Springboarding off of last summer's "build light" tangent I took, which culminated in a July trip to Argonia flying an aluminized 17500ns full N motor in a 4" rocket with 1/8" G10 fins and no layups, built from scrap parts that worked great (build thread found here: https://www.rocketryforum.com/showthread.php?55965), I've now moved to Texas, and am pairing my newfound easy access to decent waivers with my distinct lack of two other things -- time and money -- to continue this chapter of builds.
The name is pretty indicative of it all, stolen from my other hobby, high-altitude climbing. The parallelisms are evident -- the old-style approach to climbing involved a massive amount of equipment, investment, logistics, and preparation; featuring large teams moving slowly and methodically up the mountain, often requiring an exhaustive effort just to get all of that stuff to base camp, not to mention the slow-moving nature of those climbs often required an unrealistically long weather window.
The Alpine Style approach, pioneered in the 80s, kinda fits with my general mojo and the goal of these projects -- pack light, get up and get down in the shortest time possible, thus minimizing risk and exposure, emphasize skill and common sense over preparation, planning, and stiff-set rules, and don't invest so heavily in one route up the mountain that you can't easily change gears to adapt to the circumstances as they become known. So, last summer's hypothesis proved correct, so far -- that perfectly aligned fins and solid knowledge of basic bonding technique trumps the need for the cheap insurance that thick fin stock and heavy layups provide; but we're going to push the envelope further this time with the speeds that the sustainer of this one will reach, and it may well not work. But, the investment of time and money won't be significant enough that committing to this direction will be a major setback in the event of a failure. Many iterations are a far more complete learning experience than one slow, expensive, all-consuming project that commits one's time and finances heavily to one design tangent.
Anyway, enough babbling. I don't have my mixing stuff or tools with me, and spend most of my time working these days, but bought a few cheap tools from Harbor Freight, enough to do basic construction. I've been lucky enough to be granted use of others' mixing equipment on occasion. The formulas the group has chosen for mixing aren't the best for our purposes (ISP is key), but will suffice and beggars certainly can't be choosers. So, I've got 2 7600s mixed and ready to go, and will begin construction in a few days of a basic 3 inch 2 stage using parts and electronics I have available. The methods will pretty much mirror exactly what's shown in the previous thread, and hopefully just be another notch in the belt of the Alpine Style concept. Shooting to fly July 12 in Argonia, same place and time as last year, and hit around 40k.
Follow along if you wish.
Regards,
Prophecy
The name is pretty indicative of it all, stolen from my other hobby, high-altitude climbing. The parallelisms are evident -- the old-style approach to climbing involved a massive amount of equipment, investment, logistics, and preparation; featuring large teams moving slowly and methodically up the mountain, often requiring an exhaustive effort just to get all of that stuff to base camp, not to mention the slow-moving nature of those climbs often required an unrealistically long weather window.
The Alpine Style approach, pioneered in the 80s, kinda fits with my general mojo and the goal of these projects -- pack light, get up and get down in the shortest time possible, thus minimizing risk and exposure, emphasize skill and common sense over preparation, planning, and stiff-set rules, and don't invest so heavily in one route up the mountain that you can't easily change gears to adapt to the circumstances as they become known. So, last summer's hypothesis proved correct, so far -- that perfectly aligned fins and solid knowledge of basic bonding technique trumps the need for the cheap insurance that thick fin stock and heavy layups provide; but we're going to push the envelope further this time with the speeds that the sustainer of this one will reach, and it may well not work. But, the investment of time and money won't be significant enough that committing to this direction will be a major setback in the event of a failure. Many iterations are a far more complete learning experience than one slow, expensive, all-consuming project that commits one's time and finances heavily to one design tangent.
Anyway, enough babbling. I don't have my mixing stuff or tools with me, and spend most of my time working these days, but bought a few cheap tools from Harbor Freight, enough to do basic construction. I've been lucky enough to be granted use of others' mixing equipment on occasion. The formulas the group has chosen for mixing aren't the best for our purposes (ISP is key), but will suffice and beggars certainly can't be choosers. So, I've got 2 7600s mixed and ready to go, and will begin construction in a few days of a basic 3 inch 2 stage using parts and electronics I have available. The methods will pretty much mirror exactly what's shown in the previous thread, and hopefully just be another notch in the belt of the Alpine Style concept. Shooting to fly July 12 in Argonia, same place and time as last year, and hit around 40k.
Follow along if you wish.
Regards,
Prophecy