Jet Luge Maiden Flight
08-10-2005, 11:57 PM
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Jet Luge Maiden Flight
Dang.. I could not wait to use that term "Maiden Flight" as I can always detect the excitement each pilot here seems to have when they launch their hand crafted vehicle for the first time. Now add to that excitement by sitting on it and going for a ride.
Below is a link to a 2.9 meg WMV file of the first couple of runs of the jet luge. It would have been longer but the Cam operator never used a video camera before and got many shots of the ground, dashboard of the car and shakey over zoomed clips. So what you see is what you get. Top speed today for this chicken butt was 59.4 in less than an 1/8 mile on the GPS... believe me it has more than I think I can handle at this point.
I did have 2 problems not seen before getting it up to the speed and vibration. Both were Power Fails troubleshot to the Molex Connector on the 7.2 volt battery.... I tweaked it for better contact, but need suggestions for better connector to use on the high current battery.
Enjoy what there is of this video... Yes. the opening is filler footage from before John Redman gave me the secret numbers to make it run with less flame... but the kids like it huh?
Happy Flying
Bob
PS. Right Click on the link and save target.
[link=http://home.comcast.net/~bobswartz/JetLugeMaiden.wmv]JetLuge Maiden Flight[/link]
Below is a link to a 2.9 meg WMV file of the first couple of runs of the jet luge. It would have been longer but the Cam operator never used a video camera before and got many shots of the ground, dashboard of the car and shakey over zoomed clips. So what you see is what you get. Top speed today for this chicken butt was 59.4 in less than an 1/8 mile on the GPS... believe me it has more than I think I can handle at this point.
I did have 2 problems not seen before getting it up to the speed and vibration. Both were Power Fails troubleshot to the Molex Connector on the 7.2 volt battery.... I tweaked it for better contact, but need suggestions for better connector to use on the high current battery.
Enjoy what there is of this video... Yes. the opening is filler footage from before John Redman gave me the secret numbers to make it run with less flame... but the kids like it huh?
Happy Flying
Bob
PS. Right Click on the link and save target.
[link=http://home.comcast.net/~bobswartz/JetLugeMaiden.wmv]JetLuge Maiden Flight[/link]
, do you have brakes or just your shoes to stop?
08-11-2005, 01:29 AM
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RE: Jet Luge Maiden Flight
Cool.. I hae been following your project, and glad to see that you are able to get some success out of it. Can't say that I'd want to share the ride though...........
08-11-2005, 05:38 AM
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RE: Jet Luge Maiden Flight
Bob
Awesome!! Congrats on such a cool project!! I see you made it to Liberty Bell after all,wish I could have gone myself but there is next year.
How does it feel to accomplish a feat that no other in the world has to date?? Keep up the great work and you'll be in the books for sure for your acomplishments.You never know Bob,you may be holding in your hands the next great hobby for some or better yet a new league of Luge racing
Steve
Awesome!! Congrats on such a cool project!! I see you made it to Liberty Bell after all,wish I could have gone myself but there is next year.
How does it feel to accomplish a feat that no other in the world has to date?? Keep up the great work and you'll be in the books for sure for your acomplishments.You never know Bob,you may be holding in your hands the next great hobby for some or better yet a new league of Luge racing
Steve
08-11-2005, 10:26 AM
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RE: Jet Luge Maiden Flight
Thanks for the connector tip. I think I have seen them in the local hobby store.
I have brakes... and they are my feet. Fred Flintstone Style and a cloud of burning rubber smoke... hence the name Blue Smoke... The contact patch for luge wheels is way to small for braking and those that have tried have not been able to make brakes with enough friction surface area that didn't heat up and melt. Surprising to the casual observer.. the shoes work better than any high performance vehicle brakes... for these reason
1. The sport bike tire rubber I glue to the wrestling shoes give me more contact patch with the road than 4 typical tires on a car.
2. Big Brakes, small mass.
3. My body is park of the braking "machine", countering the decelerating mass with the strongest muscles in the body. This means I am not just along for the ride getting ready to get pitched off the board or thrown from my seat (that is if the tiny wheels didnt flat spot and rip off), the mass of the body still wanting to stay in motion becomes part of the increased friction power to feet.
Typical Gravity type luge racing we can come to a complete stop from 60mph in 35 ft on a clean dry road. Try that in your car and see what your ribs say to your seat belt. With the Jet Luge things are strangely different and I must relearn my distances.. I have 10 lbs more mass to stop plus residual thrust working at me..
