The Fourth Flight of the Galactic Zephyr

aka:

Commander Kip Quasar's Galactic Zephyr and the Furious Inferno of the Dangerous Sweet Thang

photo by Tsolo T. Tsolo

This is the only photo in the sequence that really needs any commentary. I zoomed in on the nozzle to show how there is barely a hint of a flame is this huge sugar motor, and instead it produces this thick white smoke. I find that amazing.

Three years passed since the Zephyr's third flight. This piece of magnificent sci-fi Americana stood gathering dust, tucked inside the portico just outside our front door. It isn't easily visible from the street, which is a good thing — I'd be getting letters from my homeowner's association twice a week if it was. Please have the decency not to tell them.

(People often ask how my wife, who has a well-deserved reputation as an impeccable decorator, would put up with such a trailer-trash eyesore. She was quite disturbed about it for a while — but then she realized that salesmen and door-to-door solicitors were so absorbed in it when they rang our bell that they were knocked right off their script. This put her at quite an advantage — so she learned to put up with it.)

There were really no plans for a fourth flight until my friend Burl Finkelstein started experimenting with Sorbitol-based propellant. At one point he began experiencing a mysterious string of catastrophic failures like the one shown in the photo to the right. I was giving him a friendly ribbing about it, and mentioned that my wife would thank him if he were to make a similar sugar motor for the Zephyr — not so much because she loved to see the rocket fly, but because she had grown tired of it standing outside our front door in the entry way. Such a motor could potentially remove the Zephyr from our portico forever.

This is how ideas are born. We began looking at the calendar and agreed on a suitable date for Burl to ship one of his candy motors to Phoenix and join me here for a launch. We agreed on ARG5, the regional launch sponsored by the local Tripoli club AHPRA.

Flight Preparations

So Burl undertook the task of perfecting his rocket motors, and I started preparing for the fourth flight of the Galactic Zephyr.

The photo at left shows the 4-inch diameter Sorbitol, Dextrose and Potassium Nitrate grains that Burl cast for this flight. The grains in the box got shipped to Phoenix and the grains in the bags were flown at Orangeburg, SC on February 10, 2008.

That flight, incidentally, did not result in any candy-coated explosions.

Burl immediately shipped his motor casing to Phoenix after the Orangeburg flight. Interestingly, the casing arrived before the propellant since it was shipped by air, while the propellant crept along through surface routes.

This photo was taken during the test fit of the casing into the business end of the Zephyr. This was also the time to make sure that the motor retention would be adequate.

This would be the first Zephyr flight where I would be using my own ground equipment. The Heavy Pad is strong enough to hold the Zephyr but does not have the right configuration to support its wide stance — so I needed to add a support structure.

I designed a plywood triangle to attach three support arms that would extend past the blast plate. The fins of the Zephyr would rest on these arms. I used the drawing above (which shows as aft view of the Zephyr, a top view of the plywood triangle and a top view of the blast plate) to align the necessary holes.

This configuration allows me to do the final prep on the Zephyr out at the pad and insert the launch rod into the rocket as it rests horizontally on its saw-horse stands. I can kick out the aft stand and lift the nose of the rocket to attach the launch rod to the pad, and two people can raise the rocket off the stands upright onto the pad.

I will point out that the launch lug is located at about the 5:00 position (7:00 if looking down from the top) on the Zephyr and not at 6:00 as shown on the drawing. I had forgotten when I drew these plans that the avionics bays are located in the 6:00 position, and the launch lugs were relocated to accommodate this. So I fixed the hole location when I made the platform but left the drawings to prove that I am human after all. Just in case you had doubts.

This handsome guy is my dad, who is visiting Phoenix for a week or so. He is a retired industrial arts teacher, so this pad modification project was a perfect way to get him to earn his keep.

And this handsome giant of a man is Burl Finkelstein, maker of the awesome and powerful N-impulse sugar motor. He flew to Arizona from Georgia to oversee the flight — mostly, I believe, because he was concerned that without strict supervision I would blow my arm off .

Here Burl is loading the motor casing with the seven candy fuel grains.

Burl and I had been corresponding for years, and this was the first time we actually met face-to-face. Having Burl here for the launch made this weekend one of the highlights of my rocketry career. Burl is an extremely accomplished individual (both inside and outside of rocketry) and I have a very great respect for him and his many achievements. For example, in addition to the various accomplishments listed in his biography, he also does stained glass. Wow.

I think Burl spent most of his sleep-deprived weekend silently horrified at my inexplicably irrational and unsound methods, and at my overall lack of efficiency. He consoled himself by spending his spare minutes redesigning the electrical wiring of my house, recalculating the foreign trade deficit, and learning Portuguese.

Burl and I went out to watch some of that ARG 5 launches on Saturday, then came home to do the advance prep work on the Zephyr. Once I started poking around indside the parachute compartments, I realized that that the main chute tube was damaged — likely from my exuberant ejection charges. Luckily I have plenty of resin and fiberglass around, so I slapped on a patch while Burl aimed a flashlight down the tube.

Burl titled this photograph "Optimistic'. I think my expression looks more like I just drank the bong water — which one might expect since I'd had my face pressed continuously against the tube opening while it was venting poly fumes.

Burl was insistant that he include my trash containers in the picture. Note the recycling bin: I may spend the weekends expanding my carbon footprint, but during the week I'm as green as a dill pickle.

Sunday February 24, 2008 we were out at the range bright and early. So were the girls from Red Bull, driving their decorated Mini-Cooper and handing out free energy drinks from their Red Bull cooler backpacks.

Red Bull was actually at the launch because of me. I had talked to a Red Bull representative and offered to repaint the Zephyr with a Red Bull logo. They politely declined. So as added incentive I also offered:

• To replace the giant Red Bull can on the Mini-Cooper with the Zephyr and drive around by the airport to see if anyone from the TSA would notice; and,
• To change their slogan from "Red Bull Gives You Wings" to "Red Bull Causes Copious Fumes To Be Propelled At Hyper-Velocity Out Your Exhaust Nozzle."

While I was back at the parking lot hanging out with the Red Bull girls, Burl was busy out at the launch site where he single-handedly:

• folded the parachutes,
• packed the parachutes,
• made the ejection charges,
• installed the ejection charges,
• labeled the arming switches,
• assembled the rocket,
• put together the launch pad,
• loaded the rocket onto the launch pad,
• set up the launch controller,
• inserted the igniter,
• changed the oil on the van,
• fixed the squeal in the rear disk brakes, and,
• removed all vegetation within a 1000 foot radius of the pad.

I really like the depth of field in this photo — I don't know what the settings are on Burl's camera but the rocket really pops against the background. In the foreground is my good friend Eric Burch, who came all the way from Tucson out to the pad to ensure that we had everything under control.

• Introduction (narrative)
• Flights
• First Flight
• Second Flight
• Third Flight
• Fourth Flight
• Fifth Flight
• Construction Package
• Scale Dimensional Drawing
• Airframe Construction
• Nose Construction
• Fin Construction
• Recovery Package
• Avionics (Control Devices)
• Recovery Operation Description
• Recovery Hardware and Components
• Pyrotechnic Devices
• Shear Pins
• Ejection Testing
• Stability Evaluation
• Launch Pad Description
• Stability Overview
• RockSim Simulation
• AeroCFDSimulation
• Barrowman Calculations
• Conclusions
• Postscript - the "anti-zephyr"
• Flight Performance Parameters
• Motor Description
• Launch Weight
• Launch Velocity
• Estimated Drag Coefficient
• Maximim Altitude and Velocity
• Procedural Checklists (MS word document)
• Pre-Launch Checklist
• Motor Preparation and Installation
• Recovery Preparation
• Parachute and Harness Preparation
• Control Devices Preparation
• Pyrotechnics Preparation
• Launch Checklist
• Pad Procedures
• Launch Sequence
• Misfire Procedures
• Recovery Checklist
• Normal Recovery Procedures
• Flight Failure Procedures
• Calculations and Resource Files
• Maiden Flight Video
• RockSim File
• M1010 WRASP/RockSim motor data
• M1010 Flight Simulation
• M1000 WRASP/RockSim motor data
• M1000 Flight Simulation
• Barrowman Calculations
• Descent Calculations
• Parts List
• HyperTEK Manual.pdf