6" Diameter Smokin Rockets X-15 Build & L3 Certification

[crossfire]

BIG Surprise!

So after I return and all crazy with everything going on
lol, I went to Teddy to find out what the "Wildman Surprise" is...

View attachment 654305
View attachment 654306

Oh ****!!! It's a Jumbo Wildman rocket!

It ended up being quite a monster... a Jumbo Wildman - 8" diameter fiberglass and about 14' tall! OMG!

JUMBO THANKS!!! to @WILDMANRS again, that was so very generous and AMAZING!

I gotta say, rocketry-wise it's going to be tough to top this day!

Is that a pink colored 8" tube

 

[Rcktmike]

A BIG THANK YOU!

An L3 attempt is never a solo event and I have many people to thank for this amazing adventure. Here is a list of some of the many who made this dream come true for me.

My wife - for her patience, tolerance and support. You are a saint!
My daughter and sister - your help and support with the driving, camping and rocketry was incredible and I had such a great time because of it. I am so happy that you were there with me to share the happy moments and crazy adventures.
Rick Comshaw @cbrarick - I can't say enough how much I appreciated your guidance, help, support and friendship! You're da man!
LDRS Planners, Organizers, Donors, and Volunteers - It was definitely NOT easy and the weather made things very difficult, but all of you helped to make it an amazing event for me and so many others!
Andy Cook - Thanks for all your help with my lengthy L3 questions... both back in 2015 and 9 years later! Your experience, honest opinions and great feedback really contributed greatly to the rocket's success!
Teddy @Onebadhawk - If you were a presidential candidate right now, you'd win for sure. I think anyone who knows you would agree (actually, probably even those who don't lol).
Mike T @Rcktmike & Brian B. - your help, feedback and advice all through this project was fantastic and super appreciated.
Jon Walcott, John Banks, Fred Taverni & Gary Tortora - You guys are an amazing source of knowledge and us L3 attempters really appreciated all the help! I'm sure there was precious rocket flying time given up to help us as witnesses.
TRF'ers - Thank you for your support, opinions, interest and patience in reading through all of this!

Thanks for the kind comment

 

[KenECoyote]

Is that a pink colored 8" tube

Nope, it's a Der Big Red Max. Lol

 

[KenECoyote]

Bonus - Post Launch Funny Story

At LDRS 42 I had just passed my L3 cert and was talking to a very "well known by all" buddy of mine and he says to me:

Buddy: "Ken, I heard you got your Level 3! Good for you, but next time try to do it the manly way!"

Me: "What do you mean by 'the manly way'?"

Buddy: "Do it through Tripoli Ken!"

Me: "Well, I think I did it the most manly way possible, which required having a lot of balls!"

Buddy: "How's that?"

Me: "I did it with an X-15!"

Buddy: (With a look of shock on his face) "Wha, wha, wha, wha?!?!"

Me: "Yeah, b*tch!"

*Disclaimer: I didn't actually say that last line lol

 

[TheTank]

A BIG THANK YOU!

An L3 attempt is never a solo event and I have many people to thank for this amazing adventure. Here is a list of some of the many who made this dream come true for me.

My wife - for her patience, tolerance and support. You are a saint!
My daughter and sister - your help and support with the driving, camping and rocketry was incredible and I had such a great time because of it. I am so happy that you were there with me to share the happy moments and crazy adventures.
Rick Comshaw @cbrarick - I can't say enough how much I appreciated your guidance, help, support and friendship! You're da man!
LDRS Planners, Organizers, Donors, and Volunteers - It was definitely NOT easy and the weather made things very difficult, but all of you helped to make it an amazing event for me and so many others!
Andy Cook - Thanks for all your help with my lengthy L3 questions... both back in 2015 and 9 years later! Your experience, honest opinions and great feedback really contributed greatly to the rocket's success!
Teddy @Onebadhawk - If you were a presidential candidate right now, you'd win for sure. I think anyone who knows you would agree (actually, probably even those who don't lol).
Mike T @Rcktmike & Brian B. - your help, feedback and advice all through this project was fantastic and super appreciated.
Jon Walcott, John Banks, Fred Taverni & Gary Tortora - You guys are an amazing source of knowledge and us L3 attempters really appreciated all the help! I'm sure there was precious rocket flying time given up to help us as witnesses.
TRF'ers - Thank you for your support, opinions, interest and patience in reading through all of this!

