Been wanting to go to Airfest for quite a few years now and this year is looking good. 
So what will I build that can take advantage of a 50000 foot waiver? After thinking about it have decided to go with some 3 inch minimum diameter 4 FNCs, all scratch builds. Head end deployment to eliminate the weakness of putting a break in the middle of the airframe. Now what I have found in the past is I learn something new with every build. So the plan is to build 3 very similar rockets incorporating the lessons learned from the previous build into the new one. By the time I am done I should have 2 if not 3 rockets worthy of the event. Now I am not expecting to get to 50k. (this year) but 20 to 30 k seems doable from my initial sims. My motors of choice are the aerotech L2200 and M1850. The L should put me around 20 to 23k, the M to around 28k. So here we go. Now for this very serious occasion I have decided to use the names Larry, Moe and Curly for these 3 builds.
So first up, "Larry".
Will be a hand rolled carbon fiber airframe around 48 inches long and have walls 1.5mm thick. Ran the numbers and that means 5 wraps of 5.8 oz carbon fibre material from aircraft Spruce rolled on my aluminum mandrel. First cover it with parchment paper.
Then 5 wraps of carbon using West systems epoxy to wet it out. Dont have photos of the wrapping because I was home alone but it went almost perfectly. Here it is with the peal ply on it starting to cure.
Unwrapped it after cure and it turned out to be one of the best airframes I have rolled yet.
Now one thing I wanted was an airframe with the outside diameter to be the same as my aft motor closure. Didnt want anything sticking out into the airstream if at all possible. Came pretty close.
Sticks out just a bit but good enough for now. "Moe" may end up with 6 wraps instead of 5.
Thats all for today. Progress may be sporadic but should have more progress next weekend.
So what will I build that can take advantage of a 50000 foot waiver? After thinking about it have decided to go with some 3 inch minimum diameter 4 FNCs, all scratch builds. Head end deployment to eliminate the weakness of putting a break in the middle of the airframe. Now what I have found in the past is I learn something new with every build. So the plan is to build 3 very similar rockets incorporating the lessons learned from the previous build into the new one. By the time I am done I should have 2 if not 3 rockets worthy of the event. Now I am not expecting to get to 50k. (this year) but 20 to 30 k seems doable from my initial sims. My motors of choice are the aerotech L2200 and M1850. The L should put me around 20 to 23k, the M to around 28k. So here we go. Now for this very serious occasion I have decided to use the names Larry, Moe and Curly for these 3 builds.So first up, "Larry".
Will be a hand rolled carbon fiber airframe around 48 inches long and have walls 1.5mm thick. Ran the numbers and that means 5 wraps of 5.8 oz carbon fibre material from aircraft Spruce rolled on my aluminum mandrel. First cover it with parchment paper.
Then 5 wraps of carbon using West systems epoxy to wet it out. Dont have photos of the wrapping because I was home alone but it went almost perfectly. Here it is with the peal ply on it starting to cure.
Unwrapped it after cure and it turned out to be one of the best airframes I have rolled yet.
Now one thing I wanted was an airframe with the outside diameter to be the same as my aft motor closure. Didnt want anything sticking out into the airstream if at all possible. Came pretty close.
Sticks out just a bit but good enough for now. "Moe" may end up with 6 wraps instead of 5.
Thats all for today. Progress may be sporadic but should have more progress next weekend.
That’s what I like about this forum. Lots of tribal knowledge out there getting shared..
