Vulcan: L1 cert glider

Oh yeah, need to remember the launcher, too. The rod is 3/8" in a 1/2" lug, for ease of movement. 6' length seems excessive with the glider on it.

Just eye candy, really.

Ari.

Adding lead shot to nosecone. A 1' brass 1/4-20 all-thread keeps the shot in place and provides an attachment point for additional ballast if necessary. There are 1" washers on nuts on the all-thread inside the nosecone and one at the very aft end, in addition to 1/4-20 thread I tap into the plastic. Between them, I expect the shot to stay in place under boost. I dunk the shot in Gorilla glue and pour the cocktail inside.

Something new I learn today--Gorilla glue gets warm when curing. This is the biggest batch I've ever used--I guess it's less noticeable in smaller batches. To be safe, I put the nosecone in water to dissipate the heat. This photo also shows the hole I cut to insert fender washers.

I laminate 2"x3/32" balsa on the bottom of inboard flaperons. Part of my frustration is that I have strapping tape on control surfaces that wraps around, including on the hinges. No glue I know of attaches to strapping tape. So I reluctantly pull the tape off and laminate new balsa under it.

Now the control surfaces are 5.5% of wing area. Of course now I worry about flutter and servo torque :=)

Ari.

This is the ultimate flying configuration Short nose, 300g of lead in the nosecone and CG at 20% MAC at takeoff, shifting to 17.2% at burnout.

Plan is to fly it tomorrow on a G54.

Nervous about the maiden.

Looking for your guys' support :=)

Ari.

It flies! Video later tonight. Two teaser screenshots for now.

Thank you all for your support and encouragement! Next stop, L1.

Ari.

That's great, good luck with the L1 flight!

Great work, Ari!!

Here's hoping for a very successful L1 flight and many more to follow!!

Great job! Looks good & flies too, cant beat the with a stick... Good luck on the L1

Thank you all for your kind words and encouragement! Here's the video. Special thanks to David Springsteen for his camera work and lending me his keychain camera.

Ari.

[video=youtube;DOoQHrTUDTY]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DOoQHrTUDTY[/video]

GREAT job! Spectacular glide and landing!


Later!

--Coop

Brilliant. All it needs is retractable landing gear:wink:

Wow, that was GREAT, I've got to admit, I had my doubts, but that thing is awesome!

Now that is doing a cert. in style! Great job!

VERY VERY COOL !!!!

Great job iter!!

aditat2 said:

Brilliant. All it needs is retractable landing gear:wink:

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Now THAT would be cool!

Very cool!:clap: Now I wish I didnt sell all my RC stuff.

aditat2 said:

Brilliant. All it needs is retractable landing gear:wink:

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Then you need hard concrete like Moffett--can;t land on dirt like in the video with retracts, and can't do high power at Moffett. It would be cool to take off concrete with landing gear, retract it, extend it on downwind and land on gear again. Doubt RSO would allow it.

mdoering said:

Wow, that was GREAT, I've got to admit, I had my doubts, but that thing is awesome!

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This thread is full of my own doubts as well. I'm happy to have addressed these doubts before the flight!

Thank you for all your encouragement. The response here has been really great and your support keeps me going!


Ari.

I have been looking at this airplane as a potential rocket conversion. Already has retractable gear and can handle the speed... A little expensive though.

https://www.horizonhobby.com/products/carbon-z-scimitar-bnf-EFL10180



Ari.

Yeah, that doesn't include the retracts in the price listed....but it looks like they have the actuators/servos built into the retracts so you just plug into the rx...only $120 more.

iter said:

I have been looking at this airplane as a potential rocket conversion. Already has retractable gear and can handle the speed... A little expensive though.

https://www.horizonhobby.com/products/carbon-z-scimitar-bnf-EFL10180

View attachment 100320

Ari.

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What a great maiden flight! I want to see a victory roll when you come in for landing next time!

Congrats again!

Mike Mc.

Looks like it flies great - it should do wonderfully on a nice longish burning H motor. I love the onboard cameras too

"You, sir, are a steely- eyed missile man."
Now, if you'd care to consider a new paint scheme of anti-flash white and RAF roundels.......

Good work Iter,

Makes my Funjet look like a toy, but I'm a newbie to rocketry and thats my excuse and Im sticking to it!

Scimitar on rocket power Hmmmm? Like the thinking, I dare you to keep the thrust vectoring active it will make for some crazy 3d aerobatics, rocket boosted inverted flat spins whahoo!

Thank you also for the kind words on the Funjet thread. Thinking about converting a Kyosho Illusion ducted fan with variable geometry wings for my next RCBG project, just got to find out if there are any plugged E motors in this part of the world

Cheers Planecrazy

Minimum_Wage said:

What a great maiden flight! I want to see a victory roll when you come in for landing next time!

Congrats again!

Mike Mc.

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Now that's a great idea! A victory roll for your successful L1!

Terrific flight! I think some of the pictures belie the large size of the plane. What is the wingspan and body length? What is the final weight? With regard to your upcoming challenge is this the first time that a rocket glider has been used to certify Level I? Is your cert NAR or Tripoli?

Planecrazy said:

Scimitar on rocket power Hmmmm? Like the thinking, I dare you to keep the thrust vectoring active it will make for some crazy 3d aerobatics, rocket boosted inverted flat spins whahoo!

Thank you also for the kind words on the Funjet thread. Thinking about converting a Kyosho Illusion ducted fan with variable geometry wings for my next RCBG project, just got to find out if there are any plugged E motors in this part of the world

Click to expand...

Your FunJet looks very similar to my SkyFun implementation (my avatar, also https://www.rocketryforum.com/showthread.php?37184-Rocket-Foamie-SkyFun). Your flying skills however look way beyond my capability. I'm happy just to bring the glider back in one piece :=)

Swing-wing models are interesting in tems of shifting CGs. Moving the wings back moves CG forward relative to MAC, which is a problem for EDFs but perfect for RCRGs. Estes plugged motors may be hard to come by, but AeroTech E15-PW is commonly available from distributors. This is the motor you see in my avatar. You may also wish to look at AeroTech's 24mm plugged reloads for this application, in particular E6-RCT.

Ari.

aerostadt said:

Terrific flight! I think some of the pictures belie the large size of the plane. What is the wingspan and body length? What is the final weight? With regard to your upcoming challenge is this the first time that a rocket glider has been used to certify Level I? Is your cert NAR or Tripoli?

Click to expand...

Basic parameters appear in the first post of this thread. Vulcan is bigger than most RCRGs, and is certainly my largest at 43" wingspan and 50" length. The airfoil is 15%, making the wing 5.25" at the thickest point! Mike Kochel (AstronMike) has a story about re-certifying on a free-flight glider, the only such certification I know of: https://www.rocketryforum.com/showthread.php?11016-4-quot-CHAD-Bomarc-on-a-3-quot-Mailing-Tube-Body

I'm NAR.

Ari.