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

the rocketry show
Advertise with us
rocket sok
The Rocketry Forum

Help Support The Rocketry Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Yes, Mike does live in CV.

ThirstyBarbarian said:
Yes! That Dark Matter would be a cool motor! Thanks for the offer to pick up the motor if need be. I'm not sure, but I think maybe Mike lives in Castro Valley, which is pretty close to where I live. Hopefully he will be at October Skies, but if not, maybe I can drop by and pick it up from him.
Click to expand...
 
Call ahead first. Most of his inventory is in his trailer which I'm not sure is back in CV just yet... (he needed some repair work done.)
 
Very cool flight and design. Love the big fins and tubes. Always exciting to see if it is truly stable. Much like the Interceptor E from Estes and upscale version of it.
 
SCrocketfan said:
Mike emailed me, he will be at October Skies (I'me buying some motors from him there). He had the H115DM in stock a few weeks ago (but not the H135), but it might be good to preorder the motor from him to make sure.
Click to expand...

ChrisAttebery said:
Yes, Mike does live in CV.
Click to expand...

rbelknap said:
Call ahead first. Most of his inventory is in his trailer which I'm not sure is back in CV just yet... (he needed some repair work done.)
Click to expand...

I spoke to Mike earlier this week and he was actually in Reno to pick up his trailer at the time. It sounds like it has been a royal pain and has been hurting his business big time, since almost his whole inventory was in the trailer, and it was stranded for weeks. He's a bit mad at the trailer manufacturer --- it's less that a year and a half old and this is not the first problem! A

Anyway... he said he will be there and he said he will have a selection of H class DMS motors to choose from, so I should be good to go. I hope to see everyone there!
 
wbeggs said:
Very cool flight and design. Love the big fins and tubes. Always exciting to see if it is truly stable. Much like the Interceptor E from Estes and upscale version of it.
Click to expand...

Thanks! Since I have to do a reapair already and will need to repaint part of the rocket, I'm thinking about adding more details. I might take a look at some Interceptor E paint schemes, but I'm thinking a bit more retro than that. Maybe some WWII fighter plane style details, or very early jet fighter. I can mask some rings and stripes and simple stuff like that, but I need to figure out how to mask and paint a decent canopy on the curved surface of the nose cone.
 
Daddyisabar said:
That is going to fly great on a high power motor, the rocket is just crying for one! You have a lot of guts to land in a concrete jungle! I like Argentum Tripodis.
Click to expand...

That concrete jungle is the worst! I actually had more than one of the club volunteers say, "I can't believe you are going to fly that here." But I had Go Fever and needed to send it up.

I'm really looking forward to flying it on a high power motor. And after I do, I'll have my L1, and I'll be able to mess around with some of the larger clusters, like the Argent Tripodi. I still have my unbuilt Argent kit, and I want to add some outboard booster pods, like yours. But I want to get the cert first so that I can have a wider range of motor choices for it --- it will need plenty of propellant!
 
Tough, spring loaded landing pods would work on that surface with a big chute and no wind. With a bit of a breeze you would need ROPS, roll over protection system, but what would a roll cage do to the CP? Maybe just give in and bulletproof it, throw in some nose weight and a bad arse motor.
 
WOW! I realized now I never came back and updated this thread!

I did get my Level 1 certification with this rocket back in October at TCC's October Skies event. It was a great 3-day event, and I am really grateful to TCC for helping me out and giving me an opportunity to fly!

The flight was on a H115DM that I bought from Bay Area Rocketry onsite at the launch. Thanks, Mike! I drilled the delay to 6 seconds, and it worked great, just a tad early, but almost right on.

Also, I want to thank Teddy from Onebadhawk for sending me a nice tubular nylon recovery harness to use for the cert flight! Your stuff is top notch, Teddy!

I also used a 54" Spherachute for the cert flight. It is a big beautiful chute, and it worked great!

Here are a few pics of the rocket as it looks today. I've added a few details since the cert flight, but this is similar to how it looked, minus the blue canopy, red bands, and the little black details on the BT between the fins. It had the red NC tip, red pods, and black stripes on the fins.

Here I am holding it.

MDRM-P-Finished6.jpg

Here's a shot on the Jaw Stand.

MDRM-P-Finished1.jpg

A rear Quarter angle shot.

MDRM-P-Finished2.jpg

The canopy.

MDRM-P-Finished3.jpg

Fins and pods below. Note the plastic foam bumpers on the pods. It's still not a perfect solution. I think I actually need to shorten them some to maybe 1/2 an inch. Right now, they are long enough that when the rocket lands at an angle (like usual), torque on the bumper pad tends to tear it loose from the pod. I think if they were not so long, they might not tear as often.

MDRM-P-Finished4.jpg

Another paint detail.

MDRM-P-Finished5.jpg

All the paint is Rustoleum Stops Rust Metallic, which is a metal flake paint that comes is several colors. It's covered with Rustoleum Stops Rust Crystal Clear Enamel. This is a pretty tough paint that seems like it will hold up OK. It's not the look I originally had in mind, but I like it.
 
