Blue Baboon One

[Big_Red_Daddy]

I just got my level 1 cert on a LOC Precision Sandhawk with an Aerotech H123 this past Saturday. I'm thinking about which rockets I already have that I can build for my level 2 cert. I believe the dual deploy blue baboon will be a good one. The Aerotech J460T in a 54/852 case should work well, right? Blue Thunder propellant for the Blue Baboon. Estimated apogee: 6223ft. Am I right in thinking that's a good sub-mach, average altitude flight? A K250 motor sims to 14,488 ft and just a hair over mach. Probably fun for a later flight but not the maiden, right? I think I just want to keep it pretty simple with a dual deploy and not have to do any GPS or electronic tracking stuff.

 

[Mendal]

Our club has a rule that any rocket over 3000 needs to have some kind of active tracking on board. Even at 6000 feet you are out of sight. I was ready and load to fly my blue baboon to upwards of 12000 at Mach 1.2, but the weather did not cooperate and it is waiting for a better opportunity in the spring.

To answer the question, yes I think this could be a good level 2 rocket but at the point of level 2 I personally think you should be considering tracking and redundancy in your recovery deployment.


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[Big_Red_Daddy]

What do you recommend for tracking?

 

[Handeman]

I agree with Mendal about putting tracking in anything over 3000 ft., but I'm flying on the east coast. Western sites may have completely different criteria.

I've been using a Missleworks T3 and love it. We also have a club owned Walston RDF unit that is great.

My suggestion would be to use a GPS system like the T3, but back it up with a RDF if available, especially on a cert flight. Even a perfect flight doesn't get you the cert if you can't find it to bring it back.

 

[Handeman]

Just an update on the Blue Baboon One.

I just flew it today on a Pro54 5 Grain K1200 White Thunder. Amazing!

New personal best. 9650 ft. and Mach 1.4. If it hadn't tilted some just above the pad, it might have hit 10K ft. All good though. It landed 25 ft. in a tree, but a couple of minutes with the lineman pole and it was on the ground undamaged.

 

[Theory]

Heck yea!!!

Was cool to get too push the button on it.

 

[FMarvinS]

Handeman,

Congrats on what sounds like a great flight!

Regards,
Fred