Happy to be there and witness and be the second signer on all your guys L3 paperwork! Great job and fantastic flights!

—John—

 

[KenECoyote]

Flight video captured by @UPscaler

https://youtube.com/clip/UgkxAMIPGOxvE0gg2znLZ4-qKRIhzODUVz_V?si=1jK85o_4BI-g-OJS

 

[KenECoyote]

Getting Gluing!

Gluing in one of the vertical fins.
View attachment 651300
(That other CR will be slipped down and then glued.)

As I was gluing the other tail pieces, I made sure to measure the distance between fin tips to ensure they were all aligned correctly.
View attachment 651301
13 inches!

Let's talk about luck...
...
Ok, one of those weird things is that the number 13 seems to keep popping up for me. I'm not religious and neither am I superstitious, but that number keeps haunting me.

Remember the distance between fins was 13" above? Well, with this one "good enough" piece of plywood I found, after I got it home, I saw it had a number stamped...

View attachment 651302



Good thing I'm not superstitious!

Now ask yourself... would you buy and use a piece of wood with the number 13 stamped on it for your uber important cert project? Gotta have guts sometimes. lol

BIG Surprise!

So after I return and all crazy with everything going on
lol, I went to Teddy to find out what the "Wildman Surprise" is...

View attachment 654305
View attachment 654306

Oh ****!!! It's a Jumbo Wildman rocket!

It ended up being quite a monster... a Jumbo Wildman - 8" diameter fiberglass and about 14' tall! OMG!

JUMBO THANKS!!! to @WILDMANRS again, that was so very generous and AMAZING!

I gotta say, rocketry-wise it's going to be tough to top this day!

Remember my earlier note about how the number 13 keeps coming up for me? Well, while the Jumbo Wildman kit I won was "about 14 feet", it was actually 13.8 feet when I measured the components!

 

[KenECoyote]

Happy New Year everyone! I hope all of you had a GREAT holiday and I wish you a very happy new year!

Time for me to provide more updates!

• I haven't been able to launch the X-15 again due to wanting to redo the quick fix I had on the gap between the nose cone and the bay (I started ripping out the old fiberglass patches and need to apply new fg to fill in the gap). Unfortunately, I was busy with so many other things that I couldn't find the time. I'll have it fixed and plan to launch it this Spring after my club reopens.
• Mark Ketchum from Tripoli magazine was at LDRS and had approached me about writing an article on this and it was published in their online September 2024 High Power Rocketry Magazine! (Tripoli.org under "Media" tab.) It was a VERY long article since it's mostly a compilation of stuff here - I had wanted to make it more brief, but I was encouraged not to, so I just "sent it".

​

I thought the title was VERY fitting! ​

• I got my L3 pin!

​

What a year that was and thanks so much for following along with me!

 

[cwbullet]

What a year that was and thanks so much for following along with me!

Congrats.

 

[Wrightme43]

You did great!!!

 

[dhurstell]

Great thread, great build, great story!

 

[neil_w]

Happy New Year everyone! I hope all of you had a GREAT holiday and I wish you a very happy new year!

Time for me to provide more updates!

• I haven't been able to launch the X-15 again due to wanting to redo the quick fix I had on the gap between the nose cone and the bay (I started ripping out the old fiberglass patches and need to apply new fg to fill in the gap). Unfortunately, I was busy with so many other things that I couldn't find the time. I'll have it fixed and plan to launch it this Spring after my club reopens.
• Mark Ketchum from Tripoli magazine was at LDRS and had approached me about writing an article on this and it was published in their online September 2024 High Power Rocketry Magazine! (Tripoli.org under "Media" tab.) It was a VERY long article since it's mostly a compilation of stuff here - I had wanted to make it more brief, but I was encouraged not to, so I just "sent it".

