337% Big Daddy - "Midnight Express" - L3 cert project

[delta22]

Glassed a 2 ft section of 5.5" LOC tubing that will serve as chute cannon for main.

Epoxied that to a 2 ft section of 29mm FG Wildman tubing that will hold main ejection charge.

Trimmed these near the bulkhead that sits closest to the front of the NC so that ejection gasses can freely pass from 29mm tube to 5.5" tube. Then heavily glassed over the area where these tubes join.

If locating the ejection charge in the 29mm tube does not result in satisfactory deployments of the main in ground tests, then plan B:
29mm tube serves as a passage for the ematch to the ejection charge placed at top of 5.5" chute canon.

[delta22]

Epoxied this chute canon deep into the cavernous nose cone with two generous build ups of 206 epoxy.

Then did the same with another CR located at the middle of the chute cannon.

This CR serves at the top of the altimeter bay. The alt bay is the large doughnut shaped area created in the base of the NC shown in the second pic.

[delta22]

Pictured here is the back side of the final CR to go in the NC.

Has two 38mm ports and covers for the two altimeters, plus a 29mm port and cover for the main ejection charge.

Altimeters will sit in large open area at base of NC, main ejection charge will fire down 29mm FG tube.

[delta22]

Made 3 altimeter vent holes evenly spaced around base of NC each 3/8". Drilled, epoxied, dried, drilled again, sanded. Alt bay is huge at 660 cu in.

Also epoxied into NC two Featherweight screw switches, one next to each altimeter.

Last pic shows parts that will form the piston that will sit at the base of the NC to contain the mains until final deployment event.

[delta22]

Glassed inside the body tube to fire harden, strengthen, reduce risk of zipper and improve fit of NC as it was slightly loose.

Also sanded top edge of body tube to match the slightly uneven base of the NC to get best fit.

For flight, body and NC will be marked and shear pinned for optimum alignment and separation control.

Worked on this past 1 am last three nights. Plan to quit early tonight and knock off at midnight.

[JRL303]

Go Man, go! Fantastic stuff. Thanks!

[qquake2k]

This is an absolutely incredible build!

[cwbullet]

This is an absolutely incredible build!

I am very interested to see how this comes together. It looks great so far.

[delta22]

Thanks.

Attached the Rocksim file for this project plus a screenshot.

Brought the rocket to work last week to use a medical scale and get accurate weights on major parts:

> NC before addition of nose weight and internal structures was 6.8 lbs

> 99% complete body and fin assembly was 10.8 lbs

Adjusted weights in Rocksim model with these numbers plus updated weights of other smaller components.

Used this as the basis to determine amount of nose weight to add.

Looks like L3 flight weight will be close to 38 lbs. As usually seems to happen, projects gain weight.

I too am eager to see how this story ends....

[delta22]

Completed ejection charge tests today.

As this is the biggest project I have done so far, and I am trying a new setup for the main deployment charge, was not sure what test results would be.

Standard volume formulas would suggest 4g BP for the main (pressurizing 20" len x 5.5" dia) and 3g BP for the drogue (5" len x 10" dia).

The main chutes (2x 7ft) are fired from a 5.5" chute cannon in the NC with the deployment charge placed in a parallel 29mm FG tube vented to the top of the 5.5" tube. So the 29mm FG tube and the 5.5" tube form a U shape as far as the ejection charge is concerned.

main ejection tests:
1g BP placed at top of 5.5" tube (conventional ejection charge placement) ejected piston closure cap 15 ft, and ejected one chute
1g BP placed in 29mm FG tube ejected piston closure cap 15 ft, both chutes remained in 5.5" tube
2g BP placed in 29mm FG tube ejected piston closure cap and one chute
2.5g BP placed in 29mm FG tube ejected piston closure cap and both chutes (this is what I will use for flights)

drogue ejection tests:
2g BP incomplete separation of NC (keeping in mind that NC is huge, half the length and weight of the rocket)
3g BP sent NC 15ft across the lawn (this is what I will use for flights)

[MasonH]

Holy hell that thing is cool!

[Threemorewishes]

Organizing it would be a challenge but a photo of all the Big Daddy's at LDRS31 would be a hoot!

[delta22]

Pictures show piston/cover for main chutes. It is recessed to make room for top of 4grain 75mm M motor!

Main compartment cover is shear pinned in place by 4x 2-56 nylon screws, and has an outer rim at the top that prevents the apogee ejection charge from blowing it out of place prematurely. It has Ubolts on top (connects to one 7ft main) and bottom (connects to 50 ft x 1/2" tubular Kevlar harness to 5 ft drogue and rocket body).

Also can see alt bay covers (numbered 1 and 2) before they were wired up, and cover for 29mm main ejection charge tube.

[delta22]

Added extreme rail buttons and 24mm tube to hold onboard video camera. Rail buttons have Tnuts anchoring them to the wood stand offs. Camera tube has 2x 6oz FG anchoring it to rocket body.

Masked off fins.

Fist time I had to flip up my work table top for a paint job. Every one up to now could be done on the table top.

