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Arcas
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This rocket is a great, easy-to-prep
sport flyer for 54mm and 76mm motors. It is 4" in diameter by ~7 feet tall with a 75mm motor mount. It is capable of flying with up to an M1315 but I doubt I'll ever do that with this version of it.
The idea for this rocket mostly came from my previous two Arcases (Arcai?). It's a very cool design, and 2.6" wasn't enough.
Click through to see how I built this bigger version. |
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| Flight
Log |
Flight
Details |
Construction
and Modifications |
RockSim
File |
Flight Log
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Flight #
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Motor
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Electronics
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Performance
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Comments
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| 1 |
J275W |
RRC2 |
1367 ft. |
Drag separation. Large zipper, cracked payload
coupler. |
| 2 |
K350S |
RRC2, ALTACC |
4463 ft. |
Good flight. No damage. |
| 3 |
L1000S |
RRC2, ALTACC |
9554 ft. |
Good flight. No damage. |
| 4 |
J415W |
RRC2, ALTACC |
4745 ft. |
Good flight. Deployed main at apogee. No
damage. |
| 5 |
K700F |
RRC2, ALTACC |
5345 ft. |
Loud, straight flight. No damage. |
| 6 |
K970R |
RRC2 |
8030 ft. |
Perfect EX flight with dual deployment. No damage. |
| 7 |
K285F/DH |
RRC2, ARTS |
4543 ft. |
First 76mm motor! Awesome chuffy, sputtery, smoky
flight. No damage. |
| 8 |
L850W |
RRC2, ARTS |
13,681 ft. |
First L motor. Great screaming flight to over 13,000
feet and through Mach 1. No damage. |
| 9 |
L650R |
RRC2, ARTS |
10,177 ft. |
Red motor chuffed twice before coming up to
pressure. Great slow flight with incredible flame. No
damage. |
Flight #9, November 2004
| Red motors are way cool. So when I was offered one to
fly in a 76mm 3500 Ns case, I couldn't opt not to. This formula was
the original "Red Rhino" from Kosdon East, I think. I
prepped the rocket in record time as the day was winding down - it was
about 3:00 and I had only flown one rocket (AIR on a K410). The
weather was still perfect, so might as well put this one up too. I
ran out to the pad and put the rocket on the rail, stood it upright, and
installed an electric match with about a foot of Thermalite to get the
stubborn motor to light. I returned to the rangehead and summoned
Les Derkovitz to push the button. In the laid-back but safe style of
Tripoli Vegas, we were ready to go almost instantly. 3, 2, 1,
go. POP! The e-match fired and lit the Thermalite. The
rocket began to smoke. Fffft. Ffffffffffft. Chuff.
Chuff. Fffft. Roarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. Finally, the rocket lifted
off the rail ever so slowly and began its climb skywards - 4.19 gees
according to the ARTS. I was afraid that the rocket on a six-foot
rail would be hit by a wind gust at a vulnerable low speed, but the day
was beautiful, and the rocket kept going straight. The motor burned
for just about six seconds with a few chuffs and pops on the way up, and a
LASER RED flame. Rick Magee said he was just entering the launch
site when I flew, and the flame was as bright and vibrant as a Urinsco Redeye.
Not bad. Eventually, the drogue appeared at apogee, and the main a
short while later at 1000 feet. I recovered the rocket on foot in
the bushes at the edge of Jean Dry Lake just as the sun was setting.
I listened to the altimeter chirp out 10,177 feet as I hoofed it back to
the rangehead. A great end to a great day of flying!
Two L motors in the Arcas in one month. I never thought that
would happen... |
Video
here
Off the rail... slowly...
Picking up speed as the motor burns more steadily. Very bright
flame!
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Flight #8, November 2004
| After a five-month break, I decided to go for broke once
again with the Arcas and put a really big motor in it. When first
building it, a 3" motor mount seemed NUTS - I would never fly this
rocket with something that big, geeze, that's like what, an L motor?
But when Rocketsilo 2.0 closed a while back, I picked up a 75/3840 case
for a really good price. Well, what else to put it in but a 4"
rocket? So off to Andy Woerner to get an L850W reload, and it sat
around for a while, waiting for me to get the guts and the clear weather
to try it. Finally, it stopped raining just in time for
ROCStock. Sounds like a good time to fly (and possibly shred!) an L
motor in front of a bunch of people. It also helped that Eugene
Cebollero and Jason Toft from The Rocketry Forum would be pilgrimaging out
to Lucerne for this launch - might as well fly something cool for them.
