aadamson
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I've been planning to certify L2 for some time, was going to do it at the Freedom Launch, but didn't get the rocket done. Then I was going to try at Manchester, TN back in September, but WX scared me away.
With all of that, I decided to write my story of today!!!
As I looked at the weekend weather, I wasn't really planning on an L2 certification. I'd built my L2 rocket, and had purchased a single certification motor. A J330 - Pro38. The rocket is a PML (www.publicmissiles.com) Eclipse. While building I decided to upgrade it a little and so I replaced the CPR2K as the electronics bay, with a CPR3K and all G10 upgrade components from Hawk Mountain. I decided I may want to fly it on J570's, and the like. The remainder was built to PML specifications. It has a 54mm MMT and I use a 54 to 38 adapter for the pro38's.
Pictures of the work in process minus pictures of the finished Bird
Originally I was going to save my L2 cert flight for next weekend at the GAMMA Launch at Lilly, GA. But in looking at the weather on Friday night, it looked like it was going to be an awesome weekend. There were two launches, one in Manchester, TN and one at Orangeburg, SC. Orangeburg is 3hrs door step to doorstep from my house and I've never been to Manchester before. Weather in Manchester was suppose to be mostly cloudy, but either place was to have some sun and O-Burg was suppose to be partly cloud and NO WIND... So Saturday morning I headed SE at 8am.
As promised it was a perfect day, a few clouds, but a good waiver to 10K and absolutely ZERO wind!
I got there and they hadn't setup the field yet. The trailer hadn't arrived. They normally do a 2 day launch, with the first half that starts at noon on Sat, and then they launch all day on Sunday. The Sod farm cuts sod in the morning on Sat, and so they ask not to setup until 11.
I pulled in, parked and setup the awning, about the same time that the trailer showed up. As they setup the range most of us started to prep rockets. I had an H238-M already built from the Freedom Launch that I hadn't flown and so I stuffed that in my 2lb Phoenix (sims to about 2700'). My new Scratch Blobbo, got an e15-7 (sims to roughly 1000') stuffed in it. Both received their parachutes and were set out waiting for the range.
I was pretty nervous thinking about my L2 flight. New rocket, new motor, new electronics, maiden flight... Everything. The rocket turned out a little heavier than I anticipated. Mostly because of the G10 upgrades. I'd never done the CPR3K before, actually, I've never done electronics before. I had thought about a test flight on an I285, but then changed my mind as the day was just too perfect. I grabbed the 6G pro38 J330, and poured the black power out of it. Grabbed the ejection canisters only to find out that the Daveyfires wouldn't fit in the little hole in the side like they were suppose to. Hmm, what to do now. I put them in from the top and laid them down in the little cup as much as I could. I used "sticky tack" to plug the hole where the ematch wire comes out so that no BP would escape. Put 1.1grams of BP in the fore charge, and .6grams of BP in the aft. The rocket uses pistons so it doesn't require much BP. Next, I put attic insulation in each cup and packed them pretty firm. Then masking tape around the end and folded that over to keep everything together.
Next I friction fit all the deployment joints. Each one required a good helping of Masking tap to keep the fincan from "drag separating" after burn out and the nose cone from coming off once the fin can was ejected and hit the end of it's shockcord. I used 20' of TN on the aft section and 15' on the NC. Mary Ellen, my wife, had sewn loops with kevlar thread so assembly was a breeze.
Once all of that was assembled. I still had two parts, the lower section and the upper. They screw together where the altimeter goes. I made sure I had installed the switch that turns on the Altimeter correctly and that is was off. I installed a fresh 9V battery in the Altimeter, fit the Altimeter into it's bay, hooked up all the wires and screwed the two sections together. I was almost ready.
Lastly the motor was installed with a 54mm to 38mm adapter. (sure hope the pro54's make it to market soon, I *really* like these motors!!!)
I now had to find two NAR members to witness my flight, one of which had to be L2 the other could be L1. That's tough at a Tripoli launch, but as it turns out, two guys that I knew from flying there a couple of other times, sponsored and witnessed my flights. One was L2 (Tom Binford) and the other L1 (Larry from Rocket Science).
