A few builds I have done / working on.

I am also working on a 24mm mmd cardboard balsa rocket that I will figerglass or carbon overlay and plan to fly on a CTI G load, my rrc2+ will fit in the payload but my MW T3 gps will not fit in this project so I will look into other options for tracking, and will use my Micropeak altimeter for flight data.

I also started a 38mm mt build using Estes bt80 tubes a eBay coupler and custom nose cone. 4 fin rocket setup as a large park flyer on 29mm or 38mm G motors. Will be single break with JLCR.

I am building a 29mm booster for Lowtech 1 1/2, with a PET2 timer could stage a G80 sized motor to a F32T motor and with the rrc2+ and T3 GPS could see 6000', impressive for a "low power" rocket. Or this could go up a CTI G65 to about 4500-4800'.

I also have some 4" MC tubes and a 54mm mmt I might build a short tail cone rocket and glass it to see the difference in altitude to my longer MC sdx3 and frenzy.

I don't want to make the post to long but here are some pictures and will update as new things come along. If anyone wants more specific info on a build just let me know.

I also have pictured my scratch built all aluminum 1010 rail pad and pcv low/mid power pad that uses 1/8" 3/16" and 1/4" rods.

~John

Nice birds!
Pad came out well too.
Have you flown and recovered your 3
stage yet?

Ah the Comanche 3, a kit i dreamed about. I am 1 for 1 (d12-c6-c6), lost the first but flew and recovered one at the Tripoli HPR club launch in North Branch MN.

I designed and built "Gallo 24", a bt60 24mm mmt short version of the Lowtech series rockets I was working on. Refined process etc.

I flew this on a e12 with no finish work or paint to a altitude of 875', then beveled the fins, did finish work and painted it. Flew it again on a e12 to 1182'.

On the 10th flight this weekend the 50lb kevlar shock cord anchor broke and I watched the nose cone float away on the 15" nylon chute. It was setup for a 15'/s decent from 600' to estimate landing zones for higher flying rockets.

I may change this to a payloader short nose cone (the original one off Lowtech 2 that I changed to help cg when setup for 2 stage). And keep flying it on cloudy days to lower altitiudes.

~John
Thanks for looking.

Working on staging, I setup Lowtech 3 and did a Estes F15-0 to F15-8 attempt with a RRC3 in the nose cone setup for backup apogee event and a chute tender.

Boost was good, wind cocking a little but failed to stage, electronics took over and deployed at apogee and released the main chute.

Made it up 475', low and slow.

Now I am getting Lowtech 3 setup for a more advanced stage attempt and greater altitude.

I removed the 1/4" launch lugs and installed 1010 rail buttons. I have a sled setup in the nose cone for the RRC3 and MW T3 tracker. I have a 1s 500mah lipo to power the gps, good for about 4hr run time, and a 300mah 2s lipo to power the RRC3 good for about 4-5hr run time.

I added a small chute for the booster, and it's loaded with a LMS Aerotech G79 4w. I will use the motor eject to separate the booster, then the RRC3 with fire the AUX output and fire the ematch in the Aerotech G40-7w that I removed the BP charge from. Then the RRC3 will fire the charge +2 seconds at apogee, then fire the chute tender at 400'.

All up weight on this is 22.5oz
Leaving the 86" 1010 rail at about 65ft/s.
Booster burnout 1.9s at 560' and about 480ft/s. Then at 3.6 seconds after launch and about 1200' the G40 should light and accelerate to 670ft/s.

The sim shows the G79 would put the whole rocket up 2500', and the sustainer would go 3000' on the G40. I have seen up to 85% combined altitude on a multistage setup.

I think the rocket could go up 4500' if all goes well, and the gps should help with recovery. I have a large frozen lake and about 3 square miles for the attempt. I plan to get ground video, GPS data, phone video, rrc3 data etc.

~John

Very cool staging trainer project!

Have you sucsessfully lit a G40 with an e-match? From what I've heard, the aerotech motors require a little more starter oomph than an e-match can provide.

Nytrunner said:

Very cool staging trainer project!

Have you sucsessfully lit a G40 with an e-match? From what I've heard, the aerotech motors require a little more starter oomph than an e-match can provide.

Click to expand...

I've successfully lit an Aerotech G80 single-use motor on a simple ematch. The match barely fit into the motor. Worked well, though.

mccordmw said:

I've successfully lit an Aerotech G80 single-use motor on a simple ematch. The match barely fit into the motor. Worked well, though.

Click to expand...

That I can believe, G80s are Blue Thunder which is one of the easiest propellants to light. G40s are White Lightning and not as cooperative.

May be worth a ground test for Galant (or....just launching a G40 flight from an e-match)

Yes the blue motors light easy, I have only had issues lighting Red motors.

The G40 is a C slot grain and the ematch is a snug fit, I tried to dip the ematch in H3 but it would not fit in the grain, I might pull it out and try to dip just the tip or wipe the sides so it does not get any larger in diameter.

I want to use the white lighting for visual reasons, and a G80 would push this airframe to trans Sonic and I don't want it to shred, (est 950ft/s with a G80).

I am just hoping for a blue sky and less then 5mph winds from the West to make the attempt.

~John

I modified a 808 camera I picked up on CL, the lipo battery was shot so I soldered on some shooter wire and will use one of my 1s 500mah lipos to power it for the flight. It has a 8gb micro SD card and I can push the on button from outside the airframe.

Some final tweeks on the RRC3 also, I put the apogee delay to 1sec and added a altitude lock out on the AUX channel, so it should detect launch, then after 3.6 sec if its above 700' (G79 and stage delay should be around 1000-1100' at the 3.6 sec) it will fire the AUX channel.

I will report back with some data the weather looks ok for this adfternoon.

~John

Well I had a good day a few weeks ago for the launch, calm wind clear sky's. I had everything setup and armed all the goodies, gps, rrc3, 808 camera, ground camera.

The boost was good on the G79, nice kick off the pad, almost straight up, windcock just a little. The delay on the booster was about 1 sec longer then I planned but it did separate, failed to stage the sustainer.

The ematch still has continuity from the terminal block from the rrc3 to the match head. I thought after 3.6 seconds of flight the rocket would have surpassed 700-800' in altitude, I thought it would be at 1000'.

But this just means it did a lawndart 2000' away from the pad in the ice, instead of 5000' down range. The tip of the nose cone made it about 3-4" into the solid ice.

The rrc3 was good with 7 short beeps before launch, but the 2 ematches I had in the drouge charge broke the bridge wire but failed to light the powder, no separation and ballistic landing. I switched to the gps display after it failed to stage only to see the dot on the screen 2000' away as I heard the thud of impact.

There is not much to save: the recovery harness and chute, g40 sustainer motor, thread on retainer, the design...

The booster even split the tube from the ejection charge, the F15 I tried before this worked fine, I will do more ground testing for the separation charge or try drag separation.

The micro SD card was damaged from the 808 camera, it gets hot when plugged in but no data. I did salvage the chips off the rrc3 that could have data but idk if it's worth diging into.

All in all I think I learned a few things, I have Lowtech 4 in the works, it will be a near MD 29mm rocket with a larger booster for more elaborate redundant recovery. And I will glass the frame and see what a H-H or I - H can do.

~John