Multi-Stage Day - June 7th  2008

Use a green flight card for any multi-stage rocket and you will entered for a draw from the prize pool.

SAFETY NOTE: Every multi-stage rocket is a HEADS-UP Flight. So keep your eyes on the rocket and remember the booster will be descending separate from the sustainer.

Chris Short’s Two Stage HPR Rocket

Multi Stage rockets,  two stage and up, take some care to launch successfully and safely. Tim at Apogee has an excellent article. There are direct staged and gap staged approaches. If you are using gap staged heed the advice to use vents so the lower stage does not blow off without lighting off the upper stage.

Some multi stage kits include the Estes CC Express Rocket Kit, Estes Renegade Rocket Kit, Estes Comanchee-3 Model Rocket Kit, Fliskit Frick-n-Frack, Flis Corona, Fliskit Nomad and Fliskit Cheetah.

CHAD (Cheap and Dirty) Staging is direct staging and requires no modification to an existing rocket. This is where you add a booster motor with a -0 delay behind the ususal motor. This is done by attaching the top end on the booster to the bottom on the usual motor. You can do this with one wrap of cellophane tape. I would use CHAD staging where the weight of the extra motor does not change the CG that much. Remember CG must be forward of the CP. I have  found that the Estes Snitch can be CHAD staged C6-0 to C6-3.

George Gassaway’s Sun Seeker dropping the first motor.

Rack rockets stack-up the motors CHAD stage style and are supported by spars which also have the fins. Read Dick Stafford’s article. Tom Binford flew a four motor rack rocket at SEARS.

Of course clusters and staging can be combined. The ultimate is the 5-5-1 Saturn Vflown by Randy DeArman.

For the advanced flier the staging can be done with a mercury switch or electronics. See John Stein’s The Launch Pad RIM-67A in this video.

Gary Goldenbaum’s Two Stage with 4 X 24mm cluster

This entry was posted on Sunday, May 25th, 2008 at 12:46 pm and is filed under Announcement, Launch. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.