Air-X Delamar Build

[BrAdam]

Looks awesome. And last I knew the Green Mamba still lives. I saw it a year or two ago at the Dells Raceway.


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[crossfire]

Eric
You did a great job on the build. Make sure you get some pictures at the launch. Miki and I can't make it to TS we have a new Grand baby due anytime soon.
We will miss all you guys. Tell

 

[ChrisAttebery]

WOW! That looks great. Any worries about the wrap melting at above mach?

 

[blackbrandt]

Then it will simply add character.

 

[Rocketry nut]

Thunderstruck

To answer Patrick's question, Yes, the first flight is planned for this weekend at Thunderstruck in Hoosierville just North of Boilermakerville! Weather permitting, it should take to the skies on Saturday on a 9475Ns M794 moonburner. Pending final weights, it should travel to an altitude between 15k' and 18k'; but definitely not more than 22k':gavel:. One of the features I'm watching for on this flight is the possible rotation/coning caused by an offset core motor on a three finned ship. Hoping for clear skies and light winds; the wolves down there don't like me much!:grin:

-Eric-[/QUOTE]

Looking forward to it! See you Saturday.

 

[mannyskid]

Fantastic looking rocket dude! I've always loved Dynacom/Air-X rockets, I've just never had a chance to own one. Best of luck to you on your flight this weekend.

Manny

 

[ECayemberg]

Thanks for the comments guys!

Maiden Voyage
The Delamar "Green Mamba" turned in her first flight this past Saturday at Thunderstruck 5 in Ash Grove, Indiana.

The motor for the first flight is a moonburner for 75-7600 hardware; a "leftover" from Balls22 where it was slated for the sustainer of a two stage 4" to 3" N to M attempt, but weather and electronics grounded that flight. The Sconnie M794 Superballs burns for 12+ seconds and was sure to give the green snake a good ride.

Friday at Thunderstruck was a lovely mixture of extreme winds, low cloud cover, and scattered rain. We used the day to catch up with friends, focus on our liquid diets, and prep and build rockets. I finished wiring up the electronics before enjoying beverages, and put the newly finished rocket aside till morning. Saturday's weather was the antithesis of Fridays; it was a perfect day for flying rockets. The wind had died overnight, and the cloud cover burned off early in the morning. After a quick weather check flight with the Loc Magnum, the Green Mamba was loaded onto the F bank. Thank you to David "Foxy" Fox for running a battery and F/X box out to the F banks so we could light the fire!

After the bank was all set up, the electronics were armed (another thanks here to the Indiana Rocketry crew for having ladders available on the range...awesome!), igniter installed way up there, and the area vacated. Okay, Frontpage Swindler set up his ?olly with an L1000 before we all left.

Here she is on the pad:

After retreating to the West side of the flightline, DJ Jazzy Reese announced the flight in a most excellent fashion (thanks Dave for mastering the mic throughout the weekend!). Since this motor was built with the intent of being lit as a sustainer motor, several Pyrodex pellets were built into the motor causing a quick startup. The 33 pound bird slowly lifted off the pad with nary a wiggle, wobble, or roll.

The motor just kept on burning for nearly an eternity; and the sound from the burn continued several seconds after visible motor cutoff. Several seconds after the motor finally stopped burning, a puff was seen in the cloudless sky indicating an event had taken place. With that, we scanned the skies for a minute or so before taking off to the SouthEast following the prevailing winds and tracker signals from the sky. As expected, the volume dropped drastically, indicating that the rocket was on the ground. Chasing the signal over the crest of the hill, the signal grew strong and the main chute was spotted soon afterward. Green Mamba was recovered safely from a smoothly cut farm field roughly 1.7 miles from the launch site. The rocket had been dragged a short distance by the chute causing very minor scuffing of the paint on the fins; otherwise no damage to the creature....I intended to wet sand and polish the fins and nose paint anyway, so this gives me a good excuse to do so!

We visited with the farmer/landowner a bit following recovery; like rocketeers, the vast majority of people in and around Ash Grove, IN are wonderful people!!!

Back at the range, I set the snake out to soak up the rays and moved on to launching other rockets and such. But first, I listened to da beeps: this porker made it's way all the way to 21,682'. Not bad for a maiden voyage.

Next flight is slated to be LDRS 33 at Bong in Kansasville, WI on a K2000 V-max to a much more reasonable altitude of about a mile.

...and Jackson Lubin took some awesome photos and posted them on Flickr: here and here

-Eric-

 

[crossfire]

Very nice flight Eric. How was putting on the Sticker Shock 23 rocket wrap? I have never done a rocket wrap.
GAry

 

[Aksrockets]

Excellent build thread and flight report!

