LOC King Viper III - practical, not perfect

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Thanks to Justin, the layup is done. A wee bit of paint, then glue it into the body tube. Then a few pieces later, it should be ready to fly! :fly: :fly:
Although it's a shame to cover the carbon fiber, it must be done....

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Two is all you need, but

Adrian can't make it and you want to play, I can start saying bad things about your <pick an emotionally charged subject - mother, car, choice in filled pastries, the list goes on>.
 
Two is all you need, but

Adrian can't make it and you want to play, I can start saying bad things about your <pick an emotionally charged subject - mother, car, choice in filled pastries, the list goes on>.

If it wasn't when work starts to get busy and the OT starts to appear... Hard to leave that behind, when the OT pays for the hobby... Sounds like I'm missing a good time tho...
 
So i've decided to give my King viper a makeover, I didnt build it, it was given to me by someone i greatly respect (thanks again dave). Since it didn't have motor retention except friction fitting, i came up with my own, purchased some 6061 and cut out a retainer plate on the CNC. I'm not planing on using 54MM at this time so the retainer is for 38MM, and the 54 to 38 cardboard adaptors need some work.
View attachment 341475 Plan to use 1/4" all-thread all the way up through then add a 1/4" by 50MM aluminum plate that i can slide through the 54MM tube inside, see if that works.
View attachment 341476 The adaptors are just cardborad, none of the outside thrust rings are the same thickness, one was an 1/8 thick masking tape which i removed. I'll probably cutout 1/4" aluminum rings, JB weld them on then cut down the 38MM tubes.
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Well, finally ready to fly. I just need another 3d sled from Wildman, and this baby will fly.
Dog for scale (not payload...) :wink:
8ft ceilings are not enough when you wanna stack up a 9ft rocket :smile:

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I can verify that I saw both dog and rocket yesterday- they do both exist.
 
So, AV bay is prepped for flight. Motors are assembled. Just waiting on the holiday weekend. And good weather. Good weather would be very nice... :wink:
 
Wait.. you finished more than one rocket? In the same year?
 
Well, stuff went south. Well, south west, actually. It could have gone better, but it could have gone a LOT worse. SO... Now a new lower body tube will be glassed and put over the new(not anymore...) motor mount.


KV III hole.jpg
Hole where the forward closure exited the airframe :jaw:
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Notice a skidmark in the grass? Notice where it's aimed at...:eyepop::eyepop: This is a day later..
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New uh, wall mural art, yeah, that's it, wall mural art, in the storage container... :facepalm:
Video to follow... :blush:
 
Well, stuff went south. Well, south west, actually. It could have gone better, but it could have gone a LOT worse. SO... Now a new lower body tube will be glassed and put over the new(not anymore...) motor mount.


View attachment 345421
Hole where the forward closure exited the airframe :jaw:
View attachment 345422
Notice a skidmark in the grass? Notice where it's aimed at...:eyepop::eyepop: This is a day later..
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New uh, wall mural art, yeah, that's it, wall mural art, in the storage container... :facepalm:
Video to follow... :blush:

Adrian any idea what happened. I have a 3 motor 4" FG Viper that I have flew a good number of flights on CTI motors and things went great. I just make sure the motors have the BP pellet and use the standard motor lighters.

Gary
 
So, two new body tubes were procured from the Wildman. My hobby woodworker coworker helped me cut the tubes to the proper (well, decided) length. LOC had the original tubes at 42" for the booster and 27" for the payload section. Since the lower half will have plenty of motor tube and fin still hanging out the back, I decided to make both tubes the same length for a little more room for the main chute and harness. So each tube is 35" long. Thursday, they go to Mr Farrand for a layer of glass. :cool::cool: I sent an email to Mr Stickershock for price on a new wrap. But I'll have to give him the finished OD before we see the wrap. I'm trying to decide if I'm buying two more CTI 2 grain 54 cases, because I really want the J145LBSK to work. But I do have at least three 54/1280 cases, and I think I have three 54/852 cases. But neither one of those cases holds anything close to the J145... When I got the tubes, Tim was trying to talk me into three K700's :eek::eek::eek:
I'm sure Tim also still wants me to use three K850DM's too... Decisions decisions...
 
I have the same dilemma, with five 54mm holes in Tweety bird, I thought the J145's would be perfect for the second round of airstarts. I still haven't found a better load for the center hole than the L640 dual thrust though, and those are extinct as far as I can tell. I bought an extra 2 grain casing, so the J145's are on my list now. I do have four 54/1706 cases, but that would require me to add a bit of nose weight.... Lots of options, I even have room for my LOKI 54/4000 casing....
 
Anybody heard from Tim Dixon lately, TRF is showing his last visit as Jan 2018. I am sure he is busy, just wondering.
 
Anybody heard from Tim Dixon lately, TRF is showing his last visit as Jan 2018. I am sure he is busy, just wondering.

He reappears hear now and again. He goes by speaknoevil now... He's had a little health issue(don't remember what) so he couldn't make it to mini MWP.
Last I heard from him, his sights were still set on Airfest though...
 
Not entirely done however, i got it stripped down altered it for rail buttons and added motor retention. This was again given to me so there was no decal so i went with a metallic green. Deciding if i want to convert to dual deploy or just buy a JLCR for it



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So, to necro this thread yet again...
I now present King Viper III v3.0...
Just gotta add rail buttons, and if time allows, some brass shear strips.
 

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