Level 3 kit bash

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David Schwantz

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Got the new kit Thursday, statred life as a Mad Cow Frenzy Massive. Will have to wait to see what it will end up as. 98mmt, will fly first with a 75mmt and AT 1350M, simmed to about 6200'. Eggtimer Quark and Quantum for alt's. Wide angle camera in the AV bay looking out horizontial. Rotary and pull pin switches along with the Quantums wifi switch. Swapped out hdw to SS 5/16". Added thrust plate, that thing is pretty sweet. Built fincan with fin troughs made from 1/8" 5 ply aircraft grade, tacked in place then glued with a layer of carbon fiber covered by 6 oz glass layed on the bias. CRs glued with hysol 9462. Added 2 extra CR, one for each fin end and another for the thrust plate along with 1/4 ply CR for the blind nuts to sink into. NC bulkhead is removable, CR made from 1/4 ply and G10 is glued and pinned into NC shoulder. NC bulkhead is then attached with 8 SS 8-32 socket head screws. Mad Cow fins come beveled only on LE, had to add matching bevels on all surfaces.
 

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More.
 

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Camera and switch mounts. Reovery attachment. Lower rail button mount, using 15 size airfoiled buttons. Recovery harness, 5/8" tubular kevlar, 1100 lb swivel sewn into harness. Both ends have third loop for drouge and chute attachment. Fins finished, all beveled, sanded, cross hatched, and drilled.
 

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Got to work on Av bay.
 

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Impressive work. Did you design the camera mount yourself or is it Lab Rat ? ( I'm guessing the orange looks like LR, but can't see it on the website)

Good luck with the cert.
 
Cool. A colleague at work hunts with the 444 Marlin and brings me his spent brass to use for charge wells. I come across empty "Ma Duece" brass quite regularly, cut the neck off and they work well too, although a bit on the large size.
 
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A word of warning, do NOT use brass shell casing for charge wells. Flew my 3" Black Hole at last launch, she came down with a few chunks gone. Did not really know what did it. I know that they can bang together under drouge, but this had gouges missing. Well today when I was prepping for another flight I found that my 45-70 shell casing were mushroomed. This is what did the damage to the body. Removed them from the 3" and from the new one I am building. So made new ones from aluminum bar stock, chamfered on the inside as to not cut into wiring. Each will hold 2.6 grams of BP. More than enough, ground tests were at 2.0 for the booster and 1.8 for the payload sections.
 

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Just use spent estes casings... they are light and non conductive and easily replacable. put a screw thru the nozzle hole. Cut to length.
 
Finished Av Bay and the NC mounting plate for the tracker and Nose weight.
 

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Congratulations!
I missed it on Saturday. I did get to see your flying silo though. Pretty cool, especially with the half gainer roll :) Got a decent video of it, if you are interested, I can send it to you.
 
That's weird that the casings would mushroom. I plan on using nickle-plated 45 when I get to that point. Short, fat casings that are pretty sturdy overall. Did you get these from someone who reloads? They may have been many times fired and reloaded which seriously thins the wall at the top of the case. The brass does need to be sort of soft so it can expand in the chamber to release the bullet, but it shouldn't be that soft that a black powder charge and almost no pressure (compared to the 10-20 thousand psi of a gun barrel) would deform it. Might ask your friend. 45ACP is my choice partly because of the changes from reloading. The chamber pressure on the firearm is at the low end of the spectrum and those cases can be reloaded countless times. Super strong. High-powered rifles are the worst in that regard, I find.
Cutting down a necked-down round (30'06, .223, .308, etc) would work well also, I think. But I would avoid straight shells from rifles if this is a problem, and be wary of reloader brass. Ask them for the good stuff that's only been fired once. They won't mind parting with one or two shells. This is all theory from my experience reloading.

I'm not a fan of beveling the tip chord. Can't get behind that movement. To me it's either taper the fin or leave it alone, but that's just my thoughts. I don't see a problem with it, I just don't prefer it.

Nice looking rocket! If you ever get called to haul cattle feeders from Missouri, let me know. I might be the one loading your truck and we can shoot the **** for a minute.
 
Nope, those were my rounds that I fired. Fired once, I only reload .44's. And it was not the BP charge that mushroomed the ends. It was the banging into the rocket body that did it, and at the same time took the chunks out of the airframe. I still would suggest not using shell casings, length would not matter if they are slammed into the body tube.
 
Will do. Am in MO all the time. St. Louis and Hannibal yesterday. got home last night.
My old stompin' grounds. Love St. Louis. I like the woods better, but if I had to live in a city, it would be there, Chicago, or possibly Austin, TX. Probably Austin since I vowed never to live in Illinois again, haha.
Congrats on the L3 flight.
 
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