Canadian Level 4 Certification Build - Ultimate Wildman

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The flight was a complete success and I am now Level 4 certified!

Max Altitude: 7064 feet
Max Velocity: Mach 0.67

Here is the full video of the flight on YouTube:


Below is the GPS data for the Level 4 flight (red) shown alongside the data for my Shape Shifter Jr's flight (green) on Saturday evening.
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The rocket landed right next to a drivable road so recovery could not have been easier. Within 15 mins the rocket was recovered and back at the flight line. No damage whatsoever!
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Congratulations! And thank you for documenting and sharing your approach, greatly appreciated.
 
I saw the YT video of your flight earlier this month, and your thread answered my wife and my's question about how HPR levels work in Canadian rocketry.

I appreciated this thread, so much to learn from it.

Thanks for taking us along, and congrats on your L4!
 
I saw the YT video of your flight earlier this month, and your thread answered my wife and my's question about how HPR levels work in Canadian rocketry.

I appreciated this thread, so much to learn from it.

Thanks for taking us along, and congrats on your L4!
Thanks! I’m delighted to hear that you and others found this thread useful and informative!

I’m currently planning to fly this rocket again in early September on an L1395. If that flight goes well, I’ll be gearing up to fly it on an N motor next year (finances permitting) 🙂
 
great news!

Rage at the Gage I assume?! (DO they allow non-CAR Canadians to fly there?)
Correct! And you do need to be a CAR member to fly there for insurance purposes. This is true for all CAR sanctioned launches. A NAR or TRA membership does not count unfortunately.

(Side note: I am currently one of the principle organizers for the event.)
 
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I'll admit that until this flight, I was not really a fan of Blue Streak propellent (reason being that for smaller motors the flame and thin smoke tend to get lost against the backdrop of a bright sky). But the L1395 amazed me. If anything, I was more wowed by this motor than the M1830 despite the L1395 having less total impulse (both are 75 4G motors though). The shape and blue-to-purple colour transition of the flame on this motor is absolutely gorgeous! The propellent grains themselves are quite blue too!

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I'm kind of obsessed with the view from the onboard camera of the L1395's flame hitting the blast deflector!
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Figured I'd revive this thread to post an update as I gear up for flight #3 in a few weeks.

The current plan is to fly this rocket next on a CTI M795 Classic Moonburner during NB Rocketry's Rage at the Gage launch over the Labour Day weekend. I've had the motor in my possession since January after ordering it last November from Sunward Hobbies. I got really lucky with the CTI availability.

Should be an exciting flight! It's a 98% M motor with a 13s burn! :oops: Below is a summary of the expected flight profile:

Apogee: 12,940 ft
Max velocity: 250 m/s (Mach 0.75)
Max acceleration: 6 G's
Flight time: 3.5 min

Simulated flight profile as per OpenRocket:
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For a longburn motor in a moderately heavy rocket such as this (56 lbs loaded), the TTW is something that needs to be carefully considered. Here is a graph of the simulated TTW ratio for this flight (which accounts for the decreasing mass of the rocket as the propellant is consumed):
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There is an initial spike at launch of 7:1 followed by several seconds where the TTW remains constant at just under 6:1. The TTW ratio only dips below 5:1 a little bit beyond the 5 second mark (at which point the rocket will be travelling at ~230 m/s). Motor burnout occurs at an altitude of around 8,000 ft. Using a 12' rail, the rail exit velocity sims at 20 m/s (~65 ft/s) which is about the same as the previous two flights with this rocket. Should be a safe and stable flight. However, out of an abundance of caution, I plan to only fly if the winds are fairly low to minimize any chance of the rocket weathercocking.

