Matt Wronkiewicz's Weblog

I am pleased to announce version 1.0 of Virtual Range, my rocket simulator for Mac OS X. Virtual Range can simulate the flight of a rocket model in real time (on sufficiently powerful CPUs), and tell you if it is stable. It will also record the maximum altitude and acceleration, and the time until apogee. All this is very important information if you have built a rocket and want to know what kind of engine you should put in it. Virtual Range estimates the aerodynamic forces acting on the rocket in flight using the US Air Force DATCOM drag methods and Barrowman's center of pressure method. The simulated flight is displayed with basic, but accurate… Read More

My very understanding wife bought me a rocket altimeter. This handy little device will let me control the descent rate of my higher altitude rockets, so they have less time to drift under the parachute. Less drifting means I won't have to walk a mile across the dry lake bed to retrieve my rocket, and less chance of losing it. Last ROCstock I flew the upgraded Mean Machine on an Aerotech H128W-M. Gary at Rocketography took a nice photo of the launch. It blasted up and out of sight in… Read More

Joseph and I built an Aerotech Arreaux. He painted it and I named it Martian Sunrise. We took it to Santa Fe Dam to fly it at the SCRA launch. I loaded an E15-7W engine, and the LCO gave a countdown and pressed the button. It fizzled. The igniter popped but didn't start the engine, probably because I hadn't attached it securely enough. We tried again and up it flew. And then it continued on a ballistic trajectory back to the Earth. The flight ended after 13 seconds with the nose cone embedded 6 inches into packed dirt. The airframe was shredded.… Read More