Sometime earlier this year, or late last year, in some thread I can no longer remember, I alluded to a a project of mine that was in the concept stage at the time. I had been fascinated with how far you can push the Estes Big Daddy rockets using the parts that come with the kit, and I ended up building one with a 54mm motor mount, fiberglassing the body tube and fins. So far I've yet to fly this rocket, it's been put on the backburner while I work on projects for LDRS, XPRS, and beyond.
So for LDRS, I decided to work on the version of the Big Daddy that's even more extreme than the version with the 54mm motor mount: minimum diameter Big Daddy.
So back in October I began flirting with the idea of shoving a CTI L910 into a Big Daddy shaped airframe. I went ahead and started modeling it in Fusion 360 to see just how possible this idea could be.
Based off this model, there should be just enough room to fit electronics and recovery into the nose cone. And yes, the motor casing is being used as the nose cone shoulder. This overall design ended up a few inches longer and a slight bit larger in diameter to the original kit. but on its own, looks just like the real deal.
A couple months later, I put an order into madcow for a nosecone and body tube. It was time this became a reality. After receiving my parts, I got to work cutting the body tube to just the right length to make sure the nosecone would be nice and snug on top the motor casing. The body tube ended up being 11.375" long, just 1.375" longer than the kit. And the nose cone is 9.75", just 0.75" longer than the kit. Overall the rocket is just 2.125" longer than the kit, pretty good for a horrendously oversized motor for it.
For a while I didn't touch this project to work on other rockets and get ready for the early flying season in the winter/early spring. It wasn't until early June that I actually cut the fins out of 1/8" G10. It was also around this time that I packed all my belongings and left the east coast, relocating myself to Arizona. A few weeks ago I got working on sanding down the fins to the correct size and finally getting them tacked on then applying some hefty fillets.
Around this time I decided that it would be cool to get it ready in time for LDRS and fly it there, and so a majority of my free time over the past month has been spent working on getting it flight ready. Some friends and I had concern about fin flutter at the speeds that Open Rocket and RasAero II were predicting, so I decided that carbon tip to tip would be a good idea. So after an afternoon at a friends house, helping him do a carbon layup on one of his own projects, the newly dubbed L Padre had a layer of carbon on the fins.
The av-bay has been a nightmare of a problem that's been looming over the build since the beginning. I'd have to come up with some creative solutions to get it to work out and save enough room for a parachute and shock cord. Originally the plan was to mount a Raven 4 near the tip of the nosecone, but that idea never panned out the way I wanted. So after some thinking, I realized I could fit an Easy Mini, a screw switch, and 1s LiPo battery around the forward closure of the motor case. Using a 29mm motor mount, a 54mm body tube section, a 75-54mm centering ring, and a 54-29mm centering ring, I came up with a short av-bay that fits neatly around the forward closure of a Pro75 motor case. I will be using a 3d printed shell to go around the av-bay to protect it at and after apogee ejection.
The whole assembly leaves about 2 to 3 inches of room in the tip of the nosecone to fit a shock cord and parachute. Just enough room for a short kevlar line, a 24" thin mill cute, and cable cutter.
Now that the av-bay was sorted out, all that was left to do was paint and get decals. Stickershock was commissioned for the custom decals, inspired by the retro style of Big Daddy. So I got some primer, gloss black paint, and gloss clear coat and got to work. Earlier today was the end result and I couldn't be happier with how well this turned out. Easily the nicest looking rocket I've put together so far, it's so unfortunate that Mach 2.4 will not be kind to this finish.
Oh and I built a new launch tower that will also be debuting at LDRS next weekend.
I'll be aiming for a Saturday or Sunday launch of L Padre, so keep an eye out for it if you make it out to LDRS!
So for LDRS, I decided to work on the version of the Big Daddy that's even more extreme than the version with the 54mm motor mount: minimum diameter Big Daddy.
So back in October I began flirting with the idea of shoving a CTI L910 into a Big Daddy shaped airframe. I went ahead and started modeling it in Fusion 360 to see just how possible this idea could be.
Based off this model, there should be just enough room to fit electronics and recovery into the nose cone. And yes, the motor casing is being used as the nose cone shoulder. This overall design ended up a few inches longer and a slight bit larger in diameter to the original kit. but on its own, looks just like the real deal.
A couple months later, I put an order into madcow for a nosecone and body tube. It was time this became a reality. After receiving my parts, I got to work cutting the body tube to just the right length to make sure the nosecone would be nice and snug on top the motor casing. The body tube ended up being 11.375" long, just 1.375" longer than the kit. And the nose cone is 9.75", just 0.75" longer than the kit. Overall the rocket is just 2.125" longer than the kit, pretty good for a horrendously oversized motor for it.
For a while I didn't touch this project to work on other rockets and get ready for the early flying season in the winter/early spring. It wasn't until early June that I actually cut the fins out of 1/8" G10. It was also around this time that I packed all my belongings and left the east coast, relocating myself to Arizona. A few weeks ago I got working on sanding down the fins to the correct size and finally getting them tacked on then applying some hefty fillets.
Around this time I decided that it would be cool to get it ready in time for LDRS and fly it there, and so a majority of my free time over the past month has been spent working on getting it flight ready. Some friends and I had concern about fin flutter at the speeds that Open Rocket and RasAero II were predicting, so I decided that carbon tip to tip would be a good idea. So after an afternoon at a friends house, helping him do a carbon layup on one of his own projects, the newly dubbed L Padre had a layer of carbon on the fins.
The av-bay has been a nightmare of a problem that's been looming over the build since the beginning. I'd have to come up with some creative solutions to get it to work out and save enough room for a parachute and shock cord. Originally the plan was to mount a Raven 4 near the tip of the nosecone, but that idea never panned out the way I wanted. So after some thinking, I realized I could fit an Easy Mini, a screw switch, and 1s LiPo battery around the forward closure of the motor case. Using a 29mm motor mount, a 54mm body tube section, a 75-54mm centering ring, and a 54-29mm centering ring, I came up with a short av-bay that fits neatly around the forward closure of a Pro75 motor case. I will be using a 3d printed shell to go around the av-bay to protect it at and after apogee ejection.
The whole assembly leaves about 2 to 3 inches of room in the tip of the nosecone to fit a shock cord and parachute. Just enough room for a short kevlar line, a 24" thin mill cute, and cable cutter.
Now that the av-bay was sorted out, all that was left to do was paint and get decals. Stickershock was commissioned for the custom decals, inspired by the retro style of Big Daddy. So I got some primer, gloss black paint, and gloss clear coat and got to work. Earlier today was the end result and I couldn't be happier with how well this turned out. Easily the nicest looking rocket I've put together so far, it's so unfortunate that Mach 2.4 will not be kind to this finish.
Oh and I built a new launch tower that will also be debuting at LDRS next weekend.
I'll be aiming for a Saturday or Sunday launch of L Padre, so keep an eye out for it if you make it out to LDRS!
