Ultimate Wildman - L3 Cert Build

Jeff
I would attach main chute 24" down from the nose cone. That way the nose cone hang down away from shroud lines. That's what I do anyway.

cbrarick said:

The chute just might take some time to open...most manufacturers will give you an approximate - but just bump up the height of the main by 100-200 feet. Just remember it's just drifting shortly after it opens. I'm a 800 foot guy

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Thanks for input. I was going to deploy at 800' but talking at pre flight with others I went with 900'. I may go to 1000' for L3 depending on winds. Also considering increasing to 144" chute because decent rate was high.

crossfire said:

Jeff
I would attach main chute 24" down from the nose cone. That way the nose cone hang down away from shroud lines. That's what I do anyway.

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Gary,
Thanks. My other shock cord for this rocket is 35' long with loop 7' from end.

Go to the right venue and deploy the main at 1000 feet. You'll be glad you did. Kurt

Looks good! Good luck with your L3 flight.

Jeff
What a lot of us old guys do is just tie a quick link on the shock cord where we want it and put chute on it. Just loop and tie just using the shock cord.

ksaves2 said:

Go to the right venue and deploy the main at 1000 feet. You'll be glad you did. Kurt

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Trying to understand your post, are you saying "Bong" is not the right venue to L3 cert at? If so then why is that?

Rrwjr said:

Trying to understand your post, are you saying "Bong" is not the right venue to L3 cert at? If so then why is that?

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I think what he is saying is that Bong is not optimum. It does have some advantages over the crop fields, such as year round availability, but proximity to trees and water do complicate recovery, and the relatively low waiver (9,000' AGL) does limit your L3 options to bigger rockets (a baby M in a 4" rocket will give you 13,000', for example.) But, it is certainly L3 capable (as confirmed by LDRS last year), convenient, and in summer, pretty much the only game in town for those of us in southern WI / northern IL.

Rrwjr said:

Trying to understand your post, are you saying "Bong" is not the right venue to L3 cert at? If so then why is that?

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No, I'm not necessarily saying that Bong is the wrong "venue". I was unaware of the location of your planned attempt. I suggest a higher main deployment to give the chute more time to deploy and inflate.
If by good fortune it inflates immediately, having some "wide open spaces" for recovery increases your chances of getting your rocket back. If you are in a restricted space with obstructions, trees, swamps etc. you might
not be so lucky with your recovery. Especially, if you are perhaps erring on the side of a "larger" parachute to avoid a "hard" landing. If there is a wind situation you have to allow for drift. Now I understand if one's rocket is
caught in an inaccessible place, if it was coming down nominally under the main before it was trapped, it will be considered a successful certification flight. Me, I'd want to get my rocket back after a successful cert.

You deploy too low, the chute doesn't inflate in time, you have a DNF. A cert attempt is not the time to have a Hail Mary deployment or hard landing.

Might I suggest you bring other rockets to fly on your planned certification date so you have something else to fly if you feel the conditions aren't appropriate for your certification attempt.
Stuff that will fly lower, use a streamer etc for instance. It would be best for you to hold off than to lose the rocket. If you "just" bring your certification rocket, you'll be (self) pressured to fly
even if you don't think it's "just right". Kurt

I appreciate the previous comments. Some of us at the last launch were commenting that if you can fly at Bong you can fly anywhere. A lot of truth to that. I'm going to make every attempt to fly my L3 next month but I'm not going to have "Go Fever". If it's not possible I'll try the following month, or the month after that, or Midwest Power. I can wait. I will also adjust my flight based on the shakedown flight and flight day weather conditions.

jeff2space said:

I appreciate the previous comments. Some of us at the last launch were commenting that if you can fly at Bong you can fly anywhere. A lot of truth to that. I'm going to make every attempt to fly my L3 next month but I'm not going to have "Go Fever". If it's not possible I'll try the following month, or the month after that, or Midwest Power. I can wait. I will also adjust my flight based on the shakedown flight and flight day weather conditions.

