Found Collection

Hello all!

A while back (guess a year or so ago) some cat posted that some
person or persons had flew an Estes Mosquito a bunch of times.  Does any
one out there rember the number of times and what motors they used.
Curiosity killed the cat.

--Ryan

Mark D. Jilson  - Digital Customer Support Center
                  Colorado Springs, Colorado

NAR #54156 -- COSROCS, In Thrust We Trust

At the last LDRS, I launched my daughter's M. to 15,000 feet on an L750.

(I'll grant you that it was in the payload section of a LaserLOC 3.1 at
the time, but it did make it to 15,000 ft.)

Tom "Useless Post? What Useless Post?" Burns

I'm extremly envious of the DARS folks....

The views expressed do not represent my employer.

Jerry Irvine

"But he flew a BIC pen once and intentionally removed the ejection
charge.  Sure it wrote first time, every time, but look at the price in
safety code ethics!"

--

Box 1242, Claremont, CA 91711 USA
Opinion, the whole thing.

: >
: >Hello all!
: >
: >A while back (guess a year or so ago) some cat posted that some
: >person or persons had flew an Estes Mosquito a bunch of times.  Does any
: >one out there rember the number of times and what motors they used.
: >Curiosity killed the cat.
: >
: >--Ryan

: A few years ago at NARCON in Colorado Springs, a young man flew a Mosquito
: for the 15th or 16th time with all flights being A10-3T (according to him
: and I have no reason to doubt him).  At that time Mike Hellmund of Estes
: acquired the rocket with intentions of adding it to an Estes collection.

: Mark D. Jilson  - Digital Customer Support Center
:                   Colorado Springs, Colorado

: NAR #54156 -- COSROCS, In Thrust We Trust

I was at that event, and I remember it flying several times there, at
a minimum. An amazing record.  My daughters and I flew Mosquitos for
the first time last weekend.  Oldest daughter loses her's on school roof.
We were 300 feet from school, and it went straight up, but it went so
UNBELIEVABLY high that the slight breeze carried it an incredible
distance horizontally.  Next, youngest daughter flies her Mosquito, and
youth's incredible eyesight spots it several hundred feet away.
I fly next, and mine just flat out disappears, after an apparently straight
boost.

We have more motors (all A10s), so we convince Lindsey to fly again
(since she is only one with rocket).  Goes straight up, but no wind,
we all lose it, and it falls 10 feet from Megan -- she hears it coming
in.  OK, time for 3rd launch, and trajectory is like all the others.
It is lost like the others, and we still have motors. :-(

We will go back and walk the fields, hopefully finding the two that
we think didn't land on roofs.  I believe the only place to really
fly Mosquitos is the desert, where anything shows on hardpacked
sand. :-)

Family record:  3 flights, and hopefully to be found for more attempts.
--
Lee Reep  

Two things I have done are:

1) When I visited a launch/meeting of CRASH, the Denver-area NAR chapter,
one of the members had attached reflective silver mylar to the fins and
body of his Mosquito.  The sparkly reflections way-up-high make it much
easier to acquire and maintain visual contact.

2) (This implies I never launch it while alone).  When it is my daughter's
turn to launch, I stand at least 75 yards back from the launcher.  Even
with the minimal smoke trails from 13mm motors, I find the track easier
to follow when viewed from a distance, rather than directly below the
flight path.

Those things, and, oh yeah, only using 1/2A's in the Mosquito have kept
us finding our latest "Mossy" after [less than half a dozen] launches.

Dave

Was it really the breeze?  The usual problem I have is that when the
ejection charge kicks out the motor, the resultant "thrust" kicks the
rocket itself very quickly in a direction that's likely to be pretty
random compared to the rest of the flight.

BillW

: Was it really the breeze?  The usual problem I have is that when the
: ejection charge kicks out the motor, the resultant "thrust" kicks the
: rocket itself very quickly in a direction that's likely to be pretty
: random compared to the rest of the flight.

: BillW

For the first launch, we definitely had a breeze.  Your observation may
explain why the other flights, with apparently no breeze, still had
varying paths after ejection.
--
Lee Reep  

Yes!  That was called BT-10, if you recall.  :-)

--
Lee Reep  

Mark

Perhaps about a square mile of salt flats would allow them to be
found.  I think I'd want binoculars to scan for the rocket on
the ground.  The ideal range site would be bent grass,
slightly bowl shaped, and about 20 miles square wouldn't it?

The mylar fin idea really does sound interesting too!  Think I'll have to
try that.

Paul.

Fly Baby Fly!