The current club altitude record for the G motor is 6383' and is held by John Wilke. The Tripoli world G record is 7567' and is held by William Inman.

I would expect altitudes in the high 5000's to be the best folks have a decent shot at with the G80. The main reasons for this are the 29mm minimum airframe diameter and the fact that the current G80 is only an 80% G motor. The G55 and G75 motors used for the two records listed above are 95% and 98% G motors as well as being only 24mm.

Warren

Warren, I think you're dead wrong on this and would like to see if there's any interest in a sidebet pool. Not only is 6k doable I expect several to top that, with 7k an outside possibility.

I agree - I think that 6k is completely doable. I would HIGHLY doubt 7k, but you never know...

Warren, I think you're dead wrong on this and would like to see if there's any interest in a sidebet pool. Not only is 6k doable I expect several to top that, with 7k an outside possibility.

agree - I think that 6k is completely doable. I would HIGHLY doubt 7k, but you never know...

And I'll bet you have never waxed a rocket, used finishing polish grinding compounds, gone lugless etc. De riguer for Nar stuff, 😉
JS

😆

I've done it.

Once 8)

It's a pain, but I'll do it for this contest

Like skis, you sharpen edges and wax between flights. Now the secret is good wax--many otherwise good waxes dont like even a short dance with Ernest M and get gooey. I'm personally working on a microspere graphite coating...A snake in this stuff would be a treatise in newtons 3'rd.
J

I do it all for damn near every altitude flight I make - WD-40 the launch tower rails, I generally spend a couple weeks sanding and priming and filling and sanding my birds before I paint them and then after clear coating I take it down to 1200-1800 sandpaper before I call it good. I waxed my last F altitude attempt and plan on waxing all the altitude birds I'm flying at MHM. Almost NONE of my birds have lugs or rail guides - at least none of my altitude birds do. I use launch towers for most everything I fly and altitude is the key characteristic I design for. For some reason the big fat low and slow stuff just doesn't appeal.

For most birds, I spend months in Rocksim before I even buy the materials and even once construction starts, I modify things to tweak them in. In most case, I work to dial the weight in perfectly and most of my "official" flights follow at least 2 or 3 test flights to characterize the bird and to dial in performance within the design characteristics.

I'll go head to head with anyone in the club who wants lift up their skirts and get in the game. Side bets welcome.

Warren Musselman

PS: MY ambition as an amateur rocketeer is to hit space - 100km.

well that you lube launch rails suggests an oversight 😮
Heres a proposal, I'll bet 100 dollars the club record dies,
J

You guys are right. Forget what the pot is, this IS about skill. Make 'em as polished and slick as possible. Period. This IS gonna be fun this year.

Warren - side bet (gentleman's bet - I'm poor right now from Mayhem 🙁 )

THe winner will be >6k

Most definitly the club record will die.

I'll not take a piece ot that $100 side bet... or perhaps I should to double my 2006 SSC winnings.

🙂

Now we're talkin', gentlemen. Hey, put the side bets in the pot! Let's find others to join in. This is really good; this is what it's about. The only luck involved in this is that everything works, and who can predict that? Gluing fins on a naked body tube and slapping a motor in with any nosecone just won't cut it. The skill is keeping the Cd low (<.60, at least) on an efficient design and knowing when and where to make the classic tradeoffs. NAR people know about that... or we'll see. 🙂

$100 side bet? hmmm... this is getting interesting. My focus this MHM is the Tripoli (and club) L altitude record. I have a couple other tentative shots including the 24mm G bird I mentioned as well as (hopefully) another shot at the Tripoli J altitude record. If I get a spare 10 or 12 hours in between here and there, I may take another shot at the F altitude record, this time with an Apogee F10.

I should say that NONE of these records will I consider as big of an accomplishment as flying the same 54mm minimum diameter bird on an L1300BB - at a predicted Mach 2.6, if I have the balls to do it, THAT will far outshine any altitude record I might take in terms of being a commentary on my composite construction techniques. The closer I get to MHM, the less inclined I am to do it though - my heart says that the filament wound needs a layer of carbon aerosleeve to hold up on top of the 7 layers (4 tip to tip) across the fins.

Warren

PS: John, let's talk turkey here, I personally plan to kill the club record with my bird so a mere $100 that the record will fall isn't sufficient motivation nor personal enough. How about we say $100 that YOU take the contest AND take the club G record in the same flight against same terms for me? That makes the stakes even and personal. Aside from the currently $200 pot for the 2006 Single Shot Sweepstakes, how about we go head to head on this side bet. If one of us takes the club record AND the SSS, the other ponies up $100? If neither one of us do, no one's out a dime.

$100 side bet? hmmm... this is getting interesting. PS: John, let's talk turkey here, I personally plan to kill the club record with my bird so a mere $100 that the record will fall isn't sufficient motivation nor personal enough. How about we say $100 that YOU take the contest AND take the club G record in the same flight against same terms for me? That makes the stakes even and personal. Aside from the currently $200 pot for the 2006 Single Shot Sweepstakes, how about we go head to head on this side bet. If one of us takes the club record AND the SSS, the other ponies up $100? If neither one of us do, no one's out a dime.

Warren,

lots of interesting gamesmanship going on here--just wanted to get you to admit that you were sandbagging us with predictions of high 5's taking the pot. 😛 But I still like the idea of a sidebet pool--if others want to throw in 20 bucks with a number of feet, believe it should be done prior to first SSS.

The sss has less interest for me tho I will definitely give it the college try, than the ssss--just because the odds of finding it (luck) play such a significant role. Maybe losing my e alt record attempt out at Crash recently dampened my enthusiasm and/or having seen what a g80 in a min diam rocket does--neck snapping, vanishing act--has something to do with it. But I will consider any mano-a-mano proposal for the super sss. Not being a wimp here, like you have many irons in the fire, and flying an N/M to 30k out at LDRS is taking huge amts of time from other projects, in fact has virtually monopolized all of my building time and resources. I think the L1400 shot you propose is very ballsy--I may use one friday in a wring out flight for my L3 if Tim is here with the goodies in time. Even a 4 inch 8.5 ' 15 lb rocket hits mach or w/in spitting distance on the motor so a min diam shot is just incredibly gutsy, and as mentioned may exceed the speed of FWFG. Best of luck on that and the L record,
John S

We're all thinking (and spending) on MHM, and this event (SSS) goes on until the end of the year. There's time to sim, test, and launch. I haven't even spun the right nosecone yet. Takes time. I just bought my first MAWD... and while I'm not thrilled about the chance of losing it, this is what we do. It's the challenge. Competition under the same conditions is what it's all about. We all love high power, but this is all about skill and modeling techniques (not that HPR isn't; it is). Yeah, luck, too. And, we will all learn from each other. That's also what it's all about.

Bruce,

agreed, and equally in need of the perfect NC. God how I need a lathe. Anyone out there with one? Electronics and propellant ingredients have just slaughtered my budget--good news is I have enough to make something like 50 # of APCP. Thats one Hoag event and small change 🙁
JS

Entries into the Single Shot Sweepstakes will be accepted through the close of flight ops on Sunday at MHM OR when the first person takes a shot at it. I'm personally planning on a test flight of my bird at MHM, but probably won't make the real flight until later in the summer when the air is hot and thin.

Warren