ThirstyBarbarian said:
A rear Quarter angle shot.

View attachment 253412
Click to expand...
:jaw:
That is awesome with the canopy, red stripes and details. The details and canopy really make it look really Sci-fi. The quarter angle shot in particular looks just amazing.

Here's a trimmed pic from the drag race at OS. I don't know if there are any pictures of the cert flight but this was also an H115DM:
MDRMP.jpg
 
SCrocketfan said:
:jaw:
That is awesome with the canopy, red stripes and details. The details and canopy really make it look really Sci-fi. The quarter angle shot in particular looks just amazing.

Here's a trimmed pic from the drag race at OS. I don't know if there are any pictures of the cert flight but this was also an H115DM:
View attachment 253428
Click to expand...

Thanks, SC! And thanks for posting the H115DM shot! I don't think there are any pics of the cert flight. I did it pretty early in the day, before anyone I knew with a camera showed up, and I didn't want to try to photograph it myself. I wanted to watch!

I'm pretty happy with how this rocket turned out, and I think the latest painting details really completed the look.
 
ThirstyBarbarian said:
Thanks, SC! And thanks for posting the H115DM shot! I don't think there are any pics of the cert flight. I did it pretty early in the day, before anyone I knew with a camera showed up, and I didn't want to try to photograph it myself. I wanted to watch!

I'm pretty happy with how this rocket turned out, and I think the latest painting details really completed the look.
Click to expand...
It really turned out great. I remember getting to the launch fairly late in the afternoon and literally the first thing I heard getting out of the car was the LCO calling your flight, so I saw it but didn't have time to reach the camera. That rocket really flies great on sparkies.
 
ThirstyBarbarian said:
Thanks! If the Pods keep getting injured, I'm going to take it to the Podiatrist.
Click to expand...

Always you with the puns. Oy vey. :p

That final paint job came out looking really nice. When I saw it fly at Moffett, it still only had it's all-silver paint scheme.
 
Rob Campbell said:
Congratulations Thirsty. Now on to Level 2!
Click to expand...

Ha ha! I didn't even plan to get L1 for some time, but once this thing was built, it was so heavy, I had to get the cert to fly it legally. I'm not really planning to get L2 right away (unless maybe I over build my new Warlock to the point I have to go to L2 motors to fly it).
 
rbelknap said:
Always you with the puns. Oy vey. :p

That final paint job came out looking really nice. When I saw it fly at Moffett, it still only had it's all-silver paint scheme.
Click to expand...

Daddyisabar started it!

Thanks for the compliment on the paint. This is my most painted rocket ever (although some have come close). The silver paint that you saw just never cured to a nice durable finish, so I sanded all of that off and started again with a different metallic. I added the red nose, black stripes on the fins and red pods, and that's how I flew it for L1 and also at the January Snow Ranch launch. Now, in the past week. I added the blue canopy, red rings, black details on the lower BT, and clear coat. He's more paint now than Max --- his mind twisted and evil.
 
ThirstyBarbarian said:
Daddyisabar started it!

Thanks for the compliment on the paint. This is my most painted rocket ever (although some have come close). The silver paint that you saw just never cured to a nice durable finish, so I sanded all of that off and started again with a different metallic. I added the red nose, black stripes on the fins and red pods, and that's how I flew it for L1 and also at the January Snow Ranch launch. Now, in the past week. I added the blue canopy, red rings, black details on the lower BT, and clear coat. He's more paint now than Max --- his mind twisted and evil.
Click to expand...

Don't follow Daddyisabar on some dern foolish idealistic crusade, that can only lead to the Dark Side. Stay clear of the comedy, pods and puns. Focus on the pure, hard core rocket science. This is very serious business with men flying safe, advanced machines, not dangerous yet good looking toys. Humor can only distract from the pure logic needed by the aspiring Vulcan rocket scientist. Belly laughs are for Klingons. If you dare to use humor please use plenty of emoticons for those who don't get it.:) Now I see there is a Star Wars vs. Star Trek thread I better check out, so much for the humorless, text book posting we all should aspire to.
 
rbelknap said:
Is it too early to nominate this for the 2016 TRF calendar? :)
Click to expand...

that's a good idea. there should be a nomination thread all year so people can post or link to the photo when they see a good one.
 

Similar threads

D
Bad Boy Rocketry Upgraded Super Vega Build
Replies
4
Views
879
Dseter
D
B
Stretched Estes Protostar
Replies
12
Views
706
Bill S
B
ReynoldsSlumber
Old tractors, new tractors: Flying Pitchfork, Cluster F, TetraJet
Replies
16
Views
600
cwbullet
cwbullet
Rocketholic
Strange Oscillation In Flight
Replies
5
Views
311
Rocketholic
Rocketholic
Bruiser
Der Big Red Something Build
Replies
24
Views
2K
dpower
dpower

Latest posts

Back
Top