The Umerg team L to R, Greg Oseid, Gary Stroick, Rob Grygar, Dave Leininger, Steve Anderson, Bill Assimies, Tom Tweit.

The UMERG team (Upper Midwest Experimental Rocketry Group) traveled to launch our rocket, Locomotive Breath, at the Tripoli Rocketry Association’s Research rocketry launch, BALLS, on the Black Rock dry lake bed, in NW Nevada, near Gerlach.  The trip out was fantastic, without any mechanical problems, and the weather & driving was great.  We made probably our best time traveling out to this launch on this trip.

With that being said, the rest of the time was interesting to say the least.  We had colder weather than anyone recalls, and wind, which you expect at the Black Rock; but adding the cold to the wind made the trip memorable.  Saturday’s launch was scrubbed at about 1 pm because of the wind.  Temps plummeted overnight to the teens or low twenties, causing trouble with many of the large projects which spent the night on the pad.  Apparently, even though it warmed up a bit on Sunday, the batteries were still cold enough to loose much needed power for staging and deployment charges.  Sunday afternoon’s weather was not much better, with occasional snow squalls randomly moving through the area.  Snow & ice in the mountains east of Salt Lake City made for a white Knuckle drive on the return trip.

UMERG’s high altitude project, ‘Locomotive Breath’, was launched on Friday like many of the projects were, as reports of the upcoming bad weather created a sense of urgency.  The rocket screamed off of the pad much more aggressively than any of us had expected, only to rapidly shred in the air at about three seconds into the flight.  The longest portion of time for the flight, was all of the “rocket rain” fluttering or spinning down in an elongated debris field.

After analyzing the wreckage, it appears that a weld in the aluminum fin to the base flange, may have had a flaw that could not be seen.  The result was a spectacular, but disappointing flight.  Sometimes the things that go wrong are more interesting to watch than the rockets that perform as they should.  It has been said, “You only learn from your mistakes, not your successes”.  Next time we will be using a bolted fin design.  Analysis is still in progress to improve motor performance.

Locomotive Breath at Launch, about 3 seconds before the shred.

Immediately below is a link to a video of the launch and ‘Death Dance’ of Locomotive Breath.

Locomotive Breath

Here is a collection of videos from Balls that you may enjoy.  The videos, ‘UMERG Balls18‘, and ‘Various flights Balls18‘, show a collection of video clips from the UMERG team, and other flights that were videoed.  The videos with the individual rocket names are full length footage of the rocket flight, as much as I could get.

UMERG Balls18

Skydancer III Balls18

Spike Balls18

T2 Balls18

Heads Up Balls18

Cross-eyed Mary Balls18

Lightspeed Balls18

Robert DeHate 2 Stage Balls18

Tim Covey O Hybrid Balls18

And below is a compilation video of rockets that were not with our group, but I had the ability to capture them here.  If you flew at Balls18, you may see your rocket here.   :)  enjoy.

Various Flights Balls18

Well the group has been hard at work getting ready for our trip to Balls18 in the Black Rock Desert, out on the playa of the Black Rock dry lake bed.  Brian and Tom have been getting the bus ready for the long trip.  Many of the group have been active in mixing propellant for test motors, beer keg rocket, and today the mixing is for Locomotive Breath.

Below are some photos of the group working on Locomotive Breath.  I have photos of this because this is the project where my time has been focused.  If anyone in the group has been taking pictures while working on ‘Cross Eyed Mary’ or the bus, let’s get them posted.  The photos are not representative of everyone who worked on this project, only the those who happened to still be around when we thought of taking a picture.  Enjoy.

Dave Leininger laying out pieces before we started working on them.

Steve Anderson tapping a miriad of holes.

Gary Stroick, Wayne Johnson, and Tom Tweit with motor casing/lower airfram after all holes are tapped.

Coupler

Electronics Bay before being turned on the lathe, welded for us by Jim Brown.

Key Lime Green. Painting before assembly.

