First HPR rocket

[BlueNinja]

If any of you have advice, that would be great.

After longing for the Tethys and realizing it would be impractical for several reasons, i have decided to scratchbuild my own HP rocket. Parts will be coming in gradually, so this may be a slow build.

Goals:

at least 4 feet tall
capable on flying on anything from a G to a 54mm motor
To be able to break down easy for transport
Must be capable of dual deployment, but not necessary.

Advice?

 

[jetra2]

Looking at your goals...

I would say make it a modular rocket, where you can add and subtract parts as necessary. Build it with a single section of tubing, then add your 54mm mount. Make this your rocket for G motors. Then build another chunk of rocket and use that to add height and weight, along with dual deploy.

HTH,
Jason

 

[BlueNinja]

That sounds great, i will keep a note of that. I may order a PML KwikSwitch for the motor mount, they aren't that expensive. Anyone else got suggestions?

 

[Neil]

Make a Shadow and Flame, but with G10 fins, LOC body tubes and nose cone, and much lighter weight components! I dont reccomend you copy the design exactly (no way on earth this thing can fly on a G... ), but something similar with LOC or Giant Leap parts...

Or maybe a 3" mailing tube, with a 3" payload bay for bigger motors and dual deploy...

4" rockets are bigger than they look in the sims... Just take a look at this pic of the S&F... Very big.

Maybe a 4" fincan with a transition down to a 3" tube... Have you ruled out a kit? The LOC Exepiter looks pretty cool... Proabably cheaper than scratch building...

Where are you going to get your chute?

 

[Neil]

heres the pic

 

[BlueNinja]

Yea, i don't really want to do a kit for this as I want to learn more about scratchbuilding...

 

[Donaldsrockets]

Jeees Neil, that rocket is as big if not bigger than you.

 

[DynaSoar]

Originally posted by Blue_Ninja_150
Yea, i don't really want to do a kit for this as I want to learn more about scratchbuilding...

Then think it out: engineer it. As has been said elsewhere, we tend to overbuild our rockets. I think that's because we learn what others have done to get the job done, and try to do the same if not more, rather than improve on it. Look at AT kits -- they're clearly engineered.

Frinstance: glassed fillets. Why? Are they better? How much better? Do you need that much better, and at what cost? Things like "I did and it worked" and "I didn't and they broke" don't tell you much about the why. Try testing: glue two identical chunks of fin material to a 2x4, one of them glassed, and see how much weigfht you can hang on them before they break off.