And of course Dollar Tree has Adams RediBoard (foam board) at least most of the time.
Der Big Red Max to Citation Patriot Conversion
- Thread starter gldknght
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gldknght
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Fair enough! I have two of the Amazon deal BDRMs on hand, and am considering the Citation Patriot as one option for using one of them.
gldknght
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It's a fairly easy conversion, but there are a couple things to watch out for. See post #7 and 8 about my warped fins.
Also, I wish I had swapped out the very short Estes motor tube with a longer one and an additional centering ring to make a stuffer tube to minimize the volume of body tube requiring pressurization to get the recovery laundry out.
I will use a piston as an afterthought to solve the issue.
I’m currently painting my second Der Big Red Max to Citation Patriot conversion with a 38mm mount instead of a 29. I’m looking forward to flying 1 and 2 grain 38mm motors in it.
gldknght
Well-Known Member
Yikes! Put a tracker in it. On single grain G motors, Rocksim says this one goes up to around 1700 feet.
A G64 sends is up to almost 1900 feet. That's getting to the outside edge of visual range with a rocket this small.
38mm two grain motors? Say "goodbye" to your rocket!
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I’ll be flying it with a Marco Polo tracker. Everything I build now has a place for the tracker.
Mine didn't go as straight as I hoped for. Only minor crack to a plywood fin which was the fin that broke off when we pulled it out of a tall monkeypod tree. The G40-10 was rather old and had many fun chuffs.
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I kept clear visual track of a drone that was 2000 feet away and 180 high against a clouded sky. It was light grey and smaller than a Big Daddy.
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Definitely if you have a small recovery area. I've flown a Big Daddy on a H550, an H219, and an H283. The H550 got up there a little (3300+), but the others weren't too bad. Be sure its well put together.
A tracker is a great idea. A chute release or some type of dual deployment is also a good idea. A little rocket drifting under chute from 2-3k+ can go a long way. The chute will barely be visible at apogee.
gldknght
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It was meant to be a reference point. Here, we're talking about rockets easily 3x the size and brightly colored being lost forever when they go a similar distance away from the viewer.
gldknght
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This falls into the category of "whatever..."
Your experience with a drone doesn't change anything since we are comparing apples and oranges.
This is a small rocket by almost any definition. At 1700 to 2000 feet moving at speeds possibly as fast as a Nascar race car, it's fair to say that these rockets are MUCH harder to keep track of than any drone I've ever flown or heard about. Max speed on my drone is approximately 20 - 25 mph. Apples and oranges.
gldknght
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Also, I never said that a small rocket going to 2000 ft will be lost forever.
What I actually said was small rockets going this high are approaching the outside edge of visual range.
The Citation Patriot, with a 38mm motor, will almost certainly exceed that 2000 ft mark. 3000 to 4000 ft is not unrealistic.
By the way, my rocket, when viewed going straight up away from me, will have a MUCH smaller visual cross section than my small drone.
Oops sorry.
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gldknght
Well-Known Member
Maybe calm down a bit and stop being such a Karen. Enjoying your built but you seem a bit high strung. Maybe go pet a bunny or something to take the edge off?
gldknght
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Whatever...
If you don't like my attitude, feel free to...
gldknght
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I (finally) finished and installed a baffle. If the weather cooperates this rocket should get it's first flight this weekend.
You'll see in the photos, a dowel running through one of the vent holes in the baffle. This is just for the photo, to keep the baffle from sliding down into the body tube.
Also, here is my final 'everything weighed and measured and installed' Rocksim file. (It should be noted that my actual Cg is about 2 inches closer to the bottom of the rocket than Rocksim predicts. This is either due to the weight of the fins, because I forgot to weigh them, or due to the weight of the finishing materials. Even with the heaviest motor I plan to fly, this difference won't affect the stability of the rocket enough to worry about.)
You'll see in the photos, a dowel running through one of the vent holes in the baffle. This is just for the photo, to keep the baffle from sliding down into the body tube.
Also, here is my final 'everything weighed and measured and installed' Rocksim file. (It should be noted that my actual Cg is about 2 inches closer to the bottom of the rocket than Rocksim predicts. This is either due to the weight of the fins, because I forgot to weigh them, or due to the weight of the finishing materials. Even with the heaviest motor I plan to fly, this difference won't affect the stability of the rocket enough to worry about.)
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That's an interesting baffle.
gldknght
Well-Known Member
OMG! I am completely baffled why I called my piston a baffle.
But, I fixed it.
If I call it a baffle at our launch this weekend, they better take away all my flight cards...
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