Fins now painted yellow, looks like a John Deer. Propellant grains in background.

Below are photos from the ‘Cross-Eyed Mary’ project.

Nose cone being made by Pat Arneson, for 'Cross-Eyed Mary' the beer keg rocket.

Nose cone after creative sanding & some paint.

The keg sits in this part, and the nose cone & threaded rods slide down around the keg to hold it in place.

Booster section of Cross-Eyed Mary, the keg rocket.

For 2009 the UMERG team has two Balls projects.  One is ‘Locomotive Breath’, as in Jethro Tull’s song of the same name.  The other is ‘Cross-eyed Mary’ also going on the theme of Jethro Tull.  You know the tunes will be cranked at launch time.

Locomotive Breath, will be a 6″ minimum diameter ‘P’ project with about 14,000 lbs. of  thrust, flying on a blue propellant.  This will be our “Big” project, going for an altitude of about 70,000 ft, as well as down-link telemetry.

Cross-eyed Mary, will be our entry into the ‘Keg Lofting’ contest.  Three teams will be launching ‘Cornelius’ kegs of ‘Home Brew’ beer.  The final rules are still being hammered out, but it will all be in fun anyway.

Another favorite that may also take to the sky, is the return of ‘The Flying Red Bull Table of Death’.

There is rumor that Rob Grygar’s rocket ‘Spike’ may make a comeback in time for the Balls trip.  Stay tuned.

Stay tuned for more on these projects, as this post will probably be updated as time goes on.  Below are some photos of Locomotive Breath’s nozzle carrier/rear retainer and it’s graphite insert.

___________________________________________________________

Today, August 23, 2009, the UMERG team tested an ‘L’ motor with the propellant that will be used in Locomotive Breath.  The motor tested is a scaled down version of the larger motor.  Locomotive Breath’s motor will not be run at as high of pressures as the test motor was.  The test was successful.  Below is a link to the video of the test.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBVLkmTyXmY

___________________________________________________________

My nephew Alex and myself (Rob Grygar) before launch

On Saturday June 13^th, I flew my rocket ‘Spike’, for my level 3 certification flight. All went as planned, with the help of many people.

“If I have seen a little further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants.” -  Isaac Newton

I would like to thank those who have helped me in my quest for my successful level 3 flight.  Dave Leininger, and Ron Freiheit spent time and expertise reviewing my plans, and making recommendations to help insure a successful flight and landing. Brian Elfert allowed me to use his motor case for the flight, and he has generously let others use the case. Gary Stroick and I talked about the design late night driving back from Black Rock, to try to keep me awake while driving. The design Gary and I talked about was for being able to fly research motors, and aerospike nozzles. Bill Assimies loaned me his drogue chute, because decent rate calculations were showing too fast of a drop, and I needed a larger drogue. Tom Tweit and Carl Hasbargen helped out at the launch tower. There also a host of others, too many to mention, that encouraged me in the process.

Photo of Ron Freiheit, the other TAP, by his rocket in Black Rock.

Special thanks to my wife Helen, who has constantly encouraged and supported me in the process; she has been patient and understanding. Who could ask for more?  And last but not least, thank you God for the dream, the people, and the successful flight.

Dave Leininger (Right) is one of the TAP members.

Spike just getting started.

1/3 of a second after the previous photo.

Recovey systems performed as planned.

The landing site.

Spike, a 40 lb. rocket, launched off of the pad with a force of about 460 pounds of thrust/second, tapering down in it’s 4.2 second burn time, for a total of about 1,200 pounds of thrust.  After burn out, Spike coasted up to 7,200 ft and deployed the drogue cute, falling to about 1,000 feet above ground, then putting out the main cute for a soft landing.

Here is a video link to the flight.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytXc0egQkgE

‘Spike’ was conceived and designed as a multi use platform, for use with research motors, testing designs of aerospike nozzles and head end ignition; as well as for experimenting with clustering and airstarts after the certification flight. To accomplish this task, I chose a wider airframe, and six fins for a short stable, and not over stable configuration, to limit altitude and reduce wind cocking.  Below are descriptions of materials, and photos of the build.