Foot Braking a luge at speeds over 75 mph become dangerous and unstable because aerodynamics come into play. Both the Center Of Pressure and CG are shifted in the wrong direction and we start to "WOB" ( violent wobbles and fishtails back and forth) . I will need your ideas this fall/winter when I build a purpose built jet luge chassis, that will need gyro stablized speed/airbrakes surfaces to deploy until I get down to 70 mph.
A new class of racing??? him I doubt it just, because of the hot breath out the back, except at the dragstrip maybe. But I would not doubt seeing more of you on the road, if that Rumor about the FEDS become true.....God Forbid!!!
bob
I have brakes... and they are my feet. Fred Flintstone Style and a cloud of burning rubber smoke... hence the name Blue Smoke... The contact patch for luge wheels is way to small for braking and those that have tried have not been able to make brakes with enough friction surface area that didn't heat up and melt. Surprising to the casual observer.. the shoes work better than any high performance vehicle brakes... for these reason
1. The sport bike tire rubber I glue to the wrestling shoes give me more contact patch with the road than 4 typical tires on a car.
2. Big Brakes, small mass.
3. My body is park of the braking "machine", countering the decelerating mass with the strongest muscles in the body. This means I am not just along for the ride getting ready to get pitched off the board or thrown from my seat (that is if the tiny wheels didnt flat spot and rip off), the mass of the body still wanting to stay in motion becomes part of the increased friction power to feet.
Typical Gravity type luge racing we can come to a complete stop from 60mph in 35 ft on a clean dry road. Try that in your car and see what your ribs say to your seat belt. With the Jet Luge things are strangely different and I must relearn my distances.. I have 10 lbs more mass to stop plus residual thrust working at me..
Foot Braking a luge at speeds over 75 mph become dangerous and unstable because aerodynamics come into play. Both the Center Of Pressure and CG are shifted in the wrong direction and we start to "WOB" ( violent wobbles and fishtails back and forth) . I will need your ideas this fall/winter when I build a purpose built jet luge chassis, that will need gyro stablized speed/airbrakes surfaces to deploy until I get down to 70 mph.
A new class of racing??? him I doubt it just, because of the hot breath out the back, except at the dragstrip maybe. But I would not doubt seeing more of you on the road, if that Rumor about the FEDS become true.....God Forbid!!!
bob
08-11-2005, 10:31 AM
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RE: Jet Luge Maiden Flight
Tires are free at the Motorcycle shop.. they have to pay to dispose of them. A saber saw and 2 tubes of Shoe Goo and I am fully retreaded. Been running the same shoes for 3 years with retreads twice a year.. Guess I will need to retread more often now. They look especially cool at night when I put lighter flints in my heels..
bob
bob
08-11-2005, 05:35 PM
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RE: Jet Luge Maiden Flight
I was on the same frame of mind, but then you need wide open space to make sure the Chute does not get snagged and pull you to a stop in less than a second. I know that the place you had the test run is not an official site or hill where you would do you run, but then beside no obsticles, you also need no curves. I don't think a Chute is an option.
Maybe something else that contacts the pavement instead of the wheels for braking, something that would make an even contact and not make you turn to a side so One handle might not be enough. Let us know what you come up with.
Congrats on your test run.
Turbulence
Maybe something else that contacts the pavement instead of the wheels for braking, something that would make an even contact and not make you turn to a side so One handle might not be enough. Let us know what you come up with.
Congrats on your test run.
Turbulence
ORIGINAL: nony
Ever thought of a drogue chute to slow you down below 75 mph ??
Ever thought of a drogue chute to slow you down below 75 mph ??
08-11-2005, 06:51 PM
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RE: Jet Luge Maiden Flight
Hmm?? IS there a problem with using gyro stabilized or regulalted, servo actuated control surfaces to do this that I dont know about?
There are 2 problems with the chute.. The first one is that I have experienced seeing 2 people get their luged yanked out from under them when the chute deployed. as their leather clad butt hit the tarmac they decelerated quicker than the luge and got smacked with the runaway luge. So just the memory of that keeps me shy of that idea. I experienced something similar once when I crossed the finishline in a tight pack of 6 people at one of the rare times we got over 80mph. I was so excited I threw my arms up as a sign of victory... the drag at 80mph on my arms ripped me backward and the only thing that kept me on was the verticle fin number plate wedged up against my butt crack... sick
The other problems is that I do not have a way to regulate the drag of the chute as speeds increase... am I right in saying the drag force of the chute will quadruple as my speed doubles??? it would be like deploying full flaps at Mach speed.. (oh listen to me try to be aerospace... ha someday) A device dragging under the luge (like when I was 10 years old making wooden downhill carts) upsets the CG and unloads the weight on the trucks also causing it to loose control.
