5.5" Cherokee-D L3 build thread for rharshberger

RocketFeller said:

That turned out gorgeous! Have fun at FITS and best of luck on your L3!

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Thanks Dan!

Man that is awesome. Let us know your flight info and good luck, you've really done a great job and bet it will be a text book flight

Any plans to attend NXRS? It would be really cool to see the Cherokee in person!

Very very nice Rich! Can't wait to hear about your success!

Looks beautiful, I'm heading up today will see you there.

Frank

burkefj said:

Looks beautiful, I'm heading up today will see you there.

Frank

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Yep, see you tomorrow!

RocketFeller said:

Any plans to attend NXRS? It would be really cool to see the Cherokee in person!

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Sorry Dan, no plans at the current time since we are trying to get our house ready to sell, and if it sells we then have all the moving to do.

Fingers crossed for clear skies, low winds, and an amazing flight today. Good luck Rich.

Good luck today! There better be video!

Any news?

MaxQ said:

Any news?

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Success! Currently my wife and I are still out of town and I havent checked the launch video from the camera yet. Over the next few days as photos trickle in I will post everything. Conditions were not optimal with 15mph winds and waiting for a window in the cloud cover. The rocket boosted great to 7859ft and 907fps, drogue opened normally as did the main at 1000ft. Bummer was that we were able to drive to within a half mile of the landing area (rocket landed about a mile from the pad), then it was on foot from there. Packing that 35lb monster a half mile was quite the work out.

Congrats!!

The long walk out and back, the chopping down of trees, and the encounters with law enforcement only act to enhance an otherwise nominal recovery and make it unique to your experience. Probably too much information.

Looking forward to photos/video.

Well Done!

What's next?

Woohoo, congratulations on your L3!
Glad to hear the good news, thanks for sharing your build with us.

Woohoo!

Congrats!

Congrats! Can't wait for the photos and vids!

Congratulations on the L3. I've followed this build in 'watch and learn mode' without commenting as there wasn't anything I felt I could add, but your skill in combining readily available materials with high end engineering and expert craftsmanship has been inspirational. A fantastic achievement - thanks for sharing the journey.

Congratulations!

Congratulations Rich!

Hopefully this stuff works! The video is the only one I know of at the current time and it is only of the initial boost, fyi the pop heard just before the rocket jumps off the rail is the igniter. The igniter was a special designed igniter by a friend from OROC, I don't know the composition but it results in near instantaneous ignition with no delay while the motor pressures up. More photos will be posted as I receive them from the two people who were taking them at the pad area. I will be downloading the altimeters in a little bit and will post the data from the Missleworks RRC3, both the RRC3 and the Quark performed flawlessly, the Eggtimer TRS in the nose (for tracking only) I forgot to "start flight", at least it was still very useful in the recovery of the rocket even if it didn't record the flight data.


[video=youtube;uJJ_UbHw4wY]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJJ_UbHw4wY&feature=youtu.be[/video]

Congratulations, Rich! It looked greatin person, and in flight from way back at main launch area.

Beautiful boost rich, I lost it at apogee, glad it recovered well!

Frank

Heyyy,,
A great big congrats Rich,,,
That flight went fantastic...
Good for you man...
How bout that,,
I bet a few years ago you thought you wouldn't go for a level 3...
Good for you Rich...

Teddy

Congrats again Rich. It couldn't have gone much smoother than that. Well done!

Here's the data from the RRC3 download, the Eggtimer TRS I am still learning to work with and forgot to ARM it properly before the flight so no data to download from it. The .csv file I still have to figure out how to download to TRF as it shows as an invalid file type.




View attachment L3CertFlightM1297CherokeeD.rff

onebadhawk said:

Heyyy,,
A great big congrats Rich,,,
That flight went fantastic...
Good for you man...
How bout that,,
I bet a few years ago you thought you wouldn't go for a level 3...
Good for you Rich...

Teddy

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Several things I have learned from my two flights with OneBadHawk harnesses is A) they are awesome, B) if you have a built in Y-harness, a built in swivel is a great idea as well, C) with the configuration I was using for my Main Chute, I should have had a 3rd loop harness for it too!.

My recovery set up for the main was a pilot chute attached to the D-bag and Nose cone (like a free bag setup...) but the main recovery harness was attached to the nosecone as well, the main chute was attached to the main recovery harness at 3' from the Av-Bay anchor point, so everything stayed together as one unit under the drogue, main and pilot. Shock cords were Z-folded and taped like I normally do. Deployment sequence was observable on the test flight from the ground, due to the z-folding there was no excess harness to foul the main as the d-bag was pulled off the chute. The zipper-less fin can twists the crap out of the lower recovery harness, but the chute was protected from that by a swivel on the chute.

Photos from Jim W. at FITS

Rich, I'm so happy for ya man...
The road to level 3 is no easy task for those that do it a more straight forward way ( nothing wrong or easy about that )...
You wanted to do it your own way in style...
And you certainly did that...
That build is just superb...
I sure hope you will raise a glass with those important to you over this...
Quite an accomplishment man...
You should be very proud of yourself...

Teddy

Rich -

What a fantastic build and cert... your meticulous attention to detail and planning netted you a picture perfect flight.
Everyone aspiring to build an L3 project should take notes here.

Congrats to you, and well done sir!

MWC said:

Rich -

What a fantastic build and cert... your meticulous attention to detail and planning netted you a picture perfect flight.
Everyone aspiring to build an L3 project should take notes here.

Congrats to you, and well done sir!

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Thanks Jim, the deployments definitely were easier with your RRC3 Extreme as my primary altimeter. I am hoping to eventually add an RTx setup to my stable of electronics. The RRC3 has proven itself to be a reliable altimeter on every flight I have used it on, whether as a single or dual deployment. If possible I would love to see a compact version of the RRC3.


I also need to thank Cris Erving of Eggtimer products as a Quark and a TRS ( for tracking only) were riding shotgun on this flight, and both performed admirably as well.