Prep work went fast - it gets easier every time. We started at
about 9:30 and prep was easily finished by 11:00. On to the pad with
a honking big dipped igniter from Kurt Gugisberg, altimeters armed,
cameras ready, and away we went. Rick DuVall got everybody's
attention... "an Aerotech L-8-50!" And the count came...
5, 4, 3, 2, 1. A moment of silence, and then instantly the motor
came on and the rocket tore off the pad on a seven-foot pillar of
fire. It burned, and burned, and burned. The rocket kept
flying on a true course through burnout and kept drilling into the sky as
the delay train left a trail. Finally, a small orange dot confirmed
presence of the drogue chute at the apogee of 13,681 feet. Eric
Williams and I tracked it down to 1000 feet, where the main appeared on
cue courtesy of MissileWorks. The ARTS fired the backup charge at
750 feet, and the rocket returned to the ground not less than 1/4 mile
from the east end of the flight line without damage. A perfect
flight.
Oh yeah, it broke Mach too! |
Coooool!
Passing 3000 feet at motor burnout.
(photos by Eugenio Cebollero)
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Flight #7, June 2004
| Well, I resolved to get the Arcas out at the beginning of
the year and fly her on a K550W. Due to certain circumstances
(hint: J570W, separation, and yokels with shotguns!), that flight never
materialized. I couldn't attend February or March launches (school
musical) and April I ran out of time (finicky hybrid pad). May I
wanted to take a break from complex rockets, and finally June rolled
around. I had an unusual opportunity, though. I recently got
ahold of some 1700 Ns 76mm hardware. What better rocket to try it
out in? I loaded up the case with 1 grain of fast propellant and
one grain of black smokey propellant, christened the motor a K300, and
shoved it in the back of the Arcas. With easy prep, aided by a
nice new G10 altimeter board, we had the rocket on the pad by
10:00. A quick countdown and the button was pushed. The
rocket sat and thought about it for a second, then it began.
Orange flame spewed from the base of the rocket as the motor
pressurized. The fast grain lit first and took the rocket off the
pad s-l-o-w-l-y (4.5 gees according to the ARTS) on its characteristic
yellow tongue of flame. At 54 feet in the air (ARTS data is
great!), the motor POPPED and the smoky grain kicked
in. The acceleration increased to a max of 6 gees and the
rocket continued its ride up to apogee, sputtering and spewing out
orange flame and black smoke the whole way. It probably wasn't the
most effective use of propellant, but let me try to describe to you the
reaction I got from everyone at the site: WOW! COOL! WAY
COOL! After
burnout, the 29mm smoke element provided plenty of tracking smoke up to
apogee, through successful drogue ejection, and also on the return trip
down for about 700 feet. Main ejection was spot on at 1000
feet, and the ARTS backup went off at 750 feet as planned.
Perfection! |
  
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Flight #6, BALLS 2003
| Well, my 2550 motor got crashed (lawn darts from 18K don't do good
things to aluminum ;)), so the Arcas was temporarily grounded from its
upcoming L850 flight.
Temporarily. Sitting around the campfire on Saturday night, Tony
Alcocer offered me one of his remaining stash of "Wimpy Red"
motors. This one was for a 2000 Nsec case, and simmed out to a
K970. He graciously gave it to us for free (though we did give him
a box of DaveyFire 28Bs for SOMETHING), or at least the
propellant. I had the joy of facing, sanding, and coring the
grains for the motor. I then cut the liner and Tony helped me
build it all up. It fit together just like a Kosdon. The
rest of the rocket was prepped with an RRC2 only for
deployment (I trashed my ALTACC on Saturday too!). We put the
rocket on the pad about 11:00, installed the igniter, and pushed the
button. The rocket chuffed twice, then SCREAMED off the pad to
8030 feet. Wimpy, huh?! It arced over at apogee and deployed
the drogue right on time, and the main deployed perfectly at 1000
feet. That was GREAT! Thanks to Tony for the motor, Paul for
the prep help, and Sue McMurray for cheerleading <g>.
P.S. I picked up a new 2550 motor recently -- the L850S combo
will get into the air again real soon!