After a preflight check and checklist review. It was off to the pad. This rocket is 6-7' tall and weighs about 8lbs loaded. It was equipped with RailButtons (www.railbuttons.com) and so I had to use the rail. I tilted the pad, slid the rocket down the rail and inserted the electric match. (pro38's use ematches instead of igniters). Once that was connected and the plastic cap pushed on the bottom of the rocket motor, it was time to throw the switch on the electronics and make sure that continuity was there. It was also time to make sure that an ejection charge didn't fire when the switch was thrown. Luckily it didn't. After the 15sec initialization, I got the 3 beeps notifying that all charges had continuity. The Rocket was on the pad, with igniter installed, electronics were hot and it was ready to GO!!!
As I walked back to the launch area, I told the LCO, to launch me last. We had a full rack. There were 4 low power rockets that went off and one midpower. Then it was time for the High power rack. The first rocket was a minimum diameter 54mm rocket that obviously would go very high. I don't know what motor was in it, but it ripped off the pad. Best guess is about 4-5K in altitude. But no deployment at apogee and it came in ballistic and screaming (literally). I kinda expected it to deploy at least the second phase, but no, it hit with a loud whack and little pieces parts went everywhere. The rocket was completely destroyed and so were the electronics inside. They were in about 5-6 pieces when I say it after it was recovered.
I would have been next, but realized that I told the LCO - 'last'. I walked over and said, you can go ahead. I don't think I would have lasted anyway, there was a ton of blood sweat and tears in that rocket and 10 mins of nerves were going to kill me. Nothing I was going to do by stopping it would have made any difference, I had checked my checklist twice before getting my witnesses to inspect the rocket.
As you might expect, everything goes through your mind as the countdown happens. When it hits, ONE, you want to yell over and say... NO, NO, don't launch it.... But you can't. At Zero, the pro38 lit and the rocket screamed off the pad. Straight as an arrow and *WAY* up there! I'd simmed it with that motor and RockSim said 3280'. I didn't know how close the final weight was to simmed weight, but I suspected they would be pretty close and that the altimeter would prove that.
While it's a large rocket, it still gets pretty tough to see at 3000ish feet. But right at apogee the first charge went off. The rocket split and started it's free fall. Actually in this case, it had a small Drogue parachute, but for all purposes, it didn't do much. Down, down, it fell. I was trying to video the flight and lost it a bunch of times. By this time, the flight was 50% successful, but for those that fly electronics, you know that that first deployment is a critical one. Not only does it split the rocket, but you also never know what that event may have done to the switches and what state the rest of the package may be left in. I had fit the NC very tight to make sure it didn't come off from the fin can separation and the shockcord extending to it's limits. I sure didn't want it to come out at apogee, would have been a very long walk, and I would have failed my certification.
It was starting to get larger now as it fell and I had the Altimeter set to 600'. I could have been brave and set it to 300', but figured, with no wind, I'd give myself at least that much cushion. It always amazes me how hard it is to judge height. About where I thought the other charge would go off, it didn't... And I continued to watch. Down, down, down, it fell. Then right on cue (at least from the electronics), the second charge fired and out came the main parachute. It opened perfectly and the rocket slowed to a crawl and landed about 10 seconds later.
I was getting cheers by that time and congratulations. It wasn't quite over, I had to walk, retrieve the rocket and it had to be inspected to make sure it could fly again if needed. As it turns out, there was nothing wrong with it and the post flight inspection would go well. The altimeter was beeping out the altitude.... 3265!... Perfect. Matched the sim perfectly.
As I walked back for the final inspection, it finally sunk in.... Wooooo Hoooo, I'm L2 Certified!!!! And as they say, "now you get to spend the BIG Bucks!"
I'll suck off the video from my camera (no promises, I was pretty nervous), and stick it on the web and send a link to it as soon as I can.
Whew, finally done, now I can go to EX launches and I could launch!... Course, now I have to proceed and get an LEUP (Low Explosive User Permit), so that I can buy those big motors. And I have to start thinking about my L3 rocket.... I'll get there, think I'll season this a little first.
