7.5" - 6" Terrier Sandhawk

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Indeed, it's been a great friend! Of course this project's been going on long enough now I'm less concerned with appearance if ya know what I mean. :)

I think Todd uses this same strategy on his rockets-- flat black paint hides any multitude of sins :lol:
 
Went with different colors on the booster fins, the white's not too bad hiding stuff either :) Couple shots of the booster altimeter bay, the coupler forms a bucket into which the main and drogue can be easily packed.

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These 2 are the sustainer wiring for the separation charge and motor ignition. I love these little JST connectors, use 'em on everything, very solid.

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Decided to go with a clustered booster, just can't help myself. The 4 baby L's are the same white formula I tested for the ill-fated X15. At least the motor worked well :) With a 6" mount 4x54's are no problem but I can use 75, 98, 114 and 6" motors too. Nice to have options.

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With the motor ends sticking out I thought I'd try adding a ring to help protect them on landing.

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So finally, a little more than a year after I began, here it is. It's difficult to put into words what this feels like - so much planning, work, spending :) One of the things I love about rockets is seeing the tangible evidence of your effort. It's somewhat sad that so many end up in the trash can but hey, that's what we do!

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WOW!! Awesome build, great design, great paint and great quality! This was quite inspiring, thank you for posting this and i cant wait to see more of your rockets in the future.
 
Yeah, baby! When do you plan to fly it, Jerry? My wife and I are looking into attempting an LDRS trip this year...
 
Thanks David, qquake.

Marcus, the 1st flight is at MDRA in 2 weeks, the 4 L1500s to an 98/8,000ns (M2500-ish). Assuming that flight goes OK (and what could possibly go wrong? :) ), I'll bring it to LDRS. Looking forward to it, I really like that site and time of year in upstate NY.
 
Thanks David, qquake.

Marcus, the 1st flight is at MDRA in 2 weeks, the 4 L1500s to an 98/8,000ns (M2500-ish). Assuming that flight goes OK (and what could possibly go wrong? :) ), I'll bring it to LDRS. Looking forward to it, I really like that site and time of year in upstate NY.

Killer! Well good luck, old friend. Can't wait for pics/vids of that!
 
Jerry that is an unbelievable build.....
You do such meticulous work it is unreal..
I saw the X15 and the attention to detail was insane as well...
I will be at Higgs in 2 weeks and will look forward to that flight
with fantastic anticipation, fingers crossed and positive thoughts........

The absolute best of luck Jerry.......

Teddy
 
It's always a nervous time when a new, long toiled-over project is at the field for the 1st time. Was there a small detail omitted? Will it work as you'd hoped or will you need extra trash bags?

I'm happy and relieved to say the flight was AWESOME. A perfect flying day, almost no wind, clear sky, good temps especially for December. The thing thundered off the tower, all 4 motors (54/2800s) starting simultaneously. At burnout it was higher than I'd expected and almost directly overhead so when I hit the sep charge on the radio I didn't immediately see separation. But after a second or so I saw the booster angling off, gave it another second and hit the sustainer motor (75/4500ns). I have to get the data but I'm guessing it was over 3k' at that point so there was a cool lag between the visual smoke trail and the sound reaching the ground.

The booster hit 4900' according to the altimeter beeps, again, quite a bit higher than I'd expected so with apogee mains it drifted to the west a ways, luckily landing in a very friendly neighbor's yard. I'll use my Tether next time to minimize drift.

The sustainer landed fairly close but in a heavy swamp/bramble area - lovely. Wouldn't have found it without GPS. The electronics hit the water, I'm letting it dry for a few days before attempting to power back on. Also my nice new Spherachute main tore down one of the seams, that'll need repair.

Overall though I'm extremely pleased, and want to thank Marty, Tim, Arlen, Bill, Ben, and Mike for your help.

Next flight of the 2 stage will be at LDRS, same booster config but an M in the sustainer. Looking forward to it.

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Me too,,
A big congratulations and handshake on this fight....
I can't wait to see the LDRS flight...
That's going to be an insane flight...

Teddy
 
Luckily my altimeters still work, a couple stats:

Max accel 20.1gs at .8 sec
Booster burn time 1.75 (it was progressive, apparently the 1st motor lit then was joined by the others at .15 seconds)
Burnout was appx 1200'
Staging occurred at 7.5 seconds at about 4,000' with a 2.5 sec bt
Top speed at sustainer burnout was 880fps (600 mph, .8 Mach)
Altitude 11,500
Total flight time just under 3 minutes

The rocket took 3 hits on the way down, have to check the video but I'm guessing something was tangled causing the sections to bump. I can see no damage though.

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Thanks Gary. Yes, looking forward to LDRS with the same booster motors but a bigger sustainer motor, an 8k or 11k 98 mm white. This flight was a 75/4500 so it'll be interesting to see how it does on a larger motor.
 
Thanks Justin! Any plans to do a new improved Radio Flyer? Perhaps with GPS and a couple pyro channels? That would be very cool :)
 
Awesome !!! :y:

I was going to chime in and say put the electronics in a bag of rice to help dry them out..
I have seen it work with cell phones, not sure if it's a myth or not.
 
very very impressive build & thread. Honestly nothing compares to your rocket.
I am jalous I could be at LDRS to see it for real...
Congratulations again !
Denis
 
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