Madcow Avlanche

It's all-in-one GPS and controller on or off. I turned it on for sure. It won't connect to the LCD if it's not on. After I armed it on the LCD I heard the audible ready to go on the TRS. Eric Hamilton was with me and helped and confirmed. Also the LCD read out DM for Drogue and Main. Those won't show ready if there's no continuity. And after firing they read lowercase d and m. Everything seemed perfect before the flight.

It was on and running correctly for a flight. Continuity was reporting good.

Big_Red_Daddy said:

I reassembled and launched it on Sunday morning for my L2 cert on a J350W. But the electronics never fired the deployment charges. All 48" in the ground.

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Sad to see that beautiful rocket buried in the ground.
These Avalanches are a lot like the 3" Punisher I built. I put a TRS in my Punisher, but never got it to work right. If not for the Stratologger I put in it, it would probably have ended up like yours. I took the TRS out and replaced it with an RRC-3 and an Eggfinder Tx. It has a dozen flights now, all good.
Yesterday, I ordered some white tubing and another coupler to modify both of the Avalanches (Sharon confiscated the one I won) to a standard dual deploy configuration with a payload bay and an Eggfinder in the N/C.

Wayco said:

I ordered some white tubing and another coupler to modify both of the Avalanches (Sharon confiscated the one I won) to a standard dual deploy configuration with a payload bay and an Eggfinder in the N/C.[/FONT][/SIZE]

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Should have just ordered this - pretty much one in the same & has all the hardware!
https://wildmanrocketry.com/collections/3-fiberglass/products/wild2

timbucktoo said:

Should have just ordered this - pretty much one in the same & has all the hardware!
https://wildmanrocketry.com/collections/3-fiberglass/products/wild2

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The one you linked is $285. The Avalanches were $99. They bought two, so the comparison is $570 vs. $198.

I’d be very surprised if the piece of tubing, two couplers, and four bulk plates cost $372. 🧐

Steve Shannon said:

The one you linked is $285. The Avalanches were $99. They bought two, so the comparison is $570 vs. $198.

I’d be very surprised if the piece of tubing, two couplers, and four bulk plates cost $372. ��

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yea but he said he bought a coupler & tubing to stretch it!

timbucktoo said:

Should have just ordered this - pretty much one in the same & has all the hardware!
https://wildmanrocketry.com/collections/3-fiberglass/products/wild2

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Wildman has red thinwall tubing, the Avalanche has white standard tubing. My Avalanche is built, and has all the hardware it needs already installed.
I'm positive we don't need any more kits from Wildman. I can't even walk across the front room without tripping on a Wildman rocket. Plus we are doing motor inventory, so there are plastic flip-top boxes lining the hallway from the front door to the back patio. I never dreamed we could fill up a 3200 square foot house with rocket stuff....:eyepop:

Steve Shannon said:

The one you linked is $285. The Avalanches were $99. They bought two, so the comparison is $570 vs. $198.

I’d be very surprised if the piece of tubing, two couplers, and four bulk plates cost $372. 類

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I bought a 30" piece of white body tube, cut in half, two 6" couplers and two 3" bulkplates for about $100. That will extend both my Avalanche and the Avalanche I won (that Sharon claimed). So we are into two 3" dual deploy rockets, with payload tubes, for about $200.

Wayco said:

Sad to see that beautiful rocket buried in the ground.
These Avalanches are a lot like the 3" Punisher I built. I put a TRS in my Punisher, but never got it to work right. If not for the Stratologger I put in it, it would probably have ended up like yours. I took the TRS out and replaced it with an RRC-3 and an Eggfinder Tx. It has a dozen flights now, all good.
Yesterday, I ordered some white tubing and another coupler to modify both of the Avalanches (Sharon confiscated the one I won) to a standard dual deploy configuration with a payload bay and an Eggfinder in the N/C.

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You couldn't have buried that prettier if you tried. Did it cross your mind to try watering it and see if it would sprout?

Flew mine today on a J425. Great flight!

Wallace said:

You couldn't have buried that prettier if you tried. Did it cross your mind to try watering it and see if it would sprout?

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That will just create more little Avalanches. Not sure the farmers want those growing in their fields.

Looks great. One of the guys who flew his at LDRS glassed the fins and sent it to over 15k feet on a high thrust L motor.

I'm planning on setting mine up with head end dual deploy and wondering where folks are putting trackers? inside the bay with antenna mounted outside on the bulkhead? My preference would be to keep everything buttoned up inside, but worry about attenuation from the all thread. I suppose my telegps is small enough I could attach it to the recovery harness if need be. I'm used to putting them in the nose cone...

Flew mine to +12k’ last week with TeleGPS mounted inside AV Bay. No external antenna. Never lost track. As backup I taped an RF tracker to shock cord in airframe.

Here's my Avalanche. First flight went to 4,988' on a J354.
I built it with the following:

• Eggtimer TRS (primary alt)
• Eggtimer Quark (backup alt)
• 18" TFL drogue
• 54" Dura-Chute (PML) main
• Aero Pack Tail Cone
• Built weight is 6.03 lb without motor

First flight was to 4,988' on a J354.