Alan - Brand Spanking new L2! And most of you missed it!!!!
With all of that, I decided to write my story of today!!!
As I looked at the weekend weather, I wasn't really planning on an L2 certification. I'd built my L2 rocket, and had purchased a single certification motor. A J330 - Pro38. The rocket is a PML (www.publicmissiles.com) Eclipse. While building I decided to upgrade it a little and so I replaced the CPR2K as the electronics bay, with a CPR3K and all G10 upgrade components from Hawk Mountain. I decided I may want to fly it on J570's, and the like. The remainder was built to PML specifications. It has a 54mm MMT and I use a 54 to 38 adapter for the pro38's.
Pictures of the work in process minus pictures of the finished Bird
Originally I was going to save my L2 cert flight for next weekend at the GAMMA Launch at Lilly, GA. But in looking at the weather on Friday night, it looked like it was going to be an awesome weekend. There were two launches, one in Manchester, TN and one at Orangeburg, SC. Orangeburg is 3hrs door step to doorstep from my house and I've never been to Manchester before. Weather in Manchester was suppose to be mostly cloudy, but either place was to have some sun and O-Burg was suppose to be partly cloud and NO WIND... So Saturday morning I headed SE at 8am.
As promised it was a perfect day, a few clouds, but a good waiver to 10K and absolutely ZERO wind!
I got there and they hadn't setup the field yet. The trailer hadn't arrived. They normally do a 2 day launch, with the first half that starts at noon on Sat, and then they launch all day on Sunday. The Sod farm cuts sod in the morning on Sat, and so they ask not to setup until 11.
I pulled in, parked and setup the awning, about the same time that the trailer showed up. As they setup the range most of us started to prep rockets. I had an H238-M already built from the Freedom Launch that I hadn't flown and so I stuffed that in my 2lb Phoenix (sims to about 2700'). My new Scratch Blobbo, got an e15-7 (sims to roughly 1000') stuffed in it. Both received their parachutes and were set out waiting for the range.
I was pretty nervous thinking about my L2 flight. New rocket, new motor, new electronics, maiden flight... Everything. The rocket turned out a little heavier than I anticipated. Mostly because of the G10 upgrades. I'd never done the CPR3K before, actually, I've never done electronics before. I had thought about a test flight on an I285, but then changed my mind as the day was just too perfect. I grabbed the 6G pro38 J330, and poured the black power out of it. Grabbed the ejection canisters only to find out that the Daveyfires wouldn't fit in the little hole in the side like they were suppose to. Hmm, what to do now. I put them in from the top and laid them down in the little cup as much as I could. I used "sticky tack" to plug the hole where the ematch wire comes out so that no BP would escape. Put 1.1grams of BP in the fore charge, and .6grams of BP in the aft. The rocket uses pistons so it doesn't require much BP. Next, I put attic insulation in each cup and packed them pretty firm. Then masking tape around the end and folded that over to keep everything together.
Next I friction fit all the deployment joints. Each one required a good helping of Masking tap to keep the fincan from "drag separating" after burn out and the nose cone from coming off once the fin can was ejected and hit the end of it's shockcord. I used 20' of TN on the aft section and 15' on the NC. Mary Ellen, my wife, had sewn loops with kevlar thread so assembly was a breeze.
Once all of that was assembled. I still had two parts, the lower section and the upper. They screw together where the altimeter goes. I made sure I had installed the switch that turns on the Altimeter correctly and that is was off. I installed a fresh 9V battery in the Altimeter, fit the Altimeter into it's bay, hooked up all the wires and screwed the two sections together. I was almost ready.
Lastly the motor was installed with a 54mm to 38mm adapter. (sure hope the pro54's make it to market soon, I *really* like these motors!!!)
I now had to find two NAR members to witness my flight, one of which had to be L2 the other could be L1. That's tough at a Tripoli launch, but as it turns out, two guys that I knew from flying there a couple of other times, sponsored and witnessed my flights. One was L2 (Tom Binford) and the other L1 (Larry from Rocket Science).
