will be fairly easy. No cameras in it right now either, but I'll add that in the future as well.

No Colorado this year, though things are getting better every day so maybe Spring. I certainly -want- to get back there. You really appreciate how special that field and club are when you leave there.

I'll send pics/vids after the launch .. I hope! 🙂

Steve

Well guys, I don't have pics yet but the DragonShip flight on Sunday was perfect.

After moderate to high winds all day we got a perfect lull and sent her off. It was amazing .. 1500' straight up w/o any rotation .. then just fell over at the top and blew the hatch as planned. The chutes both came out (2 -10') and were slow to open. It fell slowly maintaining its horizontal position and finally one opened .. the crowd screamed .. then a few sec later the other opened .. more screams ... it was probably at 800' by then (a little scary).

On chutes, it descended slowly rotating about 1 to 2 times (I'll check the vids once I get them). It landed in the soft sod where we fly .. a sod farm .. and bounced once before settling down. There was vitually no damage though the coupler was a little stressed so I'll rebuild it .. and the nosecone chipped off some of the putty filler I added. I intend to redo the nosecone and add a weight bay like we did with the Delta. I had to add 10 lbs to this one to get proper CG.

One other note of interest, on descent it had a flame coming out of the motor .. no pressure just 18" flame .. which was the 30 sec delay grain I'm sure. But it burned all the way down since it apogeed right after burnout. It really added to the cool Buck Rogers effect I was wanting. Luckily the fins, and even vinyl graphics on them suffered no damage from the flames .. it was quite a sight.

Totally cool project!! pics/vids soon..

Steve

NICE!!!! I've been to Orangeburg, they run a very, very nice launch. LDRS was there ~5 years back. Those folks fly from a sod farm. It was perhaps the most organized launch I've ever been to.

Good luck with that gorgeous rocket, Steve -- we'll expect some photos...

Launch Pics are up on my site now .. no video yet but still to come. The pics are Mark Canepa, awesome photographer .. as you'll see.

http://smashrocketry.com

Steve

Wow. Very nice!

The pics are Mark Canepa, awesome photographer .. as you'll see.

Not a bad auther either. 😉 Man, that is SO nice!

8) Steve, I am going to fly the "good guy ship" Excalibur for my level3 at MHM next spring. I need to see your cockpit deployment for my design, I will PM you with questions. Nice Flight. Did someone say M2200 Skidmark Dragrace? 😛 Tim Thomas

8) Steve, I am going to fly the "good guy ship" Excalibur for my level3 at MHM next spring. I need to see your cockpit deployment for my design, I will PM you with questions. Nice Flight. Did someone say M2200 Skidmark Dragrace? 😛 Tim Thomas

Very cool .. I was going to do the Excalibur next so I could race them .. would that be a sight!! but have opted to attempt the mighty Titan IV again. I did one in '05 that broke apart after liftoff. Was on the cover of Extreme Rocketry.

I have a lot of build pics on the site under Gallery/Dragonship and can take some specific shots if you need.

Remember "CG" .. that is one of the things that doomed my Titan, and I ended up adding 10 lbs of weight to the nose on this one. Note that my motor mount assembly is removable, as are the fins. Really helped with transport. I will never build a big rocket again w/o that option. If a bad landing breaks a part, just replace it. It's basically modular.

Thanks,

Steve
smashrocketry.com

8) Wow, looks like you thought out all of the things I was worried about. What good is a big rocket if you can't get it around? The fins on the Excalibur would be 18"tall and some 70"long. Sitting flat on the ground the fins would be 40+ high. You would need a bobtail to get it around. Now if I can just talk JamesR out of one of those 11" carbonfiber tubes he has..... 😆

they are 12" and in use, sorry:(