rharshberger
Well-Known Member
Looking forward to seeing this one live Chris.
Looking forward to seeing this one live Chris.
Thank you, Rich. A few more things to wrap up, but it is most of the way finished.
Looking forward to the May launch!
Have you considered ditching the terminal blocks altogether, and simply using a JST connector for ematch termination? Yes, it requires that you crimp on JST connectors to your ematches, but it makes switching out ematches that much simpler...
-Robert
Polish the body and dont paint it at all, nice job.
Or ditching the terminal blocks all together and wiring directly to the altimeter by passing the wire throu a hole in the bulkhead and either sealing it with poster tack or a well-nut ( aka rawl nut). Its one less connection to worry about being faulty.
All my ematches are wired diectly to the ematches, it does however require dis assembly of the avbay to prep for another flight.
The Marsa is having difficulty popping the main deployment,
but I think that is because the deployment altitude is set below the actual altitude at this location, Pretty sure this has to do with the altitude calibration.
What do you mean? There are LED lights next to the output of each channel. Are you saying the main channel doesn't fire when vacuum is slowly released OR does the channel fire but the ematch doesn't ignite?
No. The Marsa deployment altitude is the measured altitude from the measured ground altitude.
Send me a PM or email if you have any other questions to help you resolve issues you are seeing.
Regards,
John
Congrats on an amazingly well-done build and on two apparently excellent flights. Were their any issues with the recovery from either flight?
Thank you.
The flights were smooth and straight up, no spinning. On the first flight, I gave in to the impulse to go a little heavy on the deployment charges, so the shock from the first deployment also popped the main chute, likely from shearing the 3 2-56 plastic screws securing the sections together. It was only at 2100', so the rocket landed sitting straight up on the ground about 300' from where it launched. The second recovery went as it should have. Apogee drogue deployment at about 2200', main chute deployment at about 700'. Lesson learned.... stick with exactly what the ground test results yield. I did extensive testing in the days prior to the launch.
Before the next flight, I am moving to 4-40 plastic screws, and re-doing the ground testing. I am planning more flights on similar sized motors until I see that I actually have consistent deployment, then doing some ground tests with a 54 6GXL dummy in it, as that motor extends well into the donut AV bay, and then taking it up to the 5000'ish altitude, and then up on a L935 Imax to around 9000' and maybe just over mach 1.
Here is the scene of the second flight landing.
The other options we have are, tall grass/wheat between the 4 circles of sod, a little bit of sage brush, to the east, and later in the year a rocket eating cornfield about a 1/2mile the northwest. Most recoveries are in the Barefoot Recovery Area though. Rarely does the irrigation canal become a possibility due to prevailing winds. We have a great facility and awesome landowners who are very supportive of our hobby and other hobbies like ultrlight fliers and R/C sailplane clubs. Check out our facility using google earth the links are available on the club website which I believe is in my sig line.This is one of the landing options at the launch area where the Tri-City Rocketeers launch from, close to Tri-Cities, Washington.
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