Chokedflow
New Member
- Joined
- Oct 11, 2023
- Messages
- 2
- Reaction score
- 11
Hello,
Figured I'd join this forum & make an intro. I've been building and flying rockets since I was a kid, starting off with my brother and I cobbling together from wrapping paper tubes and cardboard from our Christmas presents and launching in our back yard. Always preferred the process of scratch-building. In college I took some engineering courses on composites & joined a club to compete in the ESRA launch of a 10lb payload to 10k feet. We (UCLA) won the competition in Green River Utah with a carbon-fiber/fiberglass composite rocket (2008).
A few years ago I decided to get back into the hobby now that I have a garage & some cool machines (Lathe, mill, 3-D printer). Recently I got my L3 cert at Balls with a scratch-built rocket using a few techniques that I haven't seen a lot of use, it was all hand-rolled carbon tubes with honeycomb sandwitch including fins, & a DIY fiberglass nosecone using 3D printed inside & exterior molds. I'll post a writeup at some point. The Rocket successfully certified on an N1800 and I then flew on N5800 the next day, to an altitude of 28k feet at a speed of Mach 2.3.
Next interests are 2-stage, and experimental motors. I'm also going to try to build a rocket with no sanding (other than surface prep), I'm sick of dealing with dust from composites.
Luckily I'm not too far from FAR. Also have a left-over O motor that I didn't get to fly at BALLS that I'll be lighting off in November.
On-board video from cert flight: onboard video
Video of flight (N5800) credit Rocket Vlogs: flight video,
photo jim wilkerson
Figured I'd join this forum & make an intro. I've been building and flying rockets since I was a kid, starting off with my brother and I cobbling together from wrapping paper tubes and cardboard from our Christmas presents and launching in our back yard. Always preferred the process of scratch-building. In college I took some engineering courses on composites & joined a club to compete in the ESRA launch of a 10lb payload to 10k feet. We (UCLA) won the competition in Green River Utah with a carbon-fiber/fiberglass composite rocket (2008).
A few years ago I decided to get back into the hobby now that I have a garage & some cool machines (Lathe, mill, 3-D printer). Recently I got my L3 cert at Balls with a scratch-built rocket using a few techniques that I haven't seen a lot of use, it was all hand-rolled carbon tubes with honeycomb sandwitch including fins, & a DIY fiberglass nosecone using 3D printed inside & exterior molds. I'll post a writeup at some point. The Rocket successfully certified on an N1800 and I then flew on N5800 the next day, to an altitude of 28k feet at a speed of Mach 2.3.
Next interests are 2-stage, and experimental motors. I'm also going to try to build a rocket with no sanding (other than surface prep), I'm sick of dealing with dust from composites.
Luckily I'm not too far from FAR. Also have a left-over O motor that I didn't get to fly at BALLS that I'll be lighting off in November.
On-board video from cert flight: onboard video
Video of flight (N5800) credit Rocket Vlogs: flight video,
photo jim wilkerson
I need a thread on the build NOW!