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Jeff, that has been my slogan since I started flying at Bong in 1996. I sometimes refer to it as Vietbong.

My L3 will not be at Bong- likely MWP. Wildman Extreme on CTI M1830 will not stay within waiver😈.

Hopefully test flight in July.

markkoelsch said:

Jeff, that has been my slogan since I started flying at Bong in 1996. I sometimes refer to it as Vietbong.

My L3 will not be at Bong- likely MWP. Wildman Extreme on CTI M1830 will not stay within waiver😈.

Hopefully test flight in July.

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I went with the Ultimate Wildman so I could keep it under the waiver at Bong with a 75mm. Good luck with your flight.

jeff2space said:

I appreciate the previous comments. Some of us at the last launch were commenting that if you can fly at Bong you can fly anywhere. A lot of truth to that. I'm going to make every attempt to fly my L3 next month but I'm not going to have "Go Fever". If it's not possible I'll try the following month, or the month after that, or Midwest Power. I can wait. I will also adjust my flight based on the shakedown flight and flight day weather conditions.

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Yours and Mark's are healthy attitudes. If conditions aren't right, there's space at MWP unless there's a rain washout. Best of luck to all. Kurt

Running sims on my L3 Cert attempt. Thinking about changing to a CTI M1101 to make sure I'm under the waiver at Bong (10,000'). The M2075 won't go to waste, I'll use it at Midwest Power.

Mission Accomplished. Flew my Ultimate Wildman yesterday on an M1101. Great flight up, good flight down, tough recovery but successful. L3 Certification earned.

[video]https://youtu.be/Btndto85nsM[/video]

Way to go Jeff !

Congratulations on the Level 3 certification.

Can you post aummary of flight inc weight and altimeter report and pics?

Kenny

Great job Jeff!

WWWWooooopppppp.......

Awesome Jeff...

Good for you man...

Perfect flight huh....

I'm really happy for ya...

Teddy

Great job Jeff. I was a little worried about you, when I left you still were not back to the launch site. It was very hot yesterday.

Congrats. Wish I could have been there, but alas, things came up.

Nice flight and congrats!

crossfire said:

Great job Jeff. I was a little worried about you, when I left you still were not back to the launch site. It was very hot yesterday.

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Gary,
It was a long, tough walk to the landing site. Then it was a struggle to get payload section out of a tree. Glad I had my Dad, Brother, and Nephew to help me. Hind sight we should have drove to South side of park. That's the way we walked out and Russ came to pick us up.

onebadhawk said:

WWWWooooopppppp.......

Awesome Jeff...

Good for you man...

Perfect flight huh....

I'm really happy for ya...

Teddy

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Thanks Teddy,
And thanks for the great shock cords. We had three guys pulling on them to get payload section out of tree and they really held up. Payload (and entire rocket) was all return with no damage.

KenRico said:

Can you post aummary of flight inc weight and altimeter report and pics?

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I only have video, no pics (technical problem with camera operator). Rocket weighs 43.5 pounds, 10 feet tall, max alt 6,837 feet, max velocity 681 fps.

jeff2space said:

Thanks Teddy,
And thanks for the great shock cords. We had three guys pulling on them to get payload section out of tree and they really held up. Payload (and entire rocket) was all return with no damage.

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Hahahahah,,
That's funny...
I've seen people hanging on their rockets hung in trees on the harnesses,, ( not just Onebadhawk harnesses )...
I'm just glad you have the rocket and the flight went well..

That's what counts...

Teddy

congrats on the successful L3! I was in the middle of a difficult recovery, and saw only the up part, and was hoping you'd get it back safe and sound

Congratulations! Welcome to Level 3.

Thanks everyone, it feels great. Wish I did have pre-launch, launch, and recovery photos. I was so focused on getting everything right with rocket I didn't take any.

Jeff:

You now need to change your signature line. It incorrectly states you're a L2.

congrats!

cbrarick said:

Jeff:

You now need to change your signature line. It incorrectly states you're a L2.

congrats!

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Thanks, thought I did but guess it didn't save.