L3 Certification Advice

[FredA]

For self-assembled electronics, there is a small but not unreasonable chance that you'd have a weak solder joint that came loose under boost accelerations or deployment shocks

For self-assembled stuff, sure -- I'm talking about commercial units from known quality vendors.

Flying the altimeter on some rocket is a good way to check that before a high-stakes flight.

Aren't ALL flights the same "stakes?" Flying a rocket over people...... Extra spectators are not a significant adder.

 

[boatgeek]

For self-assembled stuff, sure -- I'm talking about commercial units from known quality vendors.



Aren't ALL flights the same "stakes?" Flying a rocket over people...... Extra spectators are not a significant adder.

Tfish's comment that you called BS on referred specifically to "newly built" altimeters. That seemed pretty clear to me to indicate self-assembly, but maybe it read differently to you.

Technically speaking, the rockets in flight shouldn't ever be over the crowd, but I take your point that the reality isn't always perfect. I was thinking more of a failure scenario where the drogue deploys but the main doesn't (eg brownout while firing the drogue charge). That would probably be a failed cert and another $750 or so to spend on a motor plus whatever repairs may be needed plus delaying the certification until the next launch that can take an M. Also, I can't imagine a club having a rule that no L3 flight could have new or newly assembled altimeters on board, so that risk would exist even outside a cert flight. I suppose they could require new altimeters fly with a flight-proven one as redundancy, but that seems excessive outside of Class 3 reviews.

 

[jd2cylman]

Guess I should do my L3 over again, then?

Well, that's up to you... Any excuse to fly another motor, right?
OK, well, Maybe I should amend it to "use a recovery method you're comfortable with"???

 

[mrwalsh85]

Well, that's up to you... Any excuse to fly another motor, right?
OK, well, Maybe I should amend it to "use a recovery method you're comfortable with"???

LOL

I like your amendment... I think the amendment allows for research and hands-on practice of packing a bag before a flight. I know that I packed, "deployed", rinse and repeat probably 20-30 times before I felt comfortable heading to the field. It also helped that I had a good mentor in Tom Cohen who has some pretty good experience, having packed 60ft parachutes for his massive rockets.

 

[Pal1ndr0m3]

I got into contact with wildman rocketry. Tim offered me a very generous package, so I’m buying almost everything (except the electronics) from him.

I decided to just purchase to 51/5120 casing as it is on a nice discount.

I’m going with the Extreme Wildman for the rocket and dual deploy with a drogue.

Thanks everyone for your advice and feedback.

Exactly the configuration I flew for my L3 certification in August of 2019 ATI M1297 in Extreme Wildman, dual deploy configuration. It's a rugged beast when built according to the instructions. Flies well, very stable.