Pods on Mega Der Red Max? --- GOT MY LEVEL 1 CERT

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48" does not seem unreasonable, I fly my G-force on a stock 42" which is definitely a slower descent rate than the MDRM on a 30." G-force is 900 grams for reference.
 
48" does not seem unreasonable, I fly my G-force on a stock 42" which is definitely a slower descent rate than the MDRM on a 30." G-force is 900 grams for reference.

Wow. That's a big chute. I'm definitely worried about smashing the pods, so maybe I'll just spring for a big chute. Top Fight Recovery has a 45" for $22.
 
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I made some more progress. Got the fins nicely papered and glued them and the motor mount in last night. I did not use epoxy. I used the thick Tightbond molding and trim glue. I left the rear centering ring off so that I could internally fillet all the joints accessible in the lower part of the fin can. Every joint is glued and filleted. I'm pretty confident it is not going anywhere!

Hopefully today I can do some work on the fin pods. The pods will be the weak point in the rocket. I hope they turn out strong and solid.

I'm still hoping someone will have some feedback on the foam. Has anyone used Alumilite 320 before? Is it fairly solid or is it very light? If I fill a pod made of BT60 and Estes plastic nose cones with this foam, is that going to make a pod that is solid enough to be the part that hits the ground first when a 3-pound rocket lands? My worry is that the nose cone that forms the bottom of the pod will be crushed, or the pod will tear loose from the fin. I'm hoping the foam will support the NC from the inside to prevent crushing. And the foam will " glue" the inside of the pod solidly to every surface of the tab that will extend into the pod and prevent if from tearing loose on impact.
 
I ordered the 45" chute from Top Flight Recovery along with a 12x12 nomex blanket and a 10' nylon shock cord. And I've also ordered ACME conformal rail guides from Giant Leap. Hopefully everything will come on time! It turns out I'm spending more on these orders, plus the NC's, BT's, foam and plywood for the pods than I spent on the original kit when I got it at the Fry's clearance sale! The kit was something like $29...
 
I'm getting close to finished with this rocket. I need to add the ACME conformal rail guides that just arrived today and calculate and adde the nose weight --- then it's ready to fly!

In the meantime, I've added the chrome paint (I masked the spots for the rail guides). It has now dried and cured for the required 48 hours and is ready to handle, so I decided to take some pictures. I will probably add a lot of other paint details --- canopy, fin stripes, and other things I haven't decided on yet, but I wanted to get these pics up now in case I totally botch it later (I have a lot of experience botching paint jobs when they are almost perfect). I think it looks really cool right now, like a big aluminum sci-fi rocket. If I don't get a chance to add other paint, I can fly it like this and be happy.

MDRM-P-Chrome1.jpg


MDRM-P-Chrome2.jpg


MDRM-P-Chrome3.jpg


MDRM-P-Chrome4.jpg
 
Since this project is getting close to being done, I thought I would link to some other threads where I got advice or shared info about this build.



I think those are the major threads that helped me with this build. If I think of any more, I'll add links to them as well. Thanks to everyone who contributed to this thread and to those others I linked to.

Here are some vendors I used:


  • Here is where I bought my chute, and other recovery gear: https://topflightrecoveryllc.homestead.com/
  • Here is where I bought my conformal rail guides (I'm reluctant to fully recommend this vendor, because there were some screw-ups with this order on the part of the vendor that really pissed me off at the time, and almost made me miss the scheduled launch date. But they made good on it in the end, and the guides worked out great.): https://www.giantleaprocketry.com/
 
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Cool looking build Thirsty! I love pods! I reversed my fins to help prevent damage on landing.

Viper Rocket 002.jpg
 
Thanks, guys!

The paint is Rustoleum Metallic Chrome, and it is sprayed over several coats of Rustoleum Filler Primer, sanded very smooth. I've had another silvery rocket before, and they look cool in flight if it is sunny, and the angle is right to get a lot of bright flashes and reflections off the finish. I'm interested in adding some other kinds of details to the paint job, but I'm kind of spooked about doing it for fear of messing something up.
 
Cool looking build Thirsty! I love pods! I reversed my fins to help prevent damage on landing.

View attachment 184691

Wow! That's cool! I considered reversing my fins as well, but the way the pre-slotted tube was cut didn't work well for that. Did you use a different tube?

And look at that payload section up top! Crazy! How tall is it and what does it fly on?
 
Wow! That's cool! I considered reversing my fins as well, but the way the pre-slotted tube was cut didn't work well for that. Did you use a different tube?

And look at that payload section up top! Crazy! How tall is it and what does it fly on?

Well it started out at 60" long but the last flight it suffered a small zipper due to a premature delay. Now it's 52". It has flown on various H's and I's.
[video=youtube;SC_xsHFZrDc]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SC_xsHFZrDc&list=UUblhadwa7btSBJj7_QfueSg[/video]
 
Love the look TB!!!! Eagerly awaiting launch footage.
 
