Texas Rocketman
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- Jun 18, 2012
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I just completed a rebuild of a GLR Liberty 2. I purchased to rocket from the late Glen Taft's rocket estate sale. Unfortunately, on the first flight, the shock cord got jammed up inside the body tube and the rocket did the lawn dart thing. Luckily, the body tube cracked open just above the top motor mount centering ring so everything from the top motor mount centering ring on down was not damaged. I had to dig the nose cone out of the dirt with my rocket retrieval tool and to my surprise, the nose cone was not damaged either. So I decided to repair/rebuild the rocket.
I first examined more closely why the shock cord jammed up and determined that the cord being used was too big. So I cut the shock cord out and tossed it. I then ordered some new Magna frame tubing and a tubing coupler from GLR, cut a new body tube section for the rocket and installed the new body tube onto the rocket along with a custom built ejection baffle. Next I did some measuring and decided to make the rocket a single deploy/dual deploy rocket. I then made a cut into the new body tube abd added a LOC AV bay at it's midsection. I then sanded down what was left of the original rocket to remove the old light blue paint and primer as the paint job was not very good and the fin fillets needed to be redone as well. I then rebuilt the fin fillets, knife edged the original fiberglass G-10 fins and laminated the rocket tip to tip with 1 wrap of 3/4 oz. fiberglass cloth. The Magna frame tubing is pretty tough as is so I didn't go overboard with laminating the rocket. Next, I installed new Kevlar 3/i8 inch shock cords, new stainless steel eye bolts, stainless steel quick links, a new 12" Top Flite orange thin mill nylon drogue chute, and Acme rail guides. I then primed and painted the rocket gloss white. Tomorrow, soon as the paint is completed dried, I will add a custom U.S. Flying flag decal w/ an Eagle head in addition to a newly designed "Liberty 2" custom made decal.
The rocket is built to fly primarily on all H and I 29mm Aerotech motors but it can be flown on 29mm F and G engines as well. A Perfect Flite Stratologger altimeter, 9V battery and a Featherwieght magnetic altimeter power switch ride in the AV Bay. A BRB900 GPS tracking transmitter and antenna rides inside the modified nose cone.
All in all, I the rebuild went pretty well. The rocket turned out great. Can't wait to fly it. Here's a pic of the rocket w/o the decals.
I first examined more closely why the shock cord jammed up and determined that the cord being used was too big. So I cut the shock cord out and tossed it. I then ordered some new Magna frame tubing and a tubing coupler from GLR, cut a new body tube section for the rocket and installed the new body tube onto the rocket along with a custom built ejection baffle. Next I did some measuring and decided to make the rocket a single deploy/dual deploy rocket. I then made a cut into the new body tube abd added a LOC AV bay at it's midsection. I then sanded down what was left of the original rocket to remove the old light blue paint and primer as the paint job was not very good and the fin fillets needed to be redone as well. I then rebuilt the fin fillets, knife edged the original fiberglass G-10 fins and laminated the rocket tip to tip with 1 wrap of 3/4 oz. fiberglass cloth. The Magna frame tubing is pretty tough as is so I didn't go overboard with laminating the rocket. Next, I installed new Kevlar 3/i8 inch shock cords, new stainless steel eye bolts, stainless steel quick links, a new 12" Top Flite orange thin mill nylon drogue chute, and Acme rail guides. I then primed and painted the rocket gloss white. Tomorrow, soon as the paint is completed dried, I will add a custom U.S. Flying flag decal w/ an Eagle head in addition to a newly designed "Liberty 2" custom made decal.
The rocket is built to fly primarily on all H and I 29mm Aerotech motors but it can be flown on 29mm F and G engines as well. A Perfect Flite Stratologger altimeter, 9V battery and a Featherwieght magnetic altimeter power switch ride in the AV Bay. A BRB900 GPS tracking transmitter and antenna rides inside the modified nose cone.
All in all, I the rebuild went pretty well. The rocket turned out great. Can't wait to fly it. Here's a pic of the rocket w/o the decals.
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