This is a downscale of Larry Brand's "Bottle Bat 3.0" design that can be found here on RocketReviews.com.
Due to the fact that plastic soft drink bottles have been resized and no longer fit inside standard rocket airframe tubing, a standard BTH-80 nose cone was substituted.
This one is called "Big Pink" for obvious reasons. It has 29mm motor tube and all up minus motor/case it weighs about 16 ounces or about 17 ounces if a 1/8" quick link is used to attach the chute. The fairing on the airframe conceals the knotted shock cord anchor. Standard milspec 550 para cord was used on this rocket. The tube fins are constructed with half doublers for strength to prevent "dreaded tube fin flutter". Five minute epoxy was used throughout the build.
Like most tube fin rockets, it's very wind resistant and climbs straight up. Due to the inherent high drag of tube fins, this one won't even reach 2000' on an H128. This is okay if you like to see the WHOLE flight including deployment. Keep this low altitude performance in mind when selecting recovery delays.
Minimum motor choice should be F52.
| Flight Date: | 2011-04-02 |
| Rocket Name: | Bottle Bat 2.6 (Tube Fin) |
| Flyer's Name: | K Sonesen |
| Motors: | G53-5FJ |
| Expected Altitude: | 1,000.00 Feet |
| Wind Speed: | 5.00 mph |
| Launch Site: | LUNAR - Snow Ranch |
| Actual Altitude: | 1,078.00 Feet |
Nice straight smoky boost with deployment just past apogee. The wind shifted and carried "Big Pink" behind the line of cars and into the creek...where it hit a rock. One flight and I had a wet rocket with a dinged tube fin. Fortunately, the water softened the tube fin enough that I was able to reshape the fin properly. It will need some TLC to look pretty again.
| Stage | Motor(s) |
|---|---|
| 1 | Aerotech G53FJ-5 |
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