And last reason was, that it goes against my original concept of a radical new idea for a functional Hybrid Vehicle (although not a pratical vehicle). Gravity/Turbine HPV ... In the final stages of this concept I would like to be able to traverse many miles of mountainous desert roads at a very high rate of speed... calling for thrust only when I need it to get over the next crested hill, and slowing as needed to make turns. I also want to keep this a streetluge as defined in our rules (except the Turbine power) for as long as I can safely do so, since I race these things professionally. Right now I can take out 4 bolts and 1 screw and I am race legal. There was one guy named "KY" that claimed "The Street Luge Record" at 119mph with a liquid fueled rocket engine. Cool, but although it was a laydown feet first vehicle it had go-kart tires and a steering wheel and disc brakes.
Although I will run this at the drag strip (tomorrow) it is not a drag racing vehicle with only .25 to 1 thust to weight ratio.
Dang sorry for going on.. I do appreciate you pushing me with ideas and challenging the old noodle with the best ways to solve things...
Just don't start me on bearings.....lol
thanks
There are 2 problems with the chute.. The first one is that I have experienced seeing 2 people get their luged yanked out from under them when the chute deployed. as their leather clad butt hit the tarmac they decelerated quicker than the luge and got smacked with the runaway luge. So just the memory of that keeps me shy of that idea. I experienced something similar once when I crossed the finishline in a tight pack of 6 people at one of the rare times we got over 80mph. I was so excited I threw my arms up as a sign of victory... the drag at 80mph on my arms ripped me backward and the only thing that kept me on was the verticle fin number plate wedged up against my butt crack... sick
The other problems is that I do not have a way to regulate the drag of the chute as speeds increase... am I right in saying the drag force of the chute will quadruple as my speed doubles??? it would be like deploying full flaps at Mach speed.. (oh listen to me try to be aerospace... ha someday) A device dragging under the luge (like when I was 10 years old making wooden downhill carts) upsets the CG and unloads the weight on the trucks also causing it to loose control.
And last reason was, that it goes against my original concept of a radical new idea for a functional Hybrid Vehicle (although not a pratical vehicle). Gravity/Turbine HPV ... In the final stages of this concept I would like to be able to traverse many miles of mountainous desert roads at a very high rate of speed... calling for thrust only when I need it to get over the next crested hill, and slowing as needed to make turns. I also want to keep this a streetluge as defined in our rules (except the Turbine power) for as long as I can safely do so, since I race these things professionally. Right now I can take out 4 bolts and 1 screw and I am race legal. There was one guy named "KY" that claimed "The Street Luge Record" at 119mph with a liquid fueled rocket engine. Cool, but although it was a laydown feet first vehicle it had go-kart tires and a steering wheel and disc brakes.
Although I will run this at the drag strip (tomorrow) it is not a drag racing vehicle with only .25 to 1 thust to weight ratio.
Dang sorry for going on.. I do appreciate you pushing me with ideas and challenging the old noodle with the best ways to solve things...
Just don't start me on bearings.....lol
thanks
08-11-2005, 08:15 PM
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RE: Jet Luge Maiden Flight
Well I am freshout of Jetluge videos at the moment. Perhaps a few action videos of streetluge to entertain you. 1 on 1 lessons with mother nature and "trying " to break the laws of physics. A streetluge is a simple machine that makes for great school science projects on physics and aerodynamics. Lay on the floor and watch these videos from my friend's Dave Auld's website "www.auldovertheroad.com" Clips are from races and open road practice sessions. And the big air clip... was shot going down Steve Mcqueen's Bullet Run in SF...record was 98ft distance 6ft high.
Hence my Motto Work Hard, Play Harder
[link=http://www.auldovertheroad.com/lugemovies/lugemovieorig.htm#Top]Montage97[/link]
[link=http://www.auldovertheroad.com/lugemovies/lugemoviebadlands.htm#Top]The Badlands[/link]
[link=http://www.auldovertheroad.com/lugemovies/lugemovie_rbsf2000.htm]Big Air[/link]
Hence my Motto Work Hard, Play Harder
[link=http://www.auldovertheroad.com/lugemovies/lugemovieorig.htm#Top]Montage97[/link]
[link=http://www.auldovertheroad.com/lugemovies/lugemoviebadlands.htm#Top]The Badlands[/link]
[link=http://www.auldovertheroad.com/lugemovies/lugemovie_rbsf2000.htm]Big Air[/link]
08-11-2005, 10:02 PM
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RE: Jet Luge Maiden Flight
I was thinking of a smallish parachure maybe 3' or less in dia..even that may be too much.