Dual deployment, (drogue chute and main chute) is out the front of the airframe.  The airframe is 7.5 inches in diameter, made of craft phenolic tubing, with fiberglass reinforcing.  Fins are made of a composite board, consisting of an inner layer of NOMEX (TM) honeycomb, sandwiched between thin G-10 fiberglass.  The rest of the support structures are made of 1/2 inch plywood.  The deployment of the main chute at 1,000 feet is released by a ‘Black Sky ARRD’.  (Advanced Retention and Release Device.)  The ARRD was held to the core of the structure by a metal plate that I made with my lathe.  The deployment of the drogue chute at apogee, and the main chute at 1,000 feet, is controlled by a Gwiz LCX  for the primary altimeter, and a PML Co-Pilot for the secondary altimeter.  The base of the rocket has three 38 mm motor mounts for air starting motors, or launching off of a cluster of motors from the launch pad.  In the nose cone, there is an auxilliary bay to house a tracking transmitter, which aids in locating the rocket should it land out of sight.

TAP member Dave Leininger after signing the certification form

The photos of the building process can be enlarged by clicking on the thumbnails in the gallery below.

Sunday May 24th saw the successful launch of Big Yeller, for the record of the largest amature rocket launched in Minnesota.

Tripoli Minnesota held it’s research launch on a rocket flying perfect day.  Team Umerg with the rocket, Big Yeller, set the record for largest amateur rocket flown in the state.

Here are some video links to videos of the launch.

UMERG Big Yeller

Big Yeller: Largest Amateur rocket in Minnesota

And below is the link to the on-board video.

Big Yeller North Branch Launch, on-board video

For more information, you can read the article below.

Big Yeller made the centerfold of the December 2008 issue of Extreme Rocketry magazine.

There is also another photo and short writeup on page 30 as one of the featured projects of LDRS. The photographs were taken by Brent Hill at LDRS27 in Argonia Kansas.

The future is bright!  We have a great core group of people who want to build and fly large projects.  We’ll be well represented at a number of the big launches this year, and we have a couple new projects in the works.

Our Fleet for 2009:

• Big Yeller - This rocket has flown several time and will fly again.  When and where are still to be determined, but we’re planning on flying it at our home field in North Branch early in the 2009 Minnesota rocket season.
• Locomotive Breath - This is a brand new project.  We’re planning to fly it at BALLS this year if not before.  It’s a whole lot of motor with some fins and a nose cone thrown in for good measure.
• Flying Red Bull Table of Death - It’s a table, it’s a rocket, watch it fly.
• Yet to be name Keg Lofter

Launches our members are planning to attend:

• Winter Nationals 2009
  (Palm Beach Count, Florida)
• Fire on the Farm 2009
  (Pickrell, Nebraska)
• Rocket Mavericks 2009 International Civilian Space Competition
  (Black Rock, Nevada)
• LDRS 28
  (Penn Yan, New York)
• BALLS 18
  (Black Rock, Nevada)
• Tripoli Minnesota (monthly club launches)
  (North Branch, Minnesota)

Since it’s inception in the Spring of 2008, UMERG has flown a few rockets and attended a few launches.  Hopefully the folks that participated in those flights will post more info here.  For now, here is the list:

Launches we’ve attended in some manor:

• Fire on the Farm 2008
  (Pickrell, Nebraska)
• Rocket Mavericks 2008 International Civilian Space Competition
  (Black Rock, Nevada)
• LDRS 27
  (Argonia Kansas)
• BALLS 17
  (Black Rock, Nevada)
• Tripoli Minnesota (monthly club launches)
  (North Branch, Minnesota)

Rockets we’ve flown as a group:

• Big Yeller
• Totally Screwed (this was actually flown before UMERG was formed, but those who participated in that project became the original members of UMERG.