Do you by chance have a built weight and descent data? All I have on hand is an 18" flat sheet flare chute from Aerocon for a drogue and I was thinking it might be too much? We have a lot of water/swamp and trees that I'd rather avoid..

Keisling said:

Here's my Avalanche. First flight went to 4,988' on a J354.
I built it with the following:

• Eggtimer TRS (primary alt)
• Eggtimer Quark (backup alt)
• 18" TFL drogue
• 54" Dura-Chute (PML) main
• Aero Pack Tail Cone
• Built weight is 6.03 lb without motor

View attachment 356108

First flight was to 4,988' on a J354.

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Nice looking build! I got the same tail cone retainer. It doesn't exactly fit the motor mount tube but I think a little sanding will do the trick. How are you attaching your recovery harness in the booster section? I want to avoid having to buy new motor hardware for the time being, otherwise I'd consider a threaded closure on the motor and attach to that. So for me I'm thinking I'll just do the old epoxy kevlar to the motor mount trick. Probably will make a loop with two attachment points.

Original paint design by me, generated in Inkscape, wrapped in RockSim, and pieced together in Paint.net.

[/QUOTE]

How did you do this? I just posted a thread asking about how to do this. Specifically with wrapping the paint around the rocket.

Same as his twin brother.


Ask Big_Red_Daddy how he designed them .

Faroutspacenut said:

Nice looking build! I got the same tail cone retainer. It doesn't exactly fit the motor mount tube but I think a little sanding will do the trick. How are you attaching your recovery harness in the booster section? I want to avoid having to buy new motor hardware for the time being, otherwise I'd consider a threaded closure on the motor and attach to that. So for me I'm thinking I'll just do the old epoxy kevlar to the motor mount trick. Probably will make a loop with two attachment points.

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I had the same problem with the motor mount being a little too big. A few min with some 80 grit sandpaper was all it took to fix. I epoxied a loop of Kevlar to the motor tube for the recovery attachment.

Faroutspacenut said:

Nice looking build! I got the same tail cone retainer. It doesn't exactly fit the motor mount tube but I think a little sanding will do the trick. How are you attaching your recovery harness in the booster section? I want to avoid having to buy new motor hardware for the time being, otherwise I'd consider a threaded closure on the motor and attach to that. So for me I'm thinking I'll just do the old epoxy kevlar to the motor mount trick. Probably will make a loop with two attachment points.

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That's exactly what I did. A "Y" harness sewn directly to a swivel and stuck to the motor mount with Rocketpoxy. My best guess was to set it up so the widest point of the lower half of the swivel contacts the body tube to distubute the load/potential "sawing" action on the harness to tube joint.

Thanks Dave and Wallace for sharing those pictures.
What size kevlar are you both using?

Faroutspacenut said:

What size kevlar are you both using?

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3/8" for the loop epoxied to the motor tube, mainly because I had some left over from another build. Everything else is 1/4".

This...1/2" Greenlee flat Kevlar pulling tape. Remnants can be found cheap and it's real nice to work with/pack...

Commonly referred to as "Mule tape" if looking to buy some.[above post]

Wallace said:

This...1/2" Greenlee flat Kevlar pulling tape. Remnants can be found cheap and it's real nice to work with/pack...

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Just picked some up from Aerocon:
https://aeroconsystems.com/cart/launch-recovery/kevlar-tape-for-recovery-bridles/
I only use it for the "Y" harness, it fits under the forward centering ring and lays flat on the MMT.

Wallace said:

This...1/2" Greenlee flat Kevlar pulling tape. Remnants can be found cheap and it's real nice to work with/pack...

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Not to hijack the thread but I wont use the flat kevlar mule tape again. At least not with a fiberglass rocket. I had a early deployment happen and that stuff cut like nothing. I would only use it like Waco for a y harness at the motor mount.

captbk said:

Not to hijack the thread but I wont use the flat kevlar mule tape again. At least not with a fiberglass rocket. I had a early deployment happen and that stuff cut like nothing. I would only use it like Waco for a y harness at the motor mount.

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That is exactly why it stops before the booster tube end. Only the widest point(s) of the swivel can make contact @ that point. Assume if things get violent enough it could damage the tube, but if that ends up being the case I find it better from a safety standpoint than a potential ballistic sustainer from a cut harness.. I also have some 1/4" tubular Kevlar for harness fabrication. It "looks and feels nice" but I have no specs on it. I actually prefer nylon for the harness itself as long as ti can be kept away from the heat.

captbk said:

Not to hijack the thread but I wont use the flat kevlar mule tape again. At least not with a fiberglass rocket. I had a early deployment happen and that stuff cut like nothing. I would only use it like Waco for a y harness at the motor mount.

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Two things I do on all fiberglass rockets:
1) sand the inside of booster round (payload for that matter)
2) wrap a few layers of masking tape around harness where it rubs against airframe and replace as needed.

I could easily see that it would cut rather quickly on a sharp tube edge since I used a razor during fabrication of the harness itself. Good call on the tape wrap. I love simple solutions.

What I do on the Kevlar shock cords is I run the Kevlar through tubular nylon. I have about 4" in the tube and about 4" out of the tube. Most of the time I just attach TN with a few drops of CA one has never pulled loose.