I've not commented on these up to this point but I'm going to offer some advice. This is coming from a fellow college student on a rocketry design team.
One of your biggest issues is your attitude. You need to act more professional and courteous to those giving you their knowledge. Looking in without knowing anything about you or your team, you come across as childish and ignorant. It is okay to now know things, but being dismissive when receiving information is part of the reason people are not wanting to help you. I agree with those saying that this is just an accident waiting to happen. The team I am on gets regular support from multiple L3 certified people, I am L2 and so is one other member. I understand the push from the professors, but you are not free of blame. One thing that should have been done long ago was for your team to take some time (more than 1 hour, ideally ~12hrs each) to research the requirements that gave and read about rocketry and then compile this into a report of some sort that you can present. In this report would be a REALISTIC timeline that has contingencies for launches cancelled due to weather and for delays in shipping and building. This would have shown them some real work on your part and that this project wasn't feasible to begin with. Included in your research should have been looking at the other colleges that do similar things and lay out how they do it. A lot of us have our own websites to advertise the team for sponsors. I understand that this is a capstone project and not a design team, but you would have seen that design teams, that have many more members, take the same time or longer. You only have 5(?) people total which means you would each have to put in a much larger amount of time per week. The committee is not going to take you seriously if you just go to them and say "we can't do it" without any explanation. If you went to them with a proper report with timelines and the requirements for each person in terms of hours you might have had a much different results. The reality is that the professors on the committee is also to blame, but your attitude and lack of professionalism is also to blame for the lack of people wanting to help. Take your time to write out your posts and act like a professional who is working on a project and less like a child being forced to do something that they don't want to.
If you can clean up your act, I'd be willing to help. I have been out to many rocket launches and have helped launch my design teams rocket to ~30k ft. There are many people that are able to help. You still need someone local to look over your work and for launches, but there is a wealth of information that is available to those who can be respectful of those who have the information.
One thing you really need to look up is how the motor works. SU motors are nice and easy for certs but they don't teach you how the motors work themselves. This is why I am present when my teams builds their motors. it saves our L3 mentor from needing to be there and I can teach them the proper ways to assemble the reloads. These motors are not small by any means and contain enough energy to seriously hurt or kill your entire team and they need to be respected.
I do agree with what you have said. Thank you for the information and ou must have not read my replies in the beginning when I was not dismissive. I have been very grateful and thankful for the information I have received here. Below are all my posts stating so. I have not been dismissive or childish about it. We don’t have a mentor.. its that plain and simple. There is no other way to answer that question. I have mentioned many times in this thread why we don’t have one, and its due to previous years of universities trying to do this in 5 or 6 months and the local fields don’t want to risk it. This is why we were able to do our basic L1 and L2, but anything above that, they scrambled when we have asked for help.
your last paragraph is exactly why i asked the Original question in the first palce haha. I have only used 2 motors, the h550 and the j270..
Again I will remind you I just got my L2. We have had a total of 2 flights, so yes, I am ignorant to this stuff, as I have admitted many times.
I put many hours into the time it would take tot do this, in fact, many forum users told me it would be dangerous and irresponsible and I followed their advice to try and talk the committee into a different but related project. The first project report which was due 2 weeks (October) into class I specifically told the committee the expected timeline. Post 78 on this thread mentions this. The committee originally wanted a L3 rocket in 4 months and then an active drag system in 2 months. Our state gets roughly 3 or 4 launches a year due to weather, this was brought up to their attention many many times. It was not until Mid January when the committee realized it was not going to work for our team to do all of this. I received an email yesterday from the committee still wanting us to pursue the launch this week with what we have… they don’t get it and wont get it. I have told them I will not launch and if they want to fail me then do so, but I will not launch like I said in post 64.
thank you for reading this post and understanding whats going on. Its been super tough to deal with a committee who does not really care about standards
“ok, based off of the recommendations, i have narrowed it down to 4 motors. From here, i am good. thanks for the help.”
ok, moving on to post #15
“thats cool. thanks for that information. I did not know that”
post #22
“all the stuff i have learned about HPR has been from these forums and posters such as yourself. Its been very very very helpful.”
post #23
“i agree, but none wanted too. as soon as they find out its for a university, they scramble., everything i have learned about HPR has been from here. So far, i think we have done pretty good for the amount of time we have had. Nothing about grain bonding was ever covered in our written L2 exam, so i wouldnt call it basic or common knowledge, hence the reason for a mentor, but since that is slim to none, i asked on here hoping to get the correct guidence, and i did, which was great”
post #29 again, I was grateful for the help.
“i now know what grain bonding is, and will be contacting the motor supplier for instructions for our motor if needs be. Thanks.
This thread can be closed or locked if needs be i have learned lots and lots from you guys and grateful for it.”
then I took a small brak with some comments here and there between post 29 and 56 where I state:
“Thank you for the help and that great check list. We have many sims of our rocket with correct weights and measurements. I really do appreciate your help with this. We have ONE level 2 flight for each of us and thats it. We are NEW L2's. This is not a L3 flight”
post 58 someone mentiosn that we are new L2’s and most likely would not know about grain bonding.
“It is important for everyone to remember, he has only flown one rocket twice. Once on a H550 cert one , then J270 in the same rocket for cert two. The L2200 will be his 3rd flight, ever.”
