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There are a lot of good ideas in this thread. I'm glad I haven't committed to any mounting for my Raven.

Boy, am I glad I stumbled across this thread. I was just trying to figure out how to mount my Raven2 in the Av Bay of my 4" DarkStar. Something like this would be great.

Me too.

Aargh! I wish I had seen this last week, before I drilled all the holes in my body tube. I loved how nice the Foam-and-Fly method worked on the Mini DarkStar and I would have loved to have used it on the DarkStar 4DD as well. Oh, well, too late now. I've already drilled the holes and...

A major limitation of tracking that way is that both the transmitter and the receiver must have good signal from both the GPS and a cell tower. If the rocket is laying on the ground, it may not have very good signal and it will be useless. The nice thing about the dog trackers like the...

Thanks for all the great advice. I placed a Wildman order for 3 yards of Kevlar strap and the chopped carbon. I also ordered a pint of the US Composite 150 epoxy that dlb suggested. That should be enough to get me into trouble.

I would be concerned about the heat resistance of polypropelene. Its melting point is 330 degF, compared to 480-510 degF for nylon or polyester, 800 degF for Nomex, or 900 degF for Kevlar.

I thought about doing that, but wouldn't you have to add a Nomex sleeve to protect the first few feet? If so, that costs about the same as the Kevlar strap. Already got my StickerShock decal taken care of. My DS-4DD will have the same color scheme as Jim's Extreme DS.

You are correct. The relevant regulation is 47 C.F.R. § 22.925 Notwithstanding the fact that it is illegal, I have seen several recent stories about people using iPhones to track weather balloons...

That's what I use, too. With skinny rockets I can often get more than one per compartment. For fat rockets that won't fit in one compartment, I just knock out one of the dividers. A nice thing about wine boxes (as opposed to the shelving units that others have suggested) is that they are...

When you say 'typical GPS transmitter', what do you mean? Something like the Garmin Astro 220 dog tracker? If so, that is not really a GPS transmitter. The dog collar unit calculates its position using a GPS receiver and then relays that position via a transmitter in the MURS (Multi-use Radio...

Thanks, Jim. I guess I will order 3 yards of strap then. Does it matter if it sticks out of the airframe a little extra? There shouldn't be an issue with zippering with strap that wide and fiberglass tubing, right? When I said $100 to get started, I was counting $32.95 for 1qt of resin...

You are thinking of the shock cord, which is 9/16 tubular nylon. The Extreme Darkstar instructions say to use 9 yards on one side of the e-bay and 6 yards on the other. I assume that the DS-4DD will be similar. I was asking about the 1" Kevlar strap that is anchored to the motor tube. In...

Jim, I bought a DarkStar 4DD last December but my build is stalled until I get some more supplies from Wildman. One key item is the 1" Kevlar strap. How long a piece should I order? Another thing -- I have not used West Systems epoxy before, since it is about $100 outlay to get...

I had the same problem with mine. Running hot water on the outer tube did not help. Sand the outer edge of the bulkhead plate first so that it fits easily into the airframe. Otherwise you may end up with both a coupler AND a plate jammed in the tube. I used a broom handle. It required...

I was 0 for 1 trying to light a G77R with a Q2G2.

The foam is more rigid than styrofoam, and definitely not like foam rubber. It may not be as strong as epoxy or fiberglass, but the overal bond can be very strong because it covers such a large surface area. a) Even if you kept it contained, all that would do is make the air bubbles smaller...

I allowed the foam to dry overnight. The next morning I peeled off the excess that had overflowed out the back and between the gaps. Because no solvent would dissolve the foam, I had to use a scraper and a sanding sponge to clean up the residue. It turned out pretty good, but took about an...

As I already mentioned, this was my first experience with 2-part expanding foam. I learned a few valuable lessons: 1) Cover the entire work surface beforehand, and wear gloves. This stuff is very sticky, and once it hardens there is no solvent that will remove it. 2) Once the two parts are...

To attach each fin, I ran a thin line of medium CA along the fin root, then inserted it through the slot. An Estes fin alignment guide made it trivially easy to get a good alignment. The root chord of the fin is a littler smaller than the slots in the body tube, so I made sure that the fins...