Chris' Punisher 4 L3 build

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Today was a long day but it ended well. We got to TCC Around 11AM. I did some ground testing first. I used 2 grams and 1 shear pin on the drogue and 1 gram and 3 shear pins on the nose. The drogue looked perfect but the main was a little weak. I re-prepped the rocket for flight and upped the main charge to 1.3 grams. By this time it was close to 3:30. The flight was great. The J449 gave it a nice slow liftoff and it hit 312mph and 3300'. The video came out great. I'll post it here once I get it edited and uploaded to YouTube.
 
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Nice work with the Camera Jacob. You must have a fast shutter to get two frames on the pad.

With the smaller motor, I'm assuming you had a large stability margin. How many Cals do you figure it was for the flight today?
 
VERY sweet. As close to perfect fin alignment as I've ever seen. Great job, Chris. Will you be flying the M at DA?
 
The camera can do ~7 fps for 2 seconds.

It had a little more than 3 calibers of stability with that motor.
 
cherokeej,

Thank you sir. Yes, the plan is to fly it on an M at DA. I'm not sure which day yet though. My kids have their basketball championships on Saturday. I'm leaning towards getting there early on Sunday but we'll see if that works out.
 
Very impressive flight! I can't believe how rock solid it was on the way up. I wondered if the camera might impart a spin but obviously, it did not.
Your building skills show through here. Best of luck on the L3 flight.
Cheers!
 
My L3 package has been approved as of last night. :cheers:

I should find out which motor I'll have for the flight early next week.
 
His flight is on! Hooray!

For Sunday. Oh no! So sad I have to miss it, but looking forward to the videos.
 
Bill,

I'm as ready as I'm going to get. I haven't touched the rocket in a couple weeks. I need to swap the drogue this week and charge all of my batteries. Other than that there isn't anything left but to fill out the paperwork.


Chris

Worsaer said:
Chris, are you ready to cert at Dairy Aire next weekend?
Click to expand...
 
Here's wishing you success on your cert flight!

Ari.
 
Today I swapped the 1010 buttons for 1515 buttons. I also swapped the 24" Fruity Chutes drogue for a 15". It descended at 46fps on the maiden flight. The 15" chute should allow it to hit 60-70fps.
 
It was a beautiful morning at Dairy Aire yesterday morning. I got there around 8:30 and is was in the mid 60s and there was almost no wind. I got my electronics prepped and assembled the Aerotech M1297 motor. I had the Punisher on the pad by 10:15am. The motor lit with a rumble and it pulled 18g off the pad. It was one of the straightest boosts I've ever had. About 6.5 seconds into the flight there was a wiggle and puff. I'm not sure which happened first. immediately the rocket went into a wide ascending arc. We assumed that it had lost a fin. The booster came down under drogue but the nose cone and altimeter bay were not attached. That was clue #1. The booster landed about 150' from the flight line and we immediately found that the Fruity Chutes 15" drogue had about 3/4 of the center blown out. While we were looking at the booster someone spotted the main coming down about 1/4 mile East and my son and Bruce Rohn took off to go retrieve it. I took the booster back to my table, grabbed the last GPS location off the Telemetrum and hopped in my van. I went to pick up Bruce and Jacob and found that the main had drifted over a dry riverbed. I decided to drive to the other side. By the time I got there Bruce had found the chute. We piled into my van and headed back to the launch site. I kept looking at the GPS and it appeared to be pointing right at the pad I had launched from. I was pretty sure that the Telemetrum had lost GPS lock during the boost. I decided to take a break and have some lunch. When I was done I followed the GPS and realized that the spot was a couple hundred feet away from the pad. I kept walking and low and behold there was the altimeter bay sitting in the straw. We never found the nose cone.

DPP_846.jpg

This picture by Benno Kolland:
P1090776.jpg

DPP_848.jpg

DPP_849.jpg
 
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The Telemetrum data shows that about 6.5 seconds into the flight there was a pressure spike in the altimeter bay and the RRC2+ fired it's Drogue charge. At that point the rocket was traveling at ~670 mph.

The Bad: The drogue managed to snap the 7/16" Kevlar harness at the attachment point to the altimeter bay and bend the 3/16" attachment pin in the bulkhead. The hole in the bulkhead for the attachment pin also got stretched a bit. The booster has a 2.5" long zipper. Both 7/16" Kevlar shock cords on the main snapped at their attachment points. The nose cone hasn't been recovered.

The Good: I can cut 2.5" off the booster and it's ready to fly. The altimeters both appear to have survived the plummet from 11,400'. The I thought the camera was dead, but it appears that the lock for the record/power button was bumped on when it hit the ground. The Fruity Chutes 60" Iris Ultra main chute was unharmed.


Punisher Telemtrum Graph.jpg

Punisher Drogue.JPG

DPP_850.jpg

DPP_851.jpg

DPP_852.jpg
 
Hey Chris,

Sorry it didn't go as planned. I watched from the far west end of the flight line, and saw exactly what you described a few seconds into the flight. If the altimeter survived, it will be interesting to hear what you learn from the data.


I see the data now - my post crossed yours...
 
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Sorry about your loss. Regarding the kevlar cords, did the cord itself fail or the sewed loop?
Btw. did you have a 1sec delay on the RRC2+ for the drouge? If so the problematic pressure spike would be at 5.5s.
 
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Wow that drogue chute is just shredded, I've never seen anything like that. Did you manage to get any video of the flight, ground or onboard?
 
Thanks Bill. Both altimeters survived and I posted a graph from the Telemetrum for the relevant portion of the flight.

Thomas, it appears that all three cord failed at the loops. The cord we used was rated at 1200 lb or so. I was told that the loops are good for about 75% of the rated strength.

PokerJones,the chute deployed at ~670 mph. On a typical rocketry parachute the attachment points for the risers are the weakest points on the chute. The Fruity Chutes are a whole different beast. Take a close look at the 1000lb. rated swivel. One loop is completely stretched out.

In the past I probably would have been gutted for a week or so but I've been in a pretty mellow mood regarding rockets lately. I'm usually really wound up before a launch but I really didn't get excited until the countdown. I learned a hell of a lot yesterday and I managed to get most of it back. I could have it ready to fly in a couple days if I wanted to. I'm actually in a pretty good place right now.
 

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