Sat. nite consisted of re-prepping the tiny bird.
This time with a 6 grain H-399 White Thunder. 40 more lbs. of thrust at 120 lbs. yielding a 54 to 1 thrust ratio.
More speed...more altitude...higher spin rate. This time 14 revolutions/second or 840 rpm. & 6,000 ft altitude.
Home run! 2nd Validation flight, proven results.
This and no booster, should do better when sitting on top of the booster. [That's next, 2-grain 54mm WT-staging to a 5grain 29 long burn mellow] Hoping for same or close spin rate when flow in 2-stage configuration.
The set up:
since only one altimeter was used, 2 matches per charge [0.5 grams] was used. As mentioned Telemega combo used.
Fincan contained 25ft.- 1/8in. Kevlar.
8in. thin wall X-chute & tiny Nomex/Kevlar protector. I had to roll chute in it at an angle, like a cigar to make it fit.
With the larger motor, there was barely room to get gear in. Folded in half again and stuck on top of motor.
Wood dowel used to stuff the 25ft shock cord between motor & airframe. Time-consuming & tedious going, not much room at all , 1/8in dowel just fit in space to push.
No room for Marshall tracker [just in case] in usual spot taped to shock cord, so that went on back side of altimeter sled with antenna folded in loop.
NC had 5oz of lead in it to bring up to scale weight, with Kevlar loop imbedded in epoxy/lead-dust mixture for recovery attachment. We put main in NC.
6in kevlar protector.....20in flare chute....15ft 1/8 in. Kevlar cord. Took several attempts before "finding" the packing method that worked. All cordage was "ribbon folded" then placed along side the Kevlar/chute package & slid into position. 1 shear-pin 2-256 to hold NC in place. [very snug fit, no need for 2]
Finally a bit of thinking outside the box for motor retention.
Measure MM tube, 6.5 inches long. Mark that on motor. Wrap several layers of tape around case at that point.
Load reload into case. [no rear closure YET]
slide motor in from front of airframe, drop into position, THEN screw rear closure on.
Motor now captured between MM tube and can't go anywhere.....with no need for fancy retention or friction fit.
Safe ...bulletproof.. simple motor retention.
Finally a screen shot of our head-end motor ignition.
That's a normal forward closure with the ignition pellet/device, fitting in standard delay-well.
Glow plug in threaded hole to ignite upon command from altimeter.
Mounted up-side down for testing.
We are EXTREMELY satisfied with last weekends test results. They could not have been better. EVERYTHING worked as tested/designed & planned for in the scope of work. Even though this is a small 1/3 scale unit....months of planning & research, custom fitting/machining, & building went into this.:smile:
Next , full up stack, both stages & our head end staging technique.
Charlie? any data to share? comments.
Update:
