My Wildly Overcomplicated Level 1 Build

[jqavins]

Or whoever in your club does the paperwork for the waiver.

It's a bit disappointing, though, that it's a cylinder and not a cylinder on top of an inverted cone, or even on top of a second, bigger cylinder. I mean, below some altitude, why does the FAA care if it lands a mile away (without impinging on controlled or restricted airspace).

 

[Rschub]

Our waiver is 14,000 feet, not sure of the diameter. The other place I go to is talking about a 2000 celling, down from 3500ish, the rumor is due to a couple 7.5in projects busting everything including the farmers barn roof.

 

[jqavins]

Our waiver is 14,000 feet, not sure of the diameter. The other place I go to is talking about a 2000 celling, down from 3500ish, the rumor is due to a couple 7.5in projects busting everything including the farmers barn roof.

Mind you, I'm not saying that busting a roof doesn't matter, only that it doesn't matter to the FAA.

 

[Rschub]

Their primary radar return most likely can't pick up a typical rocket, and they have no way to track the altitude unless you have a mode C or better transponder in the thing. This is not to be taken as advice.

 

[James Keller]

Update... Unfortunately yesterday at the SCORE launch in Pueblo the rocket came in ballistic. The flight was nice however the ejection charges weren't packaged well enough and didn't well eject anything. The rocket came down and according to the raven and gps hit the ground at roughly 300ft/s. It buried itself about 2 feet into the ground and didn't fair well. It was a little colder than when I tested the charges originally, and I was using the "finger glove method." So I think due to these two reasons the amount of black powder that actually burned was significantly less therefore it didn't have enough to separate the nosecone and body tube. In the future I'll use a similar method to the one Tfish came up with for high altitude flights. I am quite pleased though with how everything held up. Even though the electronics were housed in the nosecone they were mostly undamaged. The gps module lost what I believe to be its bluetooth chip due to the large acceleration. It otherwise works though, I sent an email to Adrian and he said its not repairable but useable. I'll get another here soon but I guess it will be nice to have a already broken one I can throw in the "sketchy" projects. The raven is unharmed which is awesome. Camera and related hardware also is okay, that's why I know the drogue fired. Overall however, I am kind of sick of failing this L1. Don't get me wrong I have really enjoyed building this rocket, and I have plans in the works for NSL west. But I really hate saying I am on my 4th L1 attempt. So instead of rebuilding this rocket I am going to build a stupid simple motor eject rocket that will work for L1 and L2. All 3d printed fiberglass reinforced. All of this to say I really appreciate all of you that gave your support and knowledge to this project. Hopefully I can get this L1/L2 business squared away so that way I can have some fun pushing the limits again.
Thanks,
James

View attachment Thumb0013 - Trim (1).mp4

 

[kjhambrick]

Ouch, James !

Thanks for the pics and the amazing video.

I heard the ejection charge ( or something ) at 00:19 in the video.

But I don't see the motor in the pegged rocket ?

Did it shear the thrust ring and ram forward on impact ?

Or ... ??

Good luck next time !

-- kjh

 

[terryg]

I believe your decision to keep it simple at this point is correct. However I would recomend a seperate build for L1 and L2. Keep the L1 below 2000 ft and the L2 in the 3000 ft range. Forget 3D printing and use standard 3" and 4" Loc type tubing with plastic nosecones and birch plywood fins.

 

[James Keller]

Ouch, James !

Thanks for the pics and the amazing video.

I heard the ejection charge ( or something ) at 00:19 in the video.

But I don't see the motor in the pegged rocket ?

Did it shear the thrust ring and ram forward on impact ?

Or ... ??

Good luck next time !

-- kjh

Yeah the ejection charge fired at 19seconds which matches what the raven says, just didn't have enough power to get it separated unfortunately. And I was using a Aerotech DMS motor which has a 3d printed thrust ring. I wasn't using a motor bulkhead so it shoot though the airframe. It's a good thing I used a DMS motor as well. I'm not to sure how well a RMS case would have held up because the DMS motor is thoroughly smashed.

I believe your decision to keep it simple at this point is correct. However I would recomend a seperate build for L1 and L2. Keep the L1 below 2000 ft and the L2 in the 3000 ft range. Forget 3D printing and use standard 3" and 4" Loc type tubing with plastic nosecones and birch plywood fins.

Yeah in reflecting I am going to make a separate L1 and L2 rocket.

 

[jqavins]

Yeah in reflecting I am going to make a separate L1 and L2 rocket.

Good call.