Dick Stafford's Rocket Dungeon Blog
The Chesapeake Sea Monster is on, like Donkey KongI have proceeded to cut things up and glue things together, so I guess there is no doubt that I'll build an ekranoplan. That doesn't mean I'll be able to convince the RSO to let it fly. The photo below shows the start of the forward motor mount plate. If you click through to my Flickr ...[Read More]
No complaints here...the Chesapeake Sea Monster swims onAfter complaining in my previous post, my mysterious wrist pain spontaneously disappeared. It must have been fixed by all that November yard work. As a result, I finished cutting the forward motor mounting plate. Yay! I applied one quick layer of Fill'n'Finish and tacked it on. Then, The ...[Read More]
Chesapeake Sea Monster's tail section dry-fitI am posting this photo to give my readers a sense of the scale of this beastie. It seems longer than it should be but I double checked the overall dimensions. Maybe that's because the nose is about twice as long as it should be and the end of the tail will have to be trimmed to to meld with ...[Read More]
So, how heavy is too heavy?I was thinking about the mass of the Chesapeake Sea Monster. My rough weigh-in of parts is around 17 oz w/o any nose weight, and motors. I bet it will come in around 20 oz. The motors will weigh about 14 oz. So, how much weight can five D12's and eight C6's lift? Luckily, there is a ...[Read More]
But, what about the launch lug?My original plan was to have rail buttons on the bottom side of the Chesapeake Sea Monster. Flipping the Tres mount around killed that idea. I then thought about lugs offset on the bottom just below the main wing. Last night, I decided that a lug on the centerline between the forward mounted motors ...[Read More]
Need to scrounge a launch lug and get some more stickers...Daddyisbar again shared his experience and convinced me to use a 3/8" or 1/2" launch lug on the Chesapeake Sea Monster. I wonder what would be a good source for a ~6'-7" lug? Repurposed material of course. I haven't used a big lug in years - the lack of rail buttons has me all discom ...[Read More]
"What, Me worry?""Your item was undeliverable as addressed at 7:54 pm on November 10, 2015. It is being returned if appropriate information is available." YIKES! that can't be good. Unfortunately, USPS is closed today so my motors are probably on the way back to Hobbylinc. Lord knows how long it will take to ...[Read More]
Chesapeake Sea Monster good news, bad news and progress...and kudos to HobbylincFirst the bad news. It appears our USPS carrier is not delivering packages after dark. After the first missed delivery, the status on their page was something like "undeliverable...we will attempt to return to sender." Today, it was also not delivered, however, my wife ran the carrier down and made ...[Read More]
Chesapeake Sea Monster updateThe Avery full sized labels came today and I have started slapping them on. In this photo, the tail section is just dry-fit. In fact, the tail-mounted 24mm mount wasn't on the flip side at the time the photo was taken. So, let's see what's left other than sanding, filling, filleting, and paint. ...[Read More]
Chesapeake Sea Monster, a few steps closer!Here is one view of the Chesapeake Sea Monster (more on Flickr). Tail is dry fit. No transitions on the tail or upper launch lug. I am deciding on whether she will be gray, as seen on the cone, or white. Decisions, decisions.[Read More]
The ekranoplan is crawling alongAfter recovering from a URTI (which also kept me off the field this past weekend), I have resumed work on the Chesapeake Sea Monster. The photo shows one of the transitions that I have been talking about. I made these from a white styrofoam cone from Hobby Lobby. I really hate that rough craft ...[Read More]
The Chesapeake Sea Monster is a real swingerI took advantage of this mild and sunny day to do my swing test. I my heart hiccupped as it initially started belly forward. However, it quickly righted itself and went totally nose first! Yay. I tried a second time with no wimpy startup and it went straight from the get go. Double yay. The Force ...[Read More]
The Chesapeake Sea Monster, the final build postHere it is with my typical '10ft paint job'. 'Nuff said about that! You can see that it sports a Maryland-themed blue crab and the MDRA logo. These fit the name just fine! I couldn't find any commercial stickers that were of a reasonable size for the model. Even the smaller MDRA logos were too big. ...[Read More]
More swinging with the Chesapeake Sea MonsterSince the only comments from anyone who may have to hide under their car involved more swing tests, that's what I did. And to think this came from someone who's 'handle' in Mayhem :) Actually, I only did one swing test - the after burnout version. It passed. I was also going to swing it with spent ...[Read More]
Launch Report 2016-6 (solo)Location: a park in the next county over Weather: low 80's, cloudy, wind 0+ Total flights: Today - 3; YTD - 52 Total motors: Today - 5; YTD - 55 Motors by class YTD: MMX-1, 1/2A-2, A-12, B-2, C-19, D-3, E-8, F-4, G-4 The main purpose of this outing was to fly the Baby Chesapeake Sea Monster on a ...[Read More]
Rocket launch fix ups in progressChesapeake Sea Monster - I cleaned up the torn paper left behind when the rear wing snapped off and filled the exposed areas with Fill'n'Finish. I decided not to re-paper these areas but rather just to fill the grain and hit it with white primer. I am gluing the wing back on with the same Titebond ...[Read More]
Video of the Chesapeake Sea MonsterWith a hat tip to MDRA (the enablers) and Peter Abresch (the videographer). Very straight flight with no attempt to fly (or ride a cushion of air).[Read More]
It glides! It glides!Well, I consider the first flight test a success. It seems to glide when hand tossed across the yard. A little better against the wind than with it. And the foam survived the initial set of hard nose dives without losing any parts. I merely wedged on a canard that is sized like the CSM's forward ...[Read More]
Foam ekrano-glider progressProgress on the foam Chesapeake Sea Monster was delayed by a long weekend getaway (which also caused me to miss both August launches). I still hadn't figured out the entire motor mount/flipping canard design. So, I just started cutting wood anyway. Here is a photo of the mount dry fit in the ...[Read More]
The Best of 2016Time again to post my favorite rocket stuff from the past year. For the first time since I've been compiling this list, I didn't come up with 10 items. I was on track to do so, but the weather and life, in general, got in the way. The good news is I hope to have a couple of next years items in the ...[Read More]
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