But if you want to go up and down hills, you'd need something retractable... How about a flock of veiled chameleons, or a couple of hooded cobras?
prolly upset the animal lovers...how about an annular airbrake mounted to your helmet ???
Like this one....
But if you want to go up and down hills, you'd need something retractable... How about a flock of veiled chameleons, or a couple of hooded cobras?
prolly upset the animal lovers...how about an annular airbrake mounted to your helmet ??? Like this one....
08-12-2005, 03:43 PM
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RE: Jet Luge Maiden Flight
It's just now official!!!!
The Blue Smoke Jet Luge will be appearing and running the 1/4 mile at Maryland International Raceway (Budd's Creek) on August 20th as the opening "act" for the Jet Wars Show.
Here is the headline for the show:
For the first time ever, witness the world’s fastest fire-breathing Jet Funny Cars and Jet Dragsters in side-by-side eliminations! Plus Bob Motz's JET POWERED Kenworth, the Adrenalin Crew Motorcycle Stunt Show and MIR's exciting FRANTIC 7’s! It's the wildest show in drag racing - don't miss it!
The promoter asked if I could get that "thing" over 55mph.... I just smiled...
For event info goto their site at
http://www.mirdrag.com/ and look for JetWars
Sponsors????
Wish me luck.
Bob [link=http://www.mirdrag.com/]MIR JetWars[/link]
The Blue Smoke Jet Luge will be appearing and running the 1/4 mile at Maryland International Raceway (Budd's Creek) on August 20th as the opening "act" for the Jet Wars Show.
Here is the headline for the show:
For the first time ever, witness the world’s fastest fire-breathing Jet Funny Cars and Jet Dragsters in side-by-side eliminations! Plus Bob Motz's JET POWERED Kenworth, the Adrenalin Crew Motorcycle Stunt Show and MIR's exciting FRANTIC 7’s! It's the wildest show in drag racing - don't miss it!
The promoter asked if I could get that "thing" over 55mph.... I just smiled...
For event info goto their site at
http://www.mirdrag.com/ and look for JetWars
Sponsors????
Wish me luck.
Bob [link=http://www.mirdrag.com/]MIR JetWars[/link]
08-12-2005, 04:51 PM
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RE: Jet Luge Maiden Flight
here is the link to Billy Copelands test run.... And example of why I didnt choose rockets
[link=http://www.fastlanerocketluge.com/Test%20Run.mpg]Rocket Luge[/link] I think he used 48 Aerotech J motors.. a really expensive 2 second burn I would say... Kero is cheaper even at todays prices
And here is a pict of the original rocketman's (Ky Michaelson) luge 750lbs thrust 119mph
[link=http://www.the-rocketman.com/gallery/lg/FXCD0018.JPG]Rocket Luge[/link]
[link=http://www.fastlanerocketluge.com/Test%20Run.mpg]Rocket Luge[/link] I think he used 48 Aerotech J motors.. a really expensive 2 second burn I would say... Kero is cheaper even at todays prices
And here is a pict of the original rocketman's (Ky Michaelson) luge 750lbs thrust 119mph
[link=http://www.the-rocketman.com/gallery/lg/FXCD0018.JPG]Rocket Luge[/link]
08-13-2005, 11:52 AM
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RE: Jet Luge Maiden Flight
Crazy man.... I love it! (Just don't want to ride it!) [&:]
Edit: After thinking on it for a few... I think a parachute/drag chute would be doable. You would need a smaller drougue chute, followed by a larger one, with a delay device of some sort to "soften" the initial decelleration... I beleive they use something along these lines for air drops so as not to break the dropped item or chute lines. (I'm probably way off in left field here - someone with parachuting experience could do a much better job on this idea)
Edit: After thinking on it for a few... I think a parachute/drag chute would be doable. You would need a smaller drougue chute, followed by a larger one, with a delay device of some sort to "soften" the initial decelleration... I beleive they use something along these lines for air drops so as not to break the dropped item or chute lines. (I'm probably way off in left field here - someone with parachuting experience could do a much better job on this idea)
