Mach1 3" Daedalus Build Thread

Was that 3400’ a clear & clean line of sight?

timbucktoo said:

Was that 3400’ a clear & clean line of sight?

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Yes. We fly on a dry lake bed, in the desert. Zero obstruction.

Have you tried just range testing it by its self?

This thing is getting painted. The nose cone and tail cone have been showing signs of waviness and pits in the fiberglass. This results in extra time to smooth that out before it gets a deep glossy black coat. It's slow going but the results will make it worth it.

Rob702Martinez has done all paint work on this and I cannot thank him enough as its not an easy task. He has all the tools and skill to paint such a large rocket with a polished finish and deserves all the credit for the paint.

sigh - my feeling when my primer coat shows those dreaded pinholes...

I am surprised that there are any. I have built I don't know how many of Steves kits and have never had that. I have used BVM pin hole filler before. Wipe it on and that is about all there is to it.

https://shopbvmjets.com/index.php?m...oducts_id=99&zenid=qoru197kdofgdcvhr5g3pl94u7

Nothing negative here, just takes more time than usual to address it on this bird. It happens.

Ian A Dalton said:

Testing this at the field reveals an ugly truth. I got a maximum of 3400' range before the signal was lost. Since I am aiming for a flight that will go 10,000' AND every Oktoberfest launch is windy as all get out, I need to do better.

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Range on or very near lakebed surfaces seems to be a lot less than in the air. You should be able to get a good enough signal during descent to get a position within 1/2 mile of the landing point before loss of signal. One way to test range at the site would be to pick a day with some "W" and put the av bay in the air on a kite.

Mike

To rocket has been painted, flown, recovered, and cleaned up! It flew Saturday at Oktoberfest with Tripoli Vegas. It flew on a CTI L935 to an altitude of 12,500' and hit Mach 1.5. Here are some pictures and a video. The altitude and speed of this rocket completely surpassed my expectations. The video has some documentary like footage of me explaining things before the flight at the 4:30 mark. I did not get any pictures of the actual launch due to technical error and the video of the flight is just takeoff footage - but it works well. I will be flying this again with onboard video and other cameras figured out at some point in the future. This was challenging and rewarding project. The beautiful paint job is was done by Rob720Martinez.

Video:

Glad it flew well

Now how did you do tangled shock cords in cad, and where'd you get your electronics models?

Nytrunner said:

Glad it flew well

Now how did you do tangled shock cords in cad, and where'd you get your electronics models?

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For the shock cord I designed one segment of the chord. I chain mine so I used one link as a reference. Then I copied that several times until it looks good.


As for the electronics, I also modeled those myself. Additionally, here is a better look at the AV bay from my CAD program.

Woah.

Congrats on the successful 1st flight. Rocket looks fantastic on the pad.

Out of curiosity, what CAD program did you do your drawings in?

Tobor said:

Out of curiosity, what CAD program did you do your drawings in?

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I use Autodesk’s Fusion 360. It’s free for hobbyists.

Fusion 360 has a huge learning curve but is slick on you learn it.

Great thread. I have enjoyed following your project.

I use Fusion but I did not recognize the transparent x-ray view Mr. Dalton posted. Admittedly, I still find ACAD 2K easier to work with then Fusion.

Tobor said:

I use Fusion but I did not recognize the transparent x-ray view Mr. Dalton posted. Admittedly, I still find ACAD 2K easier to work with then Fusion.

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To go into “X-ray view” is quite easy. on the left nav with all your components and bodies, right click and choose ‘Opacity control” at the bottom and set it to something other than 100%.

Ian A Dalton said:

To go into “X-ray view” is quite easy. on the left nav with all your components and bodies, right click and choose ‘Opacity control” at the bottom and set it to something other than 100%.

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Ian, this is a great thread. I really enjoyed and appreciated the effort you took in making this bird unique. It's things like this that I particularly enjoy about rocketry today versus those I built as a kid in the 60's - so many technological advances that keep it interesting!

I'm thinking of taking the plunge into 3D printing, and PM'd you with a couple of questions if you have time.