AlnessW
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- Joined
- Oct 6, 2013
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I could use some more crossovers between rocketry and my other hobby (info here), hence the "Bells On" name. As with most all of my builds these days, this will be a substantial deviation from the hobby/sport flying most commonly found on this forum - i.e., buying a rocket kit + matching CTI case from Wildman Black Saturday, building it over the winter (if not after letting it sit in "the build pile" for a couple of years), dressing it up in decals from Stickershock, then flying it on a Vmax motor at LDRS. That whole mantra is not what drives me to participate in rocketry, hence, a project simply in-tune with my own style. Follow along if you so desire.
Background
I have this really nice Mike Fisher 98/17500 (48" long) EX case which has flown twice in a 5" rocket now, but it's really begging for a minimum diameter project. Our club's big research launch of the year is known as NXRS, located in Brothers, OR, which some of you know know about. Our max ceiling there is 42,460' AGL, so it only seems fitting to try and get near the top of the waiver for this year's event. My last MD project, "Millennium Falcon," was a huge success and set my personal altitude record to 33,828' AGL. It also served as proof-of-concept for a few designs and techniques used for future builds such as this one, most notably fin attachment methods. This project will of course be another shot at a personal altitude record...if everything works.
Design
In a nutshell, here is what we're working with:
Construction
Fins will be bonded exactly the same as they were for Millennium Falcon, but with layups this time. Carbon fiber cloth and Aeropoxy will be used for this purpose. For recovery, dual deployment will be used in the exact same fashion as MF as well - nosecone coupler av-bay with switch band, drogue inside the airframe, main inside the nosecone. (Yes Fred...)
Avionics:
Stay tuned for more and thanks for stopping by.
Background
I have this really nice Mike Fisher 98/17500 (48" long) EX case which has flown twice in a 5" rocket now, but it's really begging for a minimum diameter project. Our club's big research launch of the year is known as NXRS, located in Brothers, OR, which some of you know know about. Our max ceiling there is 42,460' AGL, so it only seems fitting to try and get near the top of the waiver for this year's event. My last MD project, "Millennium Falcon," was a huge success and set my personal altitude record to 33,828' AGL. It also served as proof-of-concept for a few designs and techniques used for future builds such as this one, most notably fin attachment methods. This project will of course be another shot at a personal altitude record...if everything works.
Design
In a nutshell, here is what we're working with:
- 4" x 60" fiberglass airframe.
- 4" 5:1 Von Karman nosecone.
- 4 x 1/8" G10 fins.
- And that's about it.
Construction
Fins will be bonded exactly the same as they were for Millennium Falcon, but with layups this time. Carbon fiber cloth and Aeropoxy will be used for this purpose. For recovery, dual deployment will be used in the exact same fashion as MF as well - nosecone coupler av-bay with switch band, drogue inside the airframe, main inside the nosecone. (Yes Fred...)
Avionics:
- Featherweight Raven3 - my favorite altimeter.
- PerfectFlite StratoLoggerCF - foolproof backup altimeter, and practically disposable anyways.
- 70cm 100mW Beeline GPS - tracking.
- 900 MHz Beeline GPS - HOPEFULLY backup tracking...still TBD.
Stay tuned for more and thanks for stopping by.
And yes, tip-to-tip with carbon fiber. I have a good plan figured out for that, as well. Thanks Teddy!
