Giant Leap - Vertical Assault 3.0

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FLRocketry

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I was looking at getting the Veritcal Assault 3.0 kit as an early Christmas present to myself but was wondering what you all thought of it, anyone own it and is it a good value for the money?

Thanks,
 
Thank you lalligood, I bookmarked that site, and ordered the Vertical Assault as well :D
 
can't say I've ever built one, but man it looks beautiful. as a matter of fact, all of giant leaps rockets are gorgeous. the escape velocity 2.6 looks like it's moving even when it's not!

good choice!
 
I've got the 2.6 escape whatever. Not a big fan of rocket names... anyway-

It's a nice kit, went together quite nicely. High quality compenents, etc, good directions. I wouldn't try the talcum powder in epoxy madness that they suggest for filling in the gaps around the fins, though. Perhaps some slow cure epoxy with silica thickener?

Also- think twice before you glue in the coupler tube that houses the alt-bay. I was following the directions without thinking- not being able to remove that bay is a miserable pain. You have to rig up the altimeter on the rod, with a charge on the fore bulkhead and shove it through the front payload section. Then hold it there while you wire up the apogee charge, and screw that bulkhead down. Yuck.

I'm currently building a 3" Talon, and though the directions say to glue the coupler in, I'm not going to. I'll mount it with screws through the airframe into nuts on the inside of the coupler. I want to be able to have my alt-bay out in my hands when I'm loading it up, thank you! :)

N
 
I was at a launch when Ed with Giant Leap flew his Vertical Assault 3.0 prior to the release of the kit for sale. The picture of him on the Giant Leap website holding the rocket was taken during our TRA-LA club launch last March.

I don't remember which motor he flew it on, I think it was either an "I" or "J" motor and I don't know the altitude achieved but it boosted straight, flew well and recovered without damage.

As I was checking out his rocket before it's flight I noticed that it was an easy building, rugged, good looking and fairly high performance rocket that would be a great kit for a rocketeer that wants to certify L1 or L2. If you don't have a tracker then you'll want one when your ready to fly a "K" motor in it because it will simply scream off the pad.

Ed was going to launch his VL 3.0 with a "K" motor at our last club launch but the wind was up around 12 to 15 mph and he didn't want to chance losing it. We were chasing rockets all over the place that day and with those conditions I can't blame him for not sending it up since he would have been approaching Mach speeds and hitting around 9,000' in altitude. That would have been a cool flight to watch!!!

As far as other kits from Giant Leap I have built and flown the GLR Thunderbolt 38 (phenolic tubing) and the Firestorm 54 (fiberglass with DD) and love them both.

The first thing I noticed about each of these kits was how tough and well designed they are and I like the fact that they can handle a wide range of motors which makes them flyable at any high power launch I go to regardless of the wind or field size.

Andrew Grippo
 
I'm planning on modding one and a Loki L1400 is in the cards for this one ;)

(Nothing like digging up an old thread :D )
 
never liked it, seemed like it would be to fast a build... I like fin/motor section assembly...
 
I love it...it's sleek and fast. I have a Escape Velocity myself, but I haven't flown it yet. Great build, though, and I think it's going to get one of those new Warp-9 motors this summer:D
 
The nice thing about the fincan is strength. Not that any other fin wouldn't be strong, but if you can fit an M in there, it'll take it ;)
 
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