up-apr8a.htm Small-Pogo Project


Small-Pogo Project


Status Updates


April 1-17, 1998

April 1, 1998

Painted half the vehicle white to protect it and help identify which side is which.

Started making the parachute. Cut out the canopy and sewed the edge.

April 2, 1998

Continued on the parachute. Started cutting out the strips of material to make the shroud lines. Came up with a packaging and release design that should be simple yet work reliably.

April 5, 1998

Well, I built a parachute then decided that it was too small. It was 1/2 meter across and when I took it out into the wind it took about a 40 km wind to get a force equal to the weight of the vehicle.

April 16, 1998

I apologize to those who had been tracking my progress. First I got sidetracked running calculations for one friend, helped another start building his Schreckling-design jet engines, then got sick and stayed that way a while. I'm now almost back to normal and amazed that I got a little done over the last 11 days.

I've built, but not tested, another parachute. This one is about 40" across and made from a propylene disposable tablecloth. The only thing I could find that would stick to it was Scotch tape. I tried two types of model glue (superglue), waterbed patch glue, and general purpose glue. The stuff is like Teflon. Even the Scotch tape holds only on one side. The tape is used to hold the six major risers and 12 minor risers. Tomorrow I'll test it in the wind that always blows across the Mojave desert in the spring time.

I'll attach it to the vehicle either inside a tube (like a toilet paper roll tube) or under a couple of plastic flaps. The tube is simplistic while the flaps are low-drag.

I picked up a tank of argon for welding aluminum and stainless steel and modified my mig welder for gas. I tried it for a few minutes but didn't do well and didn't feel well either so I gave up. I'll try again this weekend. I found a milling machine at Harbor Freight that I drooled over. For industrial purposes it was a laugh but for a home shop it was a wet dream come true, complete with dividing head. And only $1100 (without the stand). But, not just yet. At Best Buy I found two camcorders I liked, both Sony, one for $600 US and the other $700 US. The better one had digital stabilization but otherwise they were the same machine. They had 16X lens magnification and 64X digital magnification. They had a 2.5 inch flat panel color display on the side plus all the usual stuff I'll probably never use. The 64X is good for standing a long way back from the blast zone. Maybe this weekend I'll buy one and give my loaner back.

Not much for 11 days but it'll have to do.

April 17, 1998

Today I tested the parachute and, of course, there was little wind. But even walking fast I could tell it had plenty of drag and not too much weight. I still have to attach it and rig the release.

I also finished the new landing gear. It's six 10 inch aluminum channel beams, 1/2 inch on a side, extending radially from the center. At the end of each is a piece of balsa wood to give some cushion and avoid the solid bottom hitting the ground. Tomorrow I hope to try running the engine at low speed and hopping it just a little to get the feel before free flight. True free flight will probably not happen for another week when I have the parachute and rocket launcher attached.

I've pretty much decided on the lower cost camera so will get that this weekend. I'm also going to pick up at least one of the leaf blowers to measure the thrust and weight. I expect to find that they weigh about 4-5 lbm and put out about 10 lbf thrust. Here are some interesting uses for leaf blowers that I thought of:



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