Rich DeAngelis's PageAKA: RichD Location: Exton - Southeast Pennsylvania Certification Level: self certified level 0 (heehee) Club Memberships: Southern Pennsylvania Area Association of Rocketry (SPAAR) NAR #503 Favorite Rockets: Estes Nike-X, Bandit, Andromeda & Beta Biography: Born Again Rocketeer: Flew all sorts of Estes Kits as a kid in the '70's. Restored most of them and now building several new kits. Completed a high-tech launcher and working on several other electronic applications for rockets. Mostly just building and flying a bunch of new low-power rockets. I'm creating an ever expanding data base of altitude, speed, etc. readings, as I mostly fly an altimeter in each rocket. In this low power arena I will make all the mistakes I possibly can before moving up to higher power. I'm learing something new about building or preparing rockets with each flight. Member of Lancaster PA's SPAAR, good club. I specialize in (read: "can only afford") smaller (up to E) rockets. Generally a bit anal about flying rockets - never lost a model yet and hope to never loose one, I strive for perfect flights, and learn from all the mistakes (Oh, so many of them!) I will likely be getting into more powerful stuff as my budget allows: F and G at the most.
Favorite Quote: Failure is not an option.
Club Home Page: http://spaar.org/ RocketReviews.com Pages:
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2012-05-06Striker AGM Iris  Flight Previously on its maiden voyage, I sent this model up in gusty winds using a C6-3. For its second flight with the wind calm I thought I could get some extra altitude using a C6-5 with its 2 additional seconds of coasting. The actual delay for this motor was 6.2 seconds, much too much for this... [More]
Tomahawk SLCM  Flight Last flight of the day. I was being pressured into making a quick last flight because the club wanted to pack up for the day. I abandoned my plans to launch a more complex composite-motor flight or a 2-stage flight, and instead opted for a simple flight with a reliable rocket that has historically... [More]
Vector Force  Flight It was time to stop playing around with those little motors and sent the Vector up on a composite D-motor. Because of the expected altitude of this rocket, in addition to the altimeter / accelerometer in the top payload, I installed an audible beeper in the lower payload section to be able to find... [More]
Ricochet  Flight For the Ricochet's second flight of the day, it was time to send this bird far away with its second flight on a C6 motor. This time I selected a 7 second delay in an attempt to reach a record altitude. After ignition it accelerated to a peak of 11.4Gs, burned for 2.3 seconds averaging 2.8Gs for... [More]
Ricochet  Flight A previous flight with a B6-4 ejected a bit early at 350 feet, so I wanted to try a B6-6 this time hoping to break 400 feet. The flight started off well, accelerating at a peak of 11.1 Gs, a few Gs less than the B6-4 flight but quite acceptable. It averaged 4.1 Gs for the 9/10 second burn and... [More]
Sprint  Flight This was the 4th attempt for this rocket to crack 1200 feet. Previously I've recorded 1198 and 1199 feet, so I'm really hungry for that 1200 and I know she can do it. The winds were light when she lit up and accelerated at a peak of 16.2Gs. Acceleration averaged 4.5Gs for the 2.1 second burn. It... [More]
Beta  Flight A10-0T booster, A3-4T sustainer: 157’ This classic rocket was on a first-time mission to gather performance data for a 2-stage flight. I pondered what kind of acceleration and speed would allow a model to surpass 750 feet on just a couple of mini A-motors. The first stage lit and the rocket... [More]
2012-04-01Gamma Ray  Flight The A8 fired for about 6/10 seconds, propelling the rocket to 46 mph. Acceleration was 3.4Gs and peaked at 8.4Gs. It then coasted for 2 seconds to an apogee of 99 feet, hardly affected by the wind gusts. The apogee, speed and acceleration were lower than normal for this model on an A8-3. After... [More]
EAC Viper  Flight First flight of the day. Weather was cool, cloudy and a bit breezy. The Viper flies well in winds, but I chose the A10 over the A3 to get up quickly before the winds could affect the flight too much. The one-second burn accelerated the rocket rapidly straight up, with the highest recorded peak Gs... [More]
Black Diamond  Flight This high-performance rocket can handle gusty winds because it launches very fast and it's added length and noseweight helps keep it stable with it's small, thin fins. Also, having bad luck with parachutes today I was releived to be flying a bird with streamer recovery.
The B motor burned for... [More]
2011-12-20Photos for the Tip "Adding Altimeter Payload for Low Power Rockets" Photograph 
Estes Big Bertha launches an Altimeter Two in a payload bay
2011-12-07Altimeter One, Altimeter Two (Electronics)  Review
Brief
The Altimeter One is a very small and easy-to-use altimeter for model rockets, airplanes, kites and even birding.
Jolly Logic's Altimeter Two is similar, but has specific features for model rockets only, and is a bit more sophisticated and a bit more expensive.
I bought mine for $50... [More]
2011-12-05Quest Tomahawk SLCM (Kit)  Review
Brief
This is a standard, 18mm powered scale-like model of the US's cruise missle, in service since 1983 or '84 and used by the US Navy as well as the British Royal Navy. SLCM stands for Surface Launched Cruise Missle. The actual missle launches from a ship or even a torpedo tube of a... [More]
2011-08-17Estes Vector Force (Kit)  Review
Brief
The design of the Vector Force appears to have been inspired by military air-defense missles, but it is not a scale or pseudo-scale model by any means. It's just (to me) a good-looking kit. It is fairly large and uses standard 18mm motors (B & C power). The unique design features are... [More]
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Rich DeAngelis
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