Crazy Jim's "Punisher-4" new flight video with 4in Fly-away-guides

Well, I was thinking that you could stagger them up/down a little. Then you could drill/press in the PEM nuts from either side. You'd have to use a 3/16" standoff to clear the nuts, but you'd only need a 3/32" hex driver to remove the electronics.

Another method would be to use a long screw with a nut on the end. Pass through electronic device 1, spacer, tray, pem nut, spacer, electronic device 2, maybe a short spacer to clear the electronic components, nut.

blackjack2564 said:

2. I was going to use the same hole pattern on the GPS and RRC3 to mount them back to back. But to remove one board would mean both. I'm not quite following how the pem nuts alleviate this, I have never used them.
Might you expound a bit, always interested in anything that simplifies a build. One tool?

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ChrisAttebery said:

Awesome! Did it need any nose weight to balance? How many calibers of stability did you fly it with?

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No nose weight. Just the recovery gear. Never checked the calibers of stability. It balances just the same as the 3" Punisher. The dry weight is right at 9 pounds.

My Punisher 4 maiden flight was last weekend..... AT J-275 W [2 grain 54..852 case]
Low enough to see all the events work properly.

2486 ft. actual. Sims were showing 3100-3400 on this, & several other 2 grains, both CTI and AT

Ready flight weight w/o motor 9lbs. 3oz.

2 gr.BP on appogee
1.2 in main.......I tested OK with 1 gr but made them 1.2 "to be sure". VERY forceful deploy. I'll go back to 1.0


Everything worked perfect.

Shock cord 9/16 tubular nylon.
25ft apogee
15ft main

72in. Spherachute
3 shear-pins 2-256 in NC to av-bay
none in fincan to av-bay

I used 2gram BP with the J-275. Its a short motor leaving a lot of room in the fin can. When flying large motors I will decrease the charge to 1.5 or 1 when I really load it up.

No pics this time.It's in sanded mode ready for final paint & decals.
It's an extremely easy rocket to prep & fun to fly.

I used the new MissleWorks Gps/rtx and it worked perfectly. The direction finding arrows pointed me in the correct direction as I walked straight to the rocket.

Very cool Jim.

Have you thought about how you would add nose weight to yours yet? It looks marginally stable on 4 grain and shorter 75mm motors.

Post 47# here; https://www.rocketryforum.com/showt...uminum-interstage-amp-NC-s-pellet-press/page2

Powdered lead in NC tip like I did for the 2-stage Punisher 3, if I need it.
Seems like a few out there are flying just fine at my weight, with no added balance weight. I'll have to percolate on this one for a while.

awesome thread!!!!

https://www.dropbox.com/s/7a41sf5dpbfjjlh/Punisher 4.m2ts?dl=0
You can watch the fly-away-guides in action. Best video so far to capture the action.
It was a bit breezy, but rocket flew straight & true with the guides.

Stop action the video & frame by frame to capture the guides in action. This also shows how just a small drogue [18in] really is needed for nose cone DD. It was great being able to see all events clearly to verify function & charge sizes. Thanks to TOM

1.5 bp apogee [dropped it .5 from first flight]
1.2 for main
72in Spherachute main & 18in Topflight drogue.
Recon 12 in nomex main & 9in drogue.
3 2-256 shear-pins for main.
None for apogee.

27ft 9/16 tubular nylon for apogee......15ft for main.[risers add another 4ft.]

My latest flight video....can't figure out how to put it here. If anyone can please do, for now you can download it to watch, very high def.

I used the new Mayhem 4in fly away guides. So far.... great, they have been used on several M flights & function perfectly!
These are game changers.
No need for dragging a tower along, for those minimum dia. go fast rockets anymore!

Here are some screen shot....this was a AT -J-275-W with RRC3...Strato CF Missleworks Rtx/Gps everything worked fine.

High quality pics! Tom Binford did video.






Still with sanded first coat paint & no decals, just doing some test flights.
Can't wait to let it rip on some big motors....not using any nose weight.

You can clearly see how well the guides functioned, came off literally leaving the rail cleanly. These new 3in. & 4in versions are 'da bomb'!

My first trip to our new field in Camden, gotta love it! Been to a mile and landed 750ft from pads! [ Punisher 3in on AT J-315 Redline]

Here's what they look like, there is some assembly, but quite easy.
Come with rods that must be bolted in place with 2-256 stainless cap-head-allen crews.

That's some nice stuff there

Wow great video, you can really see all the events pretty clearly. I couldn't shoot video that centered, focused and track if my life depended on it...you're hired! The drogue was poster drogue perfect, kept the nosecone above the booster but looked it had very little effect on the decent rate and dropped it nice and fast, love it. I noticed that when the apogee event went and popped the nosecone, it looked like it was followed by another charge centered around the nosecone/drogue, was that a charge or tracking power? Also how did the fly away rail guides stand up against the landing? I am guessing that the bigger those things get the stronger they have to be just to survive the landing, which I am sure they know about.

Nice flight Jim. That video was very clear. Can you tell us what it was shot with?

mpitfield said:

Wow great video, you can really see all the events pretty clearly. I couldn't shoot video that centered, focused and track if my life depended on it...you're hired! The drogue was poster drogue perfect, kept the nosecone above the booster but looked it had very little effect on the decent rate and dropped it nice and fast, love it. I noticed that when the apogee event went and popped the nosecone, it looked like it was followed by another charge centered around the nosecone/drogue, was that a charge or tracking power? Also how did the fly away rail guides stand up against the landing? I am guessing that the bigger those things get the stronger they have to be just to survive the landing, which I am sure they know about.

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Yep I love it when you can go back and stop action video to see everything in detail.
That was a back up charge.
Must be honest here....Yes there was an issue with 4 in. guides, you probably heard them talking in background about it.
I hit something on the really hard ground and broke a hinge.
But that's why I'm doing testing for Bill.
He already has changed the type of plastic & design to fix that issue. Up north they flew 5 M's and all went fine with those. But you can't even have one bad issue, so that's been fixed! I flew the 3in guides twice with no issue.

ozwald said:

That's some nice stuff there

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thank you

ChrisAttebery said:

Nice flight Jim. That video was very clear. Can you tell us what it was shot with?

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Tom Binford shot video. He's the master and can zoom in close where most would lose the flight. He's been doing it many, many years. I do know this, it's not your standard cheapie camera he uses. Maybe he will see this & answer that for you. I haven't got a clue.

So far testing with smaller M's have been a success. The new improved fly away guides with the new materials are the best I've seen and are so smooth without sharp angles, much more durable and have a nice feel to them when they are assembled. In a couple of weeks going to put these up on a couple of more M's. I have a set of the 3 inch and 4 inch fly away with the new material and they are totally awesome!. Bill nailed it on these with the new materials!

Sick video! Tom B., what exact make and model camera is that???

Smokin video,,
Perfect flight...
I am lovin those Fly Away Guides...

Teddy

rfjustin said:

Sick video! Tom B., what exact make and model camera is that???

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Panasonic HC-X920

Thanks Tom.

Rocketjunkie said:

Panasonic HC-X920

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