Alex

 

[dixontj93060]

Aww, man you got the high ground--I was in muck 75% of the time.

 

[MWC]

Eric -

Great rocket, great thread, and great flight!

I have an affinity for Dynacom builds... way back, I was fortunate enough to pick up an unbuilt 4" Dynacom Black Widow from former TC prefect Mike Kunetka, and the rocket ended-up as my L3 bird. I learned about many techniques, methods, and materials by building that kit. Dynacom kits were defintiely leading edge at the time.

Thanks for the great vicarious journey with your build.

 

[BrAdam]

Great thread! Can't wait till July. Ill see you there.


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[ECayemberg]

Very nice flight Eric. How was putting on the Sticker Shock 23 rocket wrap? I have never done a rocket wrap.
GAry

Thanks Gary! This was my first time doing a Stickershock wrap; and it went great! Once I had the decals in hand, I did some planning to make sure seams were in good places and the pattern matched well. The two 13.125"x 50" stock pieces were cut into 6 pieces; after that application was easy. The vinyl conformed well to curved, didn't leave any air bubbles, and looked great. I'd highly recommend it!

WOW! That looks great. Any worries about the wrap melting at above mach?

Thanks Chris! No worries; this vinyl is pretty tough stuff. I've had decals peel above M2, but just above M1, I'm not concerned. If it does, like Matt said, it just adds character!

Fantastic looking rocket dude! I've always loved Dynacom/Air-X rockets, I've just never had a chance to own one. Best of luck to you on your flight this weekend.

Thanks Manny! Flight went well, though we missed you at Thunderstruck!!! QCRS Memorial Day?????

Excellent build thread and flight report!

Thanks Alex! Much appreciated coming from a young man with your talent with composites!

Aww, man you got the high ground--I was in muck 75% of the time.

Definitely got lucky on this one, Tim. I did have to walk through a small stream to get to it, but that was grass covered ground; with waterproof boots it was no sweat. However, the Magnum and 5" Jart required 2 miles of muck trudging combined. My rockets have an affinity for liquid landings!

How far out was 4Ever? Did Hope N Pray fly on Sunday?

Great rocket, great thread, and great flight!

I have an affinity for Dynacom builds... way back, I was fortunate enough to pick up an unbuilt 4" Dynacom Black Widow from former TC prefect Mike Kunetka, and the rocket ended-up as my L3 bird. I learned about many techniques, methods, and materials by building that kit. Dynacom kits were defintiely leading edge at the time.

Thanks for the great vicarious journey with your build.

Thanks for the comments, and bringing this thing home alive, Jim! It's really great to have you and Gary participate in this thread! If you didn't catch it earlier, this thing recovered largely courtesy Missileworks (RRC2+) and Top Flight Recovery (chutes and nomex). I've been doing rockets for a while, and these are two companies I trust and couldn't live without: great products and support that have been around for decades! Thanks Jim and Gary!

Great thread! Can't wait till July. Ill see you there.

Thanks Brad!!! Looking forward to seeing you there; maybe even before at a TWA or QCRS launch!

-Eric-

 

[k3td]

I am SO happy I found this thread! This was originally my Air-X Delamar, and I sent it to Darrell when I reconnected with him while I was living in the Austin, TX area several years ago. Darrel was a good friend to me in the 90's when I was living in the Atlanta area, starting with giving me some great guidance on prepping my L2 cert rocket and motor. I always hoped Darrell would build and fly it, but understood he was going through some very tough times. I agree with several posters here who mentioned Darrell would have loved to see it fly! RIP Darrell, my friend.

 

[patelldp]

Maybe with some poking and prodding I will post a build thread of this beastie here instead of elsewhere...

 

[cwbullet]

Build it here.

 

[DizWolf]

Maybe with some poking and prodding I will post a build thread of this beastie here instead of elsewhere...

*poke* Very few kits come that..... complete these days.

 

[ECayemberg]

Maybe with some poking and prodding I will post a build thread of this beastie here instead of elsewhere...

Go ahead, Dan!

Is that a 4.1" Scorpion? Maybe a custom 5"? I like the fin shape on that one; always wanted a Scorpion.

-Eric-

 

[patelldp]

Go ahead, Dan!

Is that a 4.1" Scorpion? Maybe a custom 5"? I like the fin shape on that one; always wanted a Scorpion.

-Eric-

4.1 Scorpion. Given your past history with cloning these designs, I'll take some dimensions on the fins so that you can make your Tarantula a little Scorpion buddy.

 

[ECayemberg]

4.1 Scorpion. Given your past history with cloning these designs, I'll take some dimensions on the fins so that you can make your Tarantula a little Scorpion buddy.

Excellent; thanks Dan!!!