Last Sunday I glued the grains of the M795 into the liner using the supplied adhesive kit. I was a bit worried about this step of the assembly, but it went quite smoothly. The CTI instructions say to complete gluing the grains within 10 mins of mixing the adhesive. Took me 8 minutes with the help of an assistant (I also did a dry run before hand). For future reference I kept an eye on the leftover adhesive as it cured in the mixing cup and I think one could have taken up to 20 minutes from mixing without running into difficulties (room temp was around 20°C). After a few hours the adhesive had hardened to a firm but spongy texture.
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I'll be travelling to visit family for the next couple weeks (only returning about a week before the planned launch) so I wanted to get this part of the motor assembly done ahead of time. The glued up grains and liner are now carefully sealed in plastic with some desiccant pouches on either end to protect from the ambient humidity (since It's been a very wet humid summer here so far).
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I was originally supposed to be travelling today, but delayed by a day to avoid driving through rain and thunderstorms for several hours. Instead, I spent a few pleasant hours down in the workshop doing some light tinkering on the rocket itself in preparation for next month's launch. I sprayed some spray paint into a cup and used a small brush to touch up the paint in a few spots. In particular along one of the fin leading edges where there was significant paint chipping from getting the booster into the trunk of the Toyota Corolla. I left most of the actual flight related battle scars alone though. :cool: I also enlarged the two vent holes in the upper airframe section to 5/32" as after doing some more involved calculations I felt that my original choice of 1/8" holes was possibly a smidge undersized to be ideal for a fast flight on a really large motor (like the N5800 or O3400 both of which I hope to one day fly in this rocket ;)). Probably wasn't needed though (and definitely not needed for the M795).
 
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Well I think I officially have a new favourite motor! :)

Friday Sept 1: Flight 3 was a roaring success! Everything that could went perfect. The winds were calm, it was clear blue sky and the rocket flew straight and true under the power of the M795 as the inaugural flight of the Rage at the Gage 2023 launch event. And the sound... the videos I have really don't even come close to doing it justice. This thing looked, and in particular, sounded EPIC. It just kept going... and going... and going. In terms of a visual spectacle, it's hard to beat the presence that a Moonburner has. I think it's gonna take me a few months to settle down from the thrill of this flight! I was hoping for a NASA style liftoff, and damn that motor really delivered. :shocked:

Anyway, enough with the bragging. In terms of the data, the rocket flew pretty close to what I'd sim'd. The apogee (average of the two altimeters) was 12,532' with a top speed reached during boost of Mach 0.7.

Video of this flight can be seen in the first few minutes of my Rage at the Gage 2023 video:



Here are some pics! The rocket landed just over 2 km away from the pad.
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The fin tabs were then sanded and wiped with isopropyl alcohol in preparation for epoxy.
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I 3D printed a jig to ensure proper alignment of the fins.
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One at a time, each fin pocket on the motor mount was filled with 55 ml of epoxy and the fin inserted.
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The fin jig was slid into place to hold the fin in the correct position and the entire assembly was left to cure with the fin oriented vertically. The remaining fins were also fitted in place to help keep the fin jig correctly positioned. This process was done a total of three times to attach each fin.
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Here you can kind of see how the fin pocket effectively guides the epoxy to encapsulate the fin root:
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I’m still learning, is glassing the fins not as necessary on a fiberglass rocket? If you fly on N and O over Mach as you hope to later on in the thread, will it be an issue? I’ve been admiring this kit for several months now and hope to one day purchase it.
 
I’m still learning, is glassing the fins not as necessary on a fiberglass rocket? If you fly on N and O over Mach as you hope to later on in the thread, will it be an issue? I’ve been admiring this kit for several months now and hope to one day purchase it.
It shouldn't be necessary as long as you use a quality epoxy and properly prep the surfaces prior to bonding. The epoxy dam method I used during construction made it easy to create very beefy internal fillets which resulted in a fin section that feels very strong, even before adding the external fillets. The fins themselves are cut from fiberglass plate that is plenty rigid by itself. I have no concern about the fins surviving a flight on an N or an O.

(BTW, I also I recommend checking out Wayco's excellent build thread of his similar rocket, which he has successfully flown on an O without glassing: https://www.rocketryforum.com/threads/waycos-ultimate-darkstar-build.126244/)
 
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