Love the look TB!!!! Eagerly awaiting launch footage.

Thanks! I'll see if I can get someone to record video of it for me. I like to watch them myself during the launch, not try to fiddle with the camera. I'll post somethingif I can get it.

That came out great TB!

Thanks, Chris. Are you going to Moffett this weekend? If so, I plan to be there too for the maiden flight, and you could see it in person. If not, I might make it out to October Skies --- it ended up being so heavy that it probably wants to fly on H motors, so I might try to get my L1 with it. I'll see how it does on a G80 and decide.
 
I got the rail guides on last night and added nose weight today. I think it is ready to fly!

I might do another fan test in my garage after the Gorilla Glue for the nose weight sets up.

Man, this thing ended up heavy after all was said and done! I had to add 4 oz of nose weight to get 1.25 cal of stability with a G80 motor. And I think it will still have about 1.2 cal with some of the single-use H's. The base weight for the empty rocket is 54.2 with the added nose weight. Add in about 2 oz wadding and a G motor, and it is 60 oz (Give or take a bit depending on motor). Yikes! I never expected it to get that heavy.

Here are some of the sims:

MDRM-P-sims.jpg
 
That looks great TB!!! I would'nt worry about stability. It looks stable to me.:)
There was someone here who took the Time to do Sims on a Mosquito. The Sim ofcourse just could'nt wrap it's tiny Sim Mind around how stable the Mosquito Design is and why. Stupid Sims.
 
That looks great TB!!! I would'nt worry about stability. It looks stable to me.:)
There was someone here who took the Time to do Sims on a Mosquito. The Sim ofcourse just could'nt wrap it's tiny Sim Mind around how stable the Mosquito Design is and why. Stupid Sims.

Thanks, TR! I agree it looks stable, and the sims don't really know how to handle this kind of design. Now that I have the nose weight in, the Mind Sim and Hope Sim are coming out perfectly, and even the OR sims are looking good. I should find out tomorrow...
 
Thirsty,

Are you planning to fly this at Moffett tomorrow? (EDIT: You are, I really should learn to read better....) I can capture some video for you, just let me know before your flight so I can take a break from SCO or PadTech.

It would just be with my iPhone, but I can get decent enough results with a bit of editing:

[video=youtube_share;GTq6BDo-I_s]https://youtu.be/GTq6BDo-I_s[/video]

[video=youtube_share;PID50SJbhIg]https://youtu.be/PID50SJbhIg[/video]

[video=youtube_share;Qt2NY6224kk]https://youtu.be/Qt2NY6224kk[/video]

[video=youtube_share;ts75g1e02QU]https://youtu.be/ts75g1e02QU[/video]
 
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Thirsty,

Are you planning to fly this at Moffett tomorrow? (EDIT: You are, I really should learn to read better....) I can capture some video for you, just let me know before your flight so I can take a break from SCO or PadTech.

It would just be with my iPhone, but I can get decent enough results with a bit of editing:

That would be great!
 
Eric - the video is uploading right now. I'll post embed it here once YouTube has finished chewing on it. I should taken a couple of stills to throw into the video too. Maybe if SCrocketfan posts his, I can do a digitally remastered director's cut. :p

I noticed that Tony congratulated me on the flight, I think that was because I asked him to wait so I could run out and record it. Sometimes he gets confused. 4 hours in the sun as LCO on a couple hundred flights will do that to the best of us. (That's my estimate for the day. Easily could have broken 300 flights if we hadn't had to hold for the C-17 and the Ospreys)

Here's the video, but now for some reason I think I've spelled your name wrong.

[video=youtube_share;1Vfs0MnfxFk]https://youtu.be/1Vfs0MnfxFk[/video]
 
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Here's some pics from today's launch. This was the G77R-4 flight, it was an awesome flight and the rocket flew perfect and deployed right at apogee. I didn't get any video, just a few shots from the high speed camera.

CIMG0262.jpg

CIMG0261.jpg

CIMG0256.JPG
 
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Here's the video I captured. The MDRMWP flew great.

[YOUTUBE]_1rwkkXWERQ[/YOUTUBE]


Sent from my iPhone using Rocketry Forum
 
Awesome first flight! Glad to see the G77-4 worked for you. I had to run so I missed it if you tried the G78 or G79. Let me know if you need more of the same or want to get into G reloads - I've got them too. And it came so close to sticking the landing...
IMG_1914.jpgIMG_1924.jpgIMG_1927.jpg


And nice to meet another forum member in person!
IMG_1899.jpg
The Thirsty Barbarian -sans helmet- ready for launch.
 
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Nicely done! Damned-near stuck the landing--any pod damage?


Later!

--Coop
 
TB flew it a second time and I'm 99% sure it stuck the second landing.


Sent from my iPhone using Rocketry Forum
 
It definitely stuck the second landing, although I think it had some pod damage on the second landing.
 
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