fyrfytr310's Level 3 - Polecat 10" Nike Smoke

First, a HUGE thank you to Gary and Joe for working with me on this project. This would not have happened as well as it did without their guidance. Thanks to you all as well for following this thread, your encouragement and thoughtful advise!

We arrived at the chilly fields around 11AM and immediately set off to assemble the rocket (after checking in with the TAPs of course). I had plenty of hands available to me so it went pretty smoothly. I followed my pre-flight check list to a T. Once on the rail, I couldn't find the screw switches on the sled due to (I now suspect) nerves. We lowered the rocket and they magically appeared. So we re-raised the rail and armed the electronics. Obligatory pre-flight pictures were taken, camera turned on and the rest can be seen below.

















***Language Warning*** --- Sorry. Got caught up in the splendor.

[YOUTUBE]28IP-qSfQyY[/YOUTUBE]

Well done & congrats!

Excellent flight! Congratulations!

Congrats on the L3 and a nice flight

Congrats! Man that rocket is a Beast! Great job!
That looks like S Charleston OH?

Nick@JET said:

Congrats! Man that rocket is a Beast! Great job!
That looks like S Charleston OH?

Click to expand...

You are correct! And thank you!

Congratulations, nice job, and a nice rocket!!


What is the green line on the bottom graph?

Graph legend says velocity is green. Makes sense too since the peak is right at burnout.

Thanks, I missed the legend first time around.

Congrats on a flight well done, welcome to L3!

Congrats on the flight and cert 3!

Congratulations Mike! +Plus+ You got to work with TWO great TAP's in that being the Joe/Gary combination.

One FUZZY and, Tall! oint:
One Humorous and, Small(er)!

Great club, great field, great people! :wave:

And, I was up in Michigan all day yesterday...Why were they soooo....grumpy? :lol:

SS/EA 6BBL 71 Cuda said:

Congratulations Mike! +Plus+ You got to work with TWO great TAP's in that being the Joe/Gary combination.

One FUZZY and, Tall! oint:
One Humorous and, Small(er)!

Great club, great field, great people! :wave:

And, I was up in Michigan all day yesterday...Why were they soooo....grumpy? :lol:

Click to expand...

TTUN had a bad day but not for lack of effort lol.

Thanks a lot everyone!

Fantastic! Congratulations!

Later!

--Coop

Great Job! Congrats!

I must also pile on with a congratulatory post. Great project, Mike! You demonstrated your resourcefulness way back when we were troubleshooting your USB/RRC3 connection, and the same shows in your L3 project.

MWC said:

I must also pile on with a congratulatory post. Great project, Mike! You demonstrated your resourcefulness way back when we were troubleshooting your USB/RRC3 connection, and the same shows in your L3 project.

Click to expand...

Thanks, MWC!

Did the sustainer contact the upper bay at all after main deployment? That can be a problem with a nose down descent with the sustainer falling above the upper main chute bay. Leaves one open to clipping a fin if the sustainer hits the upper bay after the main fires. Obviously since it was a success that didn't happen. It would take a frame by frame view but I sensed it came pretty close. You might want to change the harness arrangement for future flights with the drogue closer to the upper bay so the sustainer perhaps falls below or 90 degrees to the side.

Also, it appeared there is some play on the main coupler on the sustainer. Stare at the demarcation between the two in the video and it seemed there was some side to side sway after the boost and perhaps some separation from expanding pressure from inside the sustainer? Or....... It could have been the lighting change from the spin? That could be an issue in the future if planning on flying with a stupid powerful motor. You'd want to be certain
you wouldn't get pressure separation on boost and your vent holes were sized properly.

I will comment that some crazy "purists" :eyeroll: might diss that fact the launch occurred into a cloud layer but it is readily seen it was a very narrow layer, It was low lying, not very thick and since there was a waiver in force, I don't believe air traffic control
would have an IFR general aviation flight flying in the middle of a one to two thousand foot thick low lying cloud layer. Plus, ATC would know what was going on with the rocket flying waiver in force. So chill out.

I loved the video. Heck with the upward facing camera on descent, you could look at the time frame on your altimeter data and could calculate the thickness of the cloud layer if you were so inclined.
Congratulations. Kurt Savegnago

Got any shots of the nose cone recovery? How far did it land from the rest of the rocket?

Exactimator said:

Got any shots of the nose cone recovery? How far did it land from the rest of the rocket?

Click to expand...

In the uncut version of the initial video (Facebook live) I follow it all the way down. It actually only went down field another 200 yards or so.

Mike,

Congrats on the Level 3. Flight looked great and I am glad everything worked out.

Woo hoo! It has been fun to follow this project from the beginning. :w:

Mike,

It was a great flight. I saw it from a little different perspective than most as I was retrieving my rocket that was on the away pad before you loaded yours. Yours was a nice boost and a picture perfect recovery from my vantage point. It was a pleasure to work with you on this although you did all the work. Welcome to Level 3 and all the privileges and responsibilities that go with it.

Congrats Mike! Love a big 'Smoke; you represented well! Great documentation of the flight; looked awesome!

Great that you got to work with Joe and Gary....two fine gentlemen!!!

-Eric-

JoeG said:

Mike,

It was a great flight. I saw it from a little different perspective than most as I was retrieving my rocket that was on the away pad before you loaded yours. Yours was a nice boost and a picture perfect recovery from my vantage point. It was a pleasure to work with you on this although you did all the work. Welcome to Level 3 and all the privileges and responsibilities that go with it.

Click to expand...

Thanks, Joe!

ECayemberg said:

Congrats Mike! Love a big 'Smoke; you represented well! Great documentation of the flight; looked awesome!

Great that you got to work with Joe and Gary....two fine gentlemen!!!

-Eric-

Click to expand...

Thank you! And I couldn't agree more on Joe and Gary.

Bat-mite said:

Woo hoo! It has been fun to follow this project from the beginning. :w:

Click to expand...

+ 1. Thanks for sharing the build, and the nice big pics of a nice big rocket - so big in fact, that looking to the west I think I caught a glimpse of it from here, glittering momentarily just above the horizon..:wink: