AT HV arcas

[LampertRocketry]

Originally posted by rabidsheeep
came with my previous order...

i opened the box and also found the gas baffle and the fin lock rings melted and distorted

this stinks.

gotta send it back i guess

this thing is a mess

Was this a brand new kit? Bizarre. The dealer should replace it if it is defective.... but you can be assured that Aerotech will back up their products 110% - I speak from experience. Their customer service is outstanding and they took good care of me, even with all the crazy stuff that went on earlier in the year.

Good luck with the HV Arcas - we have a fleet of Aerotech mid-power rockets and love them. We do some mods on them all. First thing is we get rid of the underpants elastic shockcord and replace it with aout 8 or 10 feet of KEVLAR strap from Pratt Hobbies. We glue the Kevlar strap to the side of the motor casing so there is no obstruction in the body tube. Haven't had a shockcord failure ever since we started doing that. It's a couple of bucks extra but no worries about deployment. We also reinforce the foreward end of the body tube by taking another body tube, cutting a 1 " ring from it and gluing it around the forward end of the body tube. Helps prevent zippers and helps the body tube keep its shape on hard landings. We use epoxy almost everywhere these days... have used yellow wood glue as well and they both work. On the plastic parts, we use epoxy or sometimes CA.

Be sure to paint your rocket. It helps keep the kraft paper dry when it lands in wet grass.

We also use mini-beepers from Pratt Hobbies for recovery. Makes for a lot less work when the rocket lands in the bushes or high grass. You can walk right to it.

And if you are curious about altitude, have a look at some of the cheap wee altimeters that are available. We haven't yet, but will this summer. In fact, we bought a Mico Altimeter in July.

Good luck. Mid power is awesome.

Murray Lampert

 

[rabidsheeep]

ive been looking at beepers, but the ones ive seen have been alittle pricey

and i think i might invest in some $70 non-ejection altimeter i saw... im curious about getting some electronics on these things

 

[LampertRocketry]

Originally posted by rabidsheeep
ive been looking at beepers, but the ones ive seen have been alittle pricey

and i think i might invest in some $70 non-ejection altimeter i saw... im curious about getting some electronics on these things

Check out Pratt Hobbies.. Doug Pratt is a good friend to rocketry and runs a good outfit. His Micro Beepers are about $10.

https://www.pratthobbies.com

I have recovered more than one rocket that would have been lost to the cornfields without it. Including my Level 2 certification flight, which landed in heavy brush and in a gulley. They aren't the loudest beepers in the world... for bigger rockets I use an Adept honker that costs about $25 and makes BIG noise. But it is big and heavy. Pratt's is tiny... and can be flown in model rockets as well. (Which I do when we are flying near tall grass)

Murray

 

[BlueNinja]

I would get the Alt15k from Prfectflite, its pretty cheap tho for that price I would go the extra mile and buy a Transolve kit.

 

[gothique_97]

Originally posted by Donaldsrockets
I've also heard of people making mods to the motor mount assembly so that they can fly it on 29mm H motors and using it as a level 1 cert attempt.

Did this with mine. I only got to try it once with an H motor; an H55 at Battle Park 1993. It CATOed, but the rocket survived quite well. Back then, another very popular motor was Rocketflite's F50 Silver Streak. It was a 50 N-sec 29mm black powder motor about 7 inches long. Later on, they made 38mm black powder G and H motors. The Silver Streak motors dumped out a massive shower of sparks. I loaded one in my Arcas for a demo launch in a smallish cornfield near Mathews, IN, and, sure enough, it drifted into a tall stand of trees, never to be retrieved.

 

[havoc821]

If you are going to dish out $70 for an altimeter that all it does is tell you how high it went, why not just save up $30 more and get one with pyro outputs. Such as the Missile Works RRC2X? Later one down the road when you get to L2 you won't have to spend a lot more moeny for an altimeter because you will already have one. If you are only using it for mid power rockets, then the RRC2X size won't be a problem. It can fit into a 38mm tube x 7" long with no problem. You could use it in just about any midpower rocket. If you plan on using it in small Estes rockets, then I could see why you want one of those mini altimeters that don't have pyro. Well, now that I think about it, Perfectflight has a mini altimeter with pyro outputs that is VERY small. Look for it in a sport rocketry magazine or go to their website. I think it is only about $100. That is just my recommendation.