BPASA

Paul's TARC team ranks 17th in the 2015 finals out of 700 teams in the USA!

  Home   2017   2016   2015   2014   2013   2012   LDRS XXXI   2011   Rocketflite   Cluster Box   Turbine Rocket Saucer
  Fireworks   TOGinator   HellBoy   Apollo Saturn V   Hot Rod Nitro FireBall   VooDoo Daddy   NERRF   Movies

VooDoo Daddy
please see links above for later flights

Videos:    4 flights including 3 stage 16 engine and 2 stage 16 engine flights!     2012 lucky flight 13: 4x D + 4x E
More info:   2012 flights  

Flights 1-4:
Scratch built in the winter of 2007 from an Estes Big Daddy kit plus a bunch of LOC tubing (1" for body tubes, 3" for tube fins).
Engine ejection on the central four engines. 36 inch nylon chute and 12 ft tubular nylon harness.
Most often flying as a single-staged 8x 24mm cluster.
Has also flown twice staged on 16x D engines.       

          flight 1                         flight 2 and 3                                            flight 3   photo by Dave Morey
 

 
flight 4: Passive altimeter in white pod reported 1458 feet.
Ejection charge blew off one outboard nose cone despite vent holes, so removed them all.
The 1941 Historical Aircraft Group Airfield and museum at the NYPOWER launch site was very cool.
 

  VooDoo Daddy Staged and Clustered 2007   Video:  4 flights including 3 stage 16 engine and 2 stage 16 engine flights!   

Built first and second stage boosters, both with 2.6 inch tube fins. First stage had 8 engines for a quick liftoff, second stage had 4, sustainer rocket had 4. Both boosters had a two inch gap between stages with four 1/4 inch square vent holes just below the engines for the next stage.

Flight 5 had a total of 16 D engines in three stages.
Stage 1: core: four D12-0 and outboard: four D11-P
Stage 2: four D12-0
Stage 3: four D12-5

At 276 Ns this was a long burning H powered BP flight. Put a Perfectflite MAWD in a small pod to trigger an apogee ejection charge as backup to engine deployment. 

Thanks to Tony Vincent for pictures at the pad and in flight.

SUCCESSFUL FLIGHT!  All 16 engines fired in 3 stages.

Flew on Sunday, 9/16/07, at the Amesbury CMASS launch at just after 2pm. With stages was 64 inches tall and 4.4 lbs at liftoff.

Flight started straight and gradually arced downwind. Third stage was mostly horizontal and about 600 feet up. First and second stages were found easily in the field. The sustainer (with my MAWD) went across the tree line and river, requiring some driving and then walking through fields and deep dense brush for nearly two hours for recovery. Thanks to Scott, Dan, Mike and Paul for helping in the search.

Backup MAWD ejection fired. First stage separated perfectly and can be used again. Second stage held on slightly too long and got toasted. Sustainer is in perfect shape.

As to why the flight was not more straight, the stages may not have been perfectly aligned with the sustainer at launch. I spent three hours (until 2:30am) sanding the inside of the two stages to try to get just the right fit and alignment, and was reasonably successful. However friction fitting three stages with complex shapes was a challenging (and fun) proposition.

Have used Rocketflite Magnelite (kit) igniters for all cluster ignitions in 2007 and have ignited many engines successfully.
Highly recommend these igniters.

  Flights 6-8:

 
flight 6: Paul smiling as he thinks about fire and smoke.

All engines fired.

            flight 7                                        flight 8: Paul's first cluster                 .
Flight pictures by Print Your Hobby
 

  Voodoo Daddy Staged and Clustered 2008   Video:  4 flights including 3 stage 16 engine and 2 stage 16 engine flights!

At the CMASS 11/1/08 launch the VooDoo Daddy went up for a clustered and staged flight again on 16 D engines.
This time it was a two stage flight:
stage 1: 4x D12-0 core and 4x D11-P outboards - was able to reuse the first stage from the 2007 flight
stage 2: 4x D12-5 core and 4x D11-P outboards - sustainer rocket going for 9th flight
At 280 Ns = H power, nearly 4 second burn, with BP engines.

The first stage core engines fired the second stage core engines, and a Perfectflite MT3G timer fired the second stage outboards at 1.9 seconds. There was also an HA45K altimeter to fire a single deploy ejection charge at apogee, with engine deploy backup. Two Duracell 9V alkalines in parallel supplied power to both devices.

The VooDoo Daddy wired up with 8 MF ematches on the first stage, 4 on the second stage and one more for ejection.
The two stage flight fired all 16 D engines.

 
          rocket looks about as wired up as a Borg               bunch of Vikings checking out what's on the pad

There was no electronics bay in the rocket, so a small (24mm) pod contained the timer and altimeter. The electronics pod, the batteries and wiring were all taped to the outside of the rocket. When the RSO questioned whether the batteries would stay attached to the rocket, I assured him confidently that I would add more "rocketry" tape at the pad.

Thanks to Doug Gardei for this series of pictures.

SUCCESSFUL FLIGHT!  All 16 engines fired in 2 stages.

The rocket lifted off straight up with a quiet hiss and a thick cloud of smoke. The first stage was partially under power when it was kicked off to one side by the upper stage, causing a brief twist in the flight path at staging. Then the rocket returned to a flight path going straight up, reaching 1316 ft altitude.

Had to climb through brambles and dense brush then pulled rocket from a small tree. Top of first stage was burned too much to be used again, and the nose cone needed minor repair. Other than that, the VooDoo Daddy was in great shape.

Fired all 16 engines in both stages plus the ejection charge.

Used Rocketflite MF ematches for all 18-29mm ignitions and ejections in 2008 with 99% reliability. I highly recommend them.

Flights 10-12:

Good help is hard to find          flight 11 at CMASS               flight 12 at NERRF              

At NERRF 5 Paul and I launched the Voodoo Daddy and the Viper 4 at the same time.
The MF ematches in the Voodoo Daddy fired the motors more quickly than the ML igniters in the Viper.