I had two full weeks off from work. Hoped I would get to work on this and a long list of chores around the house. Nope. Was sick, then the weather wouldn't cooperate, then the holidays, more sick, more weather, more holidays...it kept repeating, then a sick truck. Still not back to 100% (me or the truck) and the weather is surely not acting right. Got down into the low teens early this week. And that played all kinds of heck on my old truck. But back to the Viper
I did get my sled wired up however. Put some pieces of small body tube to act as conduit to help manage the wires. May pull the bulkheads and the RRC3 then paint and polish the board, but I got more stuff to do before I waste time doing that again.
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The good idea fairie come by and dropped an idea on me. I can put the panel on and fill in around it with spot putty. Then pull the panel and have a nice smooth hole right. Wrong. The stuff chipped and cracked off the body tube opening and stained the white panel. Now I will be painting the panel anyway, or I may just print/cut a piece of vinyl to cover it.
What's left:
EggFinder in nose cone. That will probably wait. Trying to save weight a bit to fly on smaller motors.
Main harness. Likely go with kevlar up here as well. Will save a little space and weight. I think I have some 1/2" polypro flat strap I may use.
Paint and Polish. Probably going with wood filler or just primer to fill the spirals then gloss rattle can. I already have red, yellow, white and black, so I should be good there. Doubt I will polish it up all shiny. Especially since I plan to launch it next month.
Rail buttons.
Sampling ports.
Switch access hole.
Rivet payload section.
Order decal from LOC.
Motor selection: Got a thread going in the Restricted section. Thinking about turning some 24/40 reloads into single use. It'll get me closer to what I want/need in the boost department while saving money and shaving weight on the business end of the rocket. I can boost on D15 blue thunders, and stage to Estes D12s or D9 whites and stay under 1000 feet. Should be a nice low shakedown flight. Will have to order the motors first and go from there.