After a preflight check and checklist review. It was off to the pad. This rocket is 6-7' tall and weighs about 8lbs loaded. It was equipped with RailButtons (www.railbuttons.com) and so I had to use the rail. I tilted the pad, slid the rocket down the rail and inserted the electric match. (pro38's use ematches instead of igniters). Once that was connected and the plastic cap pushed on the bottom of the rocket motor, it was time to throw the switch on the electronics and make sure that continuity was there. It was also time to make sure that an ejection charge didn't fire when the switch was thrown. Luckily it didn't. After the 15sec initialization, I got the 3 beeps notifying that all charges had continuity. The Rocket was on the pad, with igniter installed, electronics were hot and it was ready to GO!!!
As I walked back to the launch area, I told the LCO, to launch me last. We had a full rack. There were 4 low power rockets that went off and one midpower. Then it was time for the High power rack. The first rocket was a minimum diameter 54mm rocket that obviously would go very high. I don't know what motor was in it, but it ripped off the pad. Best guess is about 4-5K in altitude. But no deployment at apogee and it came in ballistic and screaming (literally). I kinda expected it to deploy at least the second phase, but no, it hit with a loud whack and little pieces parts went everywhere. The rocket was completely destroyed and so were the electronics inside. They were in about 5-6 pieces when I say it after it was recovered.
I would have been next, but realized that I told the LCO - 'last'. I walked over and said, you can go ahead. I don't think I would have lasted anyway, there was a ton of blood sweat and tears in that rocket and 10 mins of nerves were going to kill me. Nothing I was going to do by stopping it would have made any difference, I had checked my checklist twice before getting my witnesses to inspect the rocket.
As you might expect, everything goes through your mind as the countdown happens. When it hits, ONE, you want to yell over and say... NO, NO, don't launch it.... But you can't. At Zero, the pro38 lit and the rocket screamed off the pad. Straight as an arrow and *WAY* up there! I'd simmed it with that motor and RockSim said 3280'. I didn't know how close the final weight was to simmed weight, but I suspected they would be pretty close and that the altimeter would prove that.
While it's a large rocket, it still gets pretty tough to see at 3000ish feet. But right at apogee the first charge went off. The rocket split and started it's free fall. Actually in this case, it had a small Drogue parachute, but for all purposes, it didn't do much. Down, down, it fell. I was trying to video the flight and lost it a bunch of times. By this time, the flight was 50% successful, but for those that fly electronics, you know that that first deployment is a critical one. Not only does it split the rocket, but you also never know what that event may have done to the switches and what state the rest of the package may be left in. I had fit the NC very tight to make sure it didn't come off from the fin can separation and the shockcord extending to it's limits. I sure didn't want it to come out at apogee, would have been a very long walk, and I would have failed my certification.
It was starting to get larger now as it fell and I had the Altimeter set to 600'. I could have been brave and set it to 300', but figured, with no wind, I'd give myself at least that much cushion. It always amazes me how hard it is to judge height. About where I thought the other charge would go off, it didn't... And I continued to watch. Down, down, down, it fell. Then right on cue (at least from the electronics), the second charge fired and out came the main parachute. It opened perfectly and the rocket slowed to a crawl and landed about 10 seconds later.
I was getting cheers by that time and congratulations. It wasn't quite over, I had to walk, retrieve the rocket and it had to be inspected to make sure it could fly again if needed. As it turns out, there was nothing wrong with it and the post flight inspection would go well. The altimeter was beeping out the altitude.... 3265!... Perfect. Matched the sim perfectly.
As I walked back for the final inspection, it finally sunk in.... Wooooo Hoooo, I'm L2 Certified!!!! And as they say, "now you get to spend the BIG Bucks!"
I'll suck off the video from my camera (no promises, I was pretty nervous), and stick it on the web and send a link to it as soon as I can.
Whew, finally done, now I can go to EX launches and I could launch!... Course, now I have to proceed and get an LEUP (Low Explosive User Permit), so that I can buy those big motors. And I have to start thinking about my L3 rocket.... I'll get there, think I'll season this a little first.
Alan - Brand Spanking new L2! And most of you missed it!!!!
Great job though. The hard work always pays off. I'm just glad the bad luck didn't find you.
