L3 build - On Hold for the moment

Dear Sirs,

May I introduce my latest offering to the rocket gods. It is a brash young beast that I have named the "Penargilon Kangaroo Relocation Device". The main purpose of this build is to move a group of fiberglass, wood and metals objects, which will be flying in close formation, from ground level to an altitude of around 15,000ft. Recovery of said formation of spare parts has to be done while those spare parts are still in the same formation that they were when they left ground level sitting on top of that rather sparkie flame and smoke plume.

This offering will be a very slightly modified Broken Arrow (4") from Rocketry Warehouse. I will be stuffing a rather large green tube up its rear end repeatedly. One of these insertions will find a set of AP cylinders, and other objects that comprise a LOKI M1200 SPITFIRE. I have selected this motor partly because the Infinite Improbability Drive doesn't seem to fit in the tube, but mostly because I now have myself a 75-6000 case (green)

Yup.... My love of 'Sparkie' motors, and my hatred of the 3ft sage scrub at our launch site has lead me to the realization that I really do have to go with SPARKS!


I will cut and paste some of my 'level 3 project proposition to higher management' later in this thread, but FIRST I do believe that I have to wander off and find a camera, maybe also an SD card. Sometimes I wish that I didnt have kids, and that simple things like 'a pen' would remain where I left them.

The two people (TAP) that are ultimately responsible for me setting fire to a square mile of sage clearing the launch area, are Pete Ekstrom and David Holloway, with Wilson Alness as my "TAP2B" mentor.

Opening up wounds here and going back to the beginning.

In the late 70's and early 80's, back in the good 'ol UK, I had comics, DC and Marvel, imported from the US. In these, I remember seeing adverts for rockets. I wanted one, but, sadly, there were non to be found anywhere. This did not stop a teenager who liked science and knew how to read chemistry books. Soon after, I had an impressive rocket, built out of the inside tube from fabric rolls, balsa wood fins, the thickest balsa I could find, and a plastic wine cup without stem for a nose cone. It had a parachute in there, and it also had a 'motor' that had been built in Chemistry class (mostly while the teacher was watching cricket, he had a black and white TV in the chemical supply cupboard) This was stump killer and sugar. It didnt do much except a great approximation of a distress flare. The tube caught, so did the fins, etc.

This happened in front of most of the school. Teachers laffed, so did most of the kids.

When I finished high school, we had an awards ceremony. I won Physics prize, but also got a nice entry into the 'yearbook'. This has haunted me ever since.

I moved to the US, erm, 13ish (14?) years ago, married, found that the two were gonna be a three, then a four, moved a couple of times, etc. Sometime in this mess, around 7 years ago I found an Estes rocket with launch kit, motors, etc, in my local tin tack n tractor store. I convinced the wife it was for the kids, and science, and bought it. Couple of months later my dad comes to visit from the UK and we get out the rocket. Off we go to the local school field. 5..4..3..2..1.. whoooooosh... bye bye. Never saw that again.
It was also about this time that I bumped into someone at our local 'live steam' miniature railroad that used to do 'High Power'. He pointed to the library and told me to reserve a book by Mark Canepa. I read the book, bought the book, read it again, and again, and again.

These days we have this thing called the Internet. I went a Googlin' and came up with Binder Design, and the Excel Plus DD. I order the kit, got in some epoxy, paint, etc. When the kit arrived I ripped it open and did a dry fit. Soon after I had my L1 beast. This thing was MASSIVE and I had a H225 on order... WOW

I contacted people, found a club, found a launch date, joined Tripoli ( I was already NAR ) and waited.

Some time during the wait, we ended up in Toys r Us, and I saw that RalphCo Crayon. Cr@p! Well, very soon after that I had a scratch built L1.
I also ended up building a 3rd level 1 rocket, cos I was now addicted. This is my 3" ARR Basic Blues, with Dual Deploy, tracker, etc. I ended up taking the L1 and L2 the same launch.

A couple of years have passed. I have got a bad name for myself as someone who turns up at a club launch with rockets that will do anything they can to NOT have real fins. Yup.. Buckets, Cones, Saucers, Pyramids, Tube Fins, Krakens, etc. I even have the dubious honor of winning a club drag race with... a saucer!

Although I love scratch building, and although I do have a penchant for the tubular kind of stabilization, I am refraining from going that way for my L3. Oh, dont get me wrong, if I could get it on a Polecat Woket with 75mm 'Go Stick', I would jump at it. I have even toyed with going as close to 'normal rocket' as I can whilst still having the 'oddroc' feel.

No. This time I want to go with a kit. I want to get this right. I want this to be as simple and straightforward as possible. I am currently sending up BlueTube rockets, with clustered 38mm, etc. That is too far from the 'simple'. I have been flying 4" Blue Tube, with tracking, 2 sets of altimeters for redundancy, dual deploy, etc., so really, the only 'step' is the motor size.


Level 1 build
Level 1 build V2
Level 2 build
L1 & L2 flight report

Oh and Mr Parkinson (Head Physics teacher at my High School), STUFF YOU!!!!


EDIT -
-----
I just looked at the front of the booklet. We have a launch, Rocketober, October 17 – 19, which will be almost exactly 29 years since my dubious entry. I can't think of a better celebration.

Hmm... I did mention pictures didnt I?

OK here are a few!

I stared at this pile of tubes for a LONG time. I also have a few lengths of profusion black 3" tubes. I could soooooo go tubefin (4" main body with 5 tubes, each 3")

If anyone has any 4" fiberglass tubes that you wouldn't mind donating, I could definitely be persuaded to go the tubular route!

Make sure to sim carefully. When I was considering putting a 6000 in my Broken Arrow, I found that stability was very close to neutral.

I just have two words to say.
Oh, Rob...
[video=youtube_share;v_t6GSfInrQ]https://youtu.be/v_t6GSfInrQ[/video]

I think Rob got a "bee in his bonnet" after watching me build the M1297W for my L3, and then watching the cert flight!!

"TAP2B"... I like it!

Looks awesome Rob, I'll be closely following your build for sure.

I actually scored these two deals a couple of weeks before your cert launch. I liked the Broken Arrow for a while, and really wanted to get myself one from the Black Saturday sale last year. Missed that one because I was stocking up on black 3" profusion Then I see one on Ebay for $200 shipped. THATS MINE! Around the same time I saw the Gorilla hardware on here, and snapped it up for $180.

So basic down to the ground reason? I got myself a G10 4" bird with a 75mm MMT. I am gonna build that puppy anyhow, I may as well use it for my L3.

Pete Ekstrom is at the Oregon Country Faire until the 15th, then he may need a day or two to recover from the deep fried cheeseburgers the he has been posting pics of on facebook. So dudes and dudettes (and those who arent quite sure yet)...... 4" fiberglass airframe bits will get this from a Broken Arrow into 'Really Broken Arrow'. If anyone reading this has 4" fiberglass (any color) that you may wanna part with, there is still time to help me avoid 'normal fin syndrome'. Donations, trades or other acquisition of 4" fg parts could end up making this puppy into a 4" L3 TUBEFIN.

Also, after the last event where I was spotting walking around giggling after my K515 flight, I was heard stating that I chose the K515 because it was the longest burning Sparkie that I could legally buy. Well, I was wrong, I can legally buy ONE M1200SP for the cert attempt!

Chuck..... dont "oh rob" me, although it was funny, YOU are to blame for me going LOKI... Yes you can borrow the case.

Does everyone know where their towels are?

I was rummaging through my rockets bin and found these. Hmm... I can drill a hole through the bulkplates, and epoxy the lower half of this in place. When the glue is dried, clip in the top section. The top section has a terminal block for two leads. The spikes on the underside are spaced perfectly for a male JST connection to clip on and he held snugly by friction. If the top end gets melted or damaged by BP fumes, etc., unclip it, replace it, carry on.

NICE

Salvage-1 said:

So basic down to the ground reason? I got myself a G10 4" bird with a 75mm MMT. I am gonna build that puppy anyhow, I may as well use it for my L3.

Click to expand...

Petty much my thought process as well. Towards the end of rocket season last year, I knew I wanted to try a fiberglass build and 75mm over the winter. At that point I realized, "Hey, how about an L3 project?"

OK... second alteration to this project. There will be a coupler sticking about 4" out of the rear end, with the motor mount extended to match.. I am gonna say this this is officially so that i can get the coupler in black, so that it would suggest a nock on the arrow. Real reason? I just bought a Super Jart 75, this is a 5" stubby with a 75mm MMT. I do believe that my L3 project will end up being the second stage to the Jarts first!

Third alteration, well not really alteration. I mentioned that I could change this whole project into being a tube fin. Well, why not do both. I will be building a SECOND lower section to this beast which will be TUBE FINS!

Oh Rob....

Woah!!!

Sorry... I COULDN'T keep tube fins, a little scratch, or two stage out of this build. You know me by now.

This means it is now THREE rockets in one. Updating RockSim as we speak. Yeah.. remember I mentioned 'simple' up there. This was looking to be TOO simple.

Salvage-1 said:

Sorry... I COULDN'T keep tube fins, a little scratch, or two stage out of this build. You know me by now.

This means it is now THREE rockets in one. Updating RockSim as we speak. Yeah.. remember I mentioned 'simple' up there. This was looking to be TOO simple.

Click to expand...

Indeed, we know you well...
But hey, I think my new launch tower would be perfect for a multi-staged Broken Arrow/Super Jart/tube fin extravaganza!

This reminds me a bit of a staged project that Holloway is working on right now and plans to fly at Desert Heat in August - ask him about it sometime.

Well for F's sake. I wanna catch a break, and what happens... i catch a break.

This build will continue, maybe a little slower than before, but I most probably will not be attempting to trudge through the sage to fly it at least for a meet or two! Currently waiting on extra parts (the build, not me)

Yikes!! What'd you do?

Sounds like we'll miss you at Summer Skies...

It's part of my new build "Iron Man".

Really? OK... remember a couple of years ago, I turned up at Sheridan with a broken ankle, well it seems that it didn't heal properly. I have had problems with it since, including the last launch where I had it strapped up. A couple of weeks ago, we were trying to put the goats and llama away, and I got the chain wrapped around my ankle, just as the goat on the other end thought it was time to bolt. It turned the ankle and the pain started again. The swelling didn't go down after a couple of days, so, I went to the MD. He took X-rays and told me to make an appointment with the Ortho. I went there today and came back with a boot, and a trip to the CT scanner sometime soon. He refused to say exactly what is wrong, but did say that I have arthritic cysts from the last break that didn't heal.

Luckily this is my LEFT ankle, and I have an automatic truck. As long as I can get help with the trailer, I can probably make the event. On the other hand, we have an exchange student here for the next two weeks, and Summer Skies is the last weekend she is here. I already have started negotiations with the wife and family. They say that they will miss this one and take Floreine to the goodbye BBQ.

Maybe Probably

Iron Man...cool!
I definitely remember the broken ankle at Sheridan a few years ago. Best wishes for a speedy recovery!

Good thing your truck is automatic...my truck has a clutch!! Happy to help with the trailer in Brothers - I may even sweeten the deal for you to come by offering help with rocket recovery as well?

Oh yeah, and you can use the tower if you need...

Part of the Jart family. I now have them with MMT's 29, 38, 54 and 75mm. Wheeeeee.

but that's another build thread!

Fun times! Kelsey Black from the Boise crew flew a 5" Jart at NXRS on a Vmax K-something... Pretty cool!
https://www.oregonrocketry.com/wp-content/gallery/nxrs_2014_goncher/NXRS_2014-87.jpg

AlnessW said:

Fun times! Kelsey Black from the Boise crew flew a 5" Jart at NXRS on a Vmax K-something... Pretty cool!
https://www.oregonrocketry.com/wp-content/gallery/nxrs_2014_goncher/NXRS_2014-87.jpg

Click to expand...

That was a heck of a flight.

Rob, just let me know how we can help. I have my cane, wheelchair, and a few other goodies from my broken lankle (leg and ankle).

chuck5395 said:

That was a heck of a flight.

Rob, just let me know how we can help. I have my cane, wheelchair, and a few other goodies from my broken lankle (leg and ankle).

Click to expand...

A real heck of a flight indeed! Gotta love it when the flame is longer than the rocket...

Back-to-back Brothers trips for me these next 2 weekends - I'm really looking forward to both, but it wouldn't hurt if they were spaced a *little* further apart...

AlnessW said:

Back-to-back Brothers trips for me these next 2 weekends - I'm really looking forward to both, but it wouldn't hurt if they were spaced a *little* further apart...

Click to expand...

You should re-rent the R-Pod and spend the whole week out there.

chuck5395 said:

You should re-rent the R-Pod and spend the whole week out there.

Click to expand...

An idea I had for sure...

Since I have the 5" Jart, and the MMT is not built, I may stretch it a bit to fit a 6000 case!

$$ tight so havent got the pieces that I need for any of these builds... maybe I can get the tubie done. Either way, it most probably won't fly until next year, NXRS is a possibility.