View attachment 686552​

I thought the title was VERY fitting! ​

• I got my L3 pin!

View attachment 686553​

What a year that was and thanks so much for following along with me!

That is a pin well earned. Congrats and Happy New Year! Hope to see you at Metra sometime this year.

 

[KenECoyote]

Congrats.

You did great!!!

Great thread, great build, great story!

That is a pin well earned. Congrats and Happy New Year! Hope to see you at Metra sometime this year.

Thanks guys!!!

@neil_w For sure! I'll try to attend most of the launches if possible (sometimes there are family plans and to quote Dom "Family!" ).

 

[KenECoyote]

My daughter recently shared the photos she took of the rocket at LDRS (apologizing for not remembering to do so earlier), so here are some more!


Body by HP Rocketry!


Thanks for all the help guys!


Onward to space!


Reefing the drogue was definitely the right move!


Oh the relief of the main release! (Notice that the main chute was also reefed.)

 

[Wrightme43]

Ken, have you considered throwing your name in the hat for the upcoming Tripoli elections? You are kind, personable, intelligent, and competent. Those qualities are not common, and always in high demand. I think you would be a great asset. Just my opinion, but, you never know till you ask.

 

[darrenf]

Happy New Year everyone! I hope all of you had a GREAT holiday and I wish you a very happy new year!

• I got my L3 pin!

View attachment 686553​

What a year that was and thanks so much for following along with me!

I am glad I got to be there to witness it in person. I was pretty upset to see what happened at your test flight at Metra just days before and thought "Damn, there is no way that's going to be ready for LDRS". Happy that I was proven wrong. It's alway cool to see someone take a different path to their certification. You definitely put your unique spin on it. Congrats again.

 

[KenECoyote]

I am glad I got to be there to witness it in person. I was pretty upset to see what happened at your test flight at Metra just days before and thought "Damn, there is no way that's going to be ready for LDRS". Happy that I was proven wrong. It's alway cool to see someone take a different path to their certification. You definitely put your unique spin on it. Congrats again.

Thank you kindly for that! Yeah, it was a crossroads moment for me and I had initially just given up since I thought there was NO WAY I could repair it... let alone use it again for an L3 cert (when you need to make sure a new build is really strong).

One of my strengths is also one of my weaknesses... when I really want something, I work insanely hard to defy the odds...

So while this was so far from the usual L3 build to the point where even I wouldn't recommend it to anyone, I made educated and calculated choices throughout to ensure the best chances and I think I took full advantage of all the good points and resources I had to really stretch the envelope.

I'd like to imagine that this followed in the spirit of those who worked on, and flew the real X-15s.

 

[KenECoyote]

Next up was the X-15 on a K1100T!
...
Unfortunately, disaster struck and I had a cato!

So remember that first test flight where the K1100T blew up?

I wasn't alone and now that K1100T motor is added to a list of motors requiring grain bonding...

 

[BNev]

That's interesting. I have 3 K1100T for this year. I will definitely glue them.

 

[rfjustin]

That's interesting. I have 3 K1100T for this year. I will definitely glue them.

Bond ANY AT 54, it does not hurt a thing.

 

[KenECoyote]

My personal suspicion is that there was something "off" with the Blue Thunder propellant for the batch that was sent out early this year since I saw or heard of several CATOs on them and these were very experienced rocketeers (I heard that one had the L1520T assembled while his L3CC watched and the other had all three K1100Ts cato/fire oddly in a cluster at LDRS).

Hopefully with our quick reporting, any issues were followed up on and the additional grain-to-liner bonding should help.

So an added piece of advice is to NOT use newly manufactured motors on your critical tests and flights (just in case).

 

[BNev]

Also interesting since I just ordered a L1520T.

 

[KenECoyote]

What's also important is filing a MESS report. I did, but I was surprised that I didn't see other recent reports (despite hearing of other CATOs).