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Flight #5, January 2003
| Excellent. Clear weather and a launch. That hasn't
happened in a while around here. So we packed up and stuck a K700
in the Arcas just for grins. I had fixed some of the issues we
were having with it-- smaller nylon and new threaded inserts for the
payload bay, along with shear pins to keep that main chute where it
belonged. Counted down and WHAM, the motor came up to
pressure. The Arcas jumped off the pad on a beautiful Kosdon Fast
Propellant flame, and then began its coast to apogee. We were
greeted with the orange R3 drogue, and at 1000 feet, the RRC2 again
fired the main charge, for a textbook recovery. Yet another great
flight. I love this rocket! |
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Flight #4, Turkey Shoot, November 2002
| After the L1000 flight, the Arcas went into hibernation. We
didn't fly it for a while-- weather, new projects, and launch schedules
saw to that. But I was itching to put her back up in the
air. My chance came at the Turkey Shoot in November of 2002.
We had a J415 waiting for something, and this was a perfect motor for
this rocket. Prep was fairly easy and relaxed, due to the massive
fog at the launch site on Sunday morning. And she was ready to fly
by the time the fog lifted. We put her out on pad 11, and armed
altimeters, installed igniters, and snapped photos. Nadine took a
photo of me standing next to the rocket too. Back at the rangehead,
John Pretto called out the count and off she went. A perfectly
straight boost and coast was marred when the main deployed at
apogee. This was due to a bug in the ALTACC. You see, if the
ALTACC's drogue charge loses continuity at ANY TIME during the flight,
it immediately fires the main. Geeze. We stuck the
MissileWorks drogue charge very close to the charge of the ALTACC.
The charge must have sympathetically fired at apogee, and voila, no
drogue continuity. There goes the main chute. This was
confirmed after looking at the ALTACC data, and it showing that it was
in "Main Only" flight mode. Huh. Go figure.
The way to fix this would be to mount a 10k resistor across the drogue
terminals whenever flying a dual deploy rocket. If the igniter
loses continuity, it still reads continuity on the circuit. Oh
well, it was no big deal, I just had to walk a little farther. It
was a great flight. |
Both photos Copyright 2002 Nadine Kinney.
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Flight #3, ROC Launch, December 2001
 Now came the real test.
I had a Kosdon by Aerotech L1000S-P sitting around waiting to be flown.
Just for fun, we put it in the Arcas. We flew this combo at the December 2001 roc launch.
It was a great way to close out the year. The prep work went by fast, and we were on the pad by 11:00 am.
The rocket took off at around 11:10 and streaked into the sky at close to mach 1.
It went 9554 feet and 1099 ft/sec (according to the ALTACC). Once again, the dual deployment worked as planned, but the rocket came down really far away because of a breeze that day.
It came back with only scratches in the paint.
Flight #2, LDRS XX, July 2001
 A
little fiberglass, epoxy, and a new tube later we were back in business, just in time for
LDRS. At LDRS we flew the Arcas again on a Kosdon K350S-P load. This time, the rocket flew beautifully to 4400 feet, with successful dual deployment on the way down.
I must say, seeing the 9 ft. Rocketman chute inflate what only seemed to be 800 feet off the ground (probably because it was) and have the rocket gently touch down just a few feet away was the most awesome sight in my whole rocketry career.
I gotta try that again.
Flight #1, ROCStock 13, June 2001
I decided to try it on a J275 for the first flight (wanted to do a K700 but dad said it was too much).
Just single deployment for this flight, Missile Works on board for the ride. At the pad
I was interviewed by Brent McNeely (I felt so important). It was a great flight, but
never having flown something this big before, neglected to put enough tape on
the separation joint. Midway through the motor burn (~1300 feet), the rocket
drag separated. Oops. The payload section tumbled down on its own and the booster came down with the chute.
Good products, those Sky Angles. It held together even when I threw 350 mph into it.
The only major damage done was a (rather large) zipper down the side of the booster, and the payload coupler cracking.
Design and Construction
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Construction
I'd seen the Rocket R&D kit, but I had some 4" parts laying around so I decided to scratch build
it. The tubes are LOC 4" tubes wrapped in a layer of 6 oz. glass and a 2 oz. veil.
Fins are .093 G10 with a layer of 6 oz. tip to tip and a 2 oz. veil. The motor mount is
Giant Leap flexible phenolic, as are the couplers. Centering rings are 1/2" 9-ply birch plywood.
The nose cone is a PML unit. It's got dual deployment with redundant
altimeters (RRC2 and ALTACC), and Rocketman parachutes. Homemade
rail guides and Monokote lettering finish the rocket off.
Conclusion
This rocket has been my most satisfying project so far.
I plan to fly it on a few flights for fun, like some K1100s and K550s, or
some EX motors (oooo, Skidmark!). Maybe after that I'll try an Aerotech L850 or L1120- hello 15,000 feet!
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