[delta22]

Then primed and painted dark blue. Spent 6 cans of Krylon and created a lot of spray dust in the basement despite the vent fan.

Then applied a whole bunch of cool StickerShock vinyl star decals!

[delta22]

The 3.4x Big Daddy "Midnight Express", 3ft "Spinning Saucer of the Apocalypse" and 2x Fat Boy "HellBoy" all dressed up for LDRS in nice StickerShock decals.

Then all fit carefully into the back of a Subaru. I actually planned out the two larger projects to fit my car as a rocket trailer is not in the budget.

[jus_rockets]

You have some very unique rockets, very well built! Good luck at LDRS

[qquake2k]

Then primed and painted dark blue. Spent 6 cans of Krylon and created a lot of spray dust in the basement despite the vent fan.

Then applied a whole bunch of cool StickerShock vinyl star decals!

That sure turned out nice!

[AfterBurners]

Then primed and painted dark blue. Spent 6 cans of Krylon and created a lot of spray dust in the basement despite the vent fan.

Then applied a whole bunch of cool StickerShock vinyl star decals!

by the way absolutely beautiful work. I have a grin because the last two pictures look so cool, but the rocket just sitting there as it it is you have no idea how big it really is. It's amazing, but it doesn't look like 68" long.

[cwbullet]

Nice paint job. I love the big daddy kit. I have an upscale set fins I cut. I just never built it.

[delta22]

Thanks, the stars really dressed this rocket up nicely.

A couple pics at the field packing the first 7ft into the deployment bag and the second 7 footer below it in Nomex.

Can also see the terminal blocks on alt bays and the frame I use to attach a video camera to my DSLR to get video and good stills at the same time.

[delta22]

Went for a test flight today, 7/12/12, at LDRS on an CTI/AMW L820 Skidmark.

Used a one grain spacer to put the 3 grain load in a 4 grain 75mm case. First flight for this beast and my first L.

Flight went up well on a noisy column of smoke and a shower of sparks, reaching an altitude of 2608 ft.

Gotta love a big sparky.

Pics include the required guy standing next to his rocket.

Should clear up any doubts that I might have built a 20" Estes Big Daddy for my L3

Rocket is in great shape, with no damage of any kind, and is go for L3 tomorrow.

Science Channel set up a few video cameras for this flight, so hopefully this flight will make it into the show.

Two minor flight glitches, both resolvable:

> Mains deployed at apogee along with drogue.
Reason: Too much of a pull by the shock cord at apogee drogue deployment. Robert DeHate, my L3 adviser had expressed concern that this might happen because of the weight of the NC.
Fix: Attach the 50ft drogue harness to a Ubolt mounted on the base of NC instead of attaching it to the cap covering the main chute compartment. Also slightly modify harness setup for mains. Will result in NC and body recovering together, still using three chutes.

> Onboard video camera shut itself off at peak motor thrust and vibration.
Reason: Camera mount tube too tight a fit near on/off button.
Fix: Cut away a small area of the camera mount tube near the switch.

[Pantherjon]

Awesome! I love sparkies/skidmarks!

Good luck on the L3 flight! Don't let it being Friday the 13th deter you in anyway!

[isobig]

Good luck with your L3 attempt! Looks great so far.

[MasonH]

Awesome rocket! And thanks for being in the photo to put it to scale!

[Johnly]

Way cool Boris. Hope you have a sucessful L3 flight today.

John

[delta22]

Successful L3 flight, YYEEEHHHAAAA!

On Friday the 13th.

Built and loaded the 4 grain 75mm CTI/AMW M1230.

Modified the chute setup and camera mount as previously noted. Picked up one of the new Boostervision HD Gearcams on the field from Art Upton and got great onboard video.

At just before 4 in the afternoon the Midnight Express soared in the air, reaching 4673 ft, 1000 feet more altitude than Rocksim predicted.

The 275 pounds of thrust for 4.5 seconds sent the 40.8 pound rocket up hard, straight and fast.

As this project has progressed, the rocket has kept gaining weight, it must be eating junk food when I'm not watching...

The rocket had a clean recovery for a good L3 flight.

Thanks to Robert DeHate my L3CC advisor. RSO was Steve Eves and LCO Greg Gardener.

[delta22]

Screen grab from onboard video showing LDRS flightline.

Will post videos when I get home and can do some editing on a more powerful computer.

[Pantherjon]

Most awesome! Congratz!

AND 1K MORE then RS predicted? That is pretty awesome there! Usually the predicted altitude in RS is higher then the actual..Great shot of the flight line as well..Almost as if you had someone up there to take that picture!

Now, CHANGE YOUR SIG TO REFLECT THE NEW L3!

Again, congrats!

[delta22]

Most awesome! Congratz!

AND 1K MORE then RS predicted? That is pretty awesome there! Usually the predicted altitude in RS is higher then the actual..Great shot of the flight line as well..Almost as if you had someone up there to take that picture!

Now, CHANGE YOUR SIG TO REFLECT THE NEW L3!

Again, congrats!

Thank you.

Yes, more altitude than RS predicted was a surprise, a couple extra pounds helped with the upwards momentum.

Signature updated.