Upon reading MAC's announcement post of their limited edition Rainmaker 54 I realized that I had a hole in my fleet and that the Rainmaker just happened to fill it perfectly. Thanks Mike, I am not sure what I would have done without this. 
For anyone not familiar with MAC performance component quality, this will be a treat. Mike @ MAC is a perfectionist for components, details and fitment, and this rocket exceeds that growing reputation.
This will be a fast build, or to qualify that better, this will be a fast build for me which likely means a month or even two.
When I came home yesterday this was waiting for me. Besides a bit of Ace Ventura damage to one corner, she arrived alive.
Now onto the proverbial un-boxing. I will post more details of each components as I work through them. Suffices to say the fit and finish is second to none, as you will see in the next pic.
I joke with Mike about being able to fly his kits without glue, due to the very tight tolerances, but you really need to hold these components in your hands to really appreciate this.
So here is a rough overview of what I am leaning towards for electronics, general build options, and theme.
Electronics: I am hoping the nosecone tracker sled I built for my 54mm Tomach will fit with minimal tweaking in this nosecone. If so this will host a TeleGPS as well as one of my tried and trusted Comspec AT-2B trackers for back-up. Altimeter wise I am leaning towards an Eggtimer Quark and an SL100, both of which I have spares in my altimeter stock. For switches I will use two of the new Featherweight Magnetic switches, which I also have in stock.
General AV Bay: Mike supplies an AV bay band, however I am undecided if I am going to use the band or not. For the AV bay lids I have some charge canisters in my stock that will work well for these lids so I will use those. I will likely remove the non-welded eye bolts and replace them with a Stainless Steel welded ones, for more piece of mind.
Retainer: I will have to check hardware inventory however I think I may a spare GLR slimline retainer and an Aeropack both of which would suite this well. The GLR has a longer tailpipe look to it and that may suite the overall look. I will confirm my stock and mock up the options, and post pics for opinions, but my preference is the GLR slimline hands down.
Fin attachment: No T2T for this one, not because it does not need it, as one could argue that none of my T2T reinforcements are required, however they serve a longer and bigger picture for my goals. In this case the Tailcone looks so good I see no need for the T2T practice which will just mess up the look and add weight were it's not needed. I typically use AeroPoxy ES6209 Structural adhesive for the fin root attachment however I may use some JB-Weld for the root then use the ES6209 to inject some minor internal fillets. External fillets I will use some Proline 4500.
Recovery: I have not done a final weigh in however I think a 30" FruityChute Iris Ultra may work well, with a 12" FruityChute Classic Elliptical for drogue. I have a 12" for the drogue but the smallest Iris Ultra I have is 36". I do have a 30" Classic Elliptical which may be an option once I run the numbers. However I like the Iris Ultra Compact because I can undersize the chute package and still get really good performance. For the recovery harness I think I might reach out to Teddy at One Bad Hawk and look at picking up two 3 loop 25' 3/16th braided tubular kevlar harnesses.
Rail attachment: I have had very good results using the fly-away rail guides and so I may just use them and not put any rail buttons on this one.
Theme: I like the name Rainmaker and it would be a shame to cover up all of the carbon fiber so I am leaning towards clearing or polishing the airframe and adding some details here and there. I recently picked up some Molotow Liquid Chrome after watching Adam Savage use it on a foam replica 1 day sword build, and I like the idea of painting one fin extending down to the fillet and flowing out onto the airframe, kind of like a raindrop. I may also add some detail here and there on the airframe as well as paint the nosecone with something, but I don't want to introduce anything that would depreciate the radio and GPS transmissions to an unreliable point.
At the end of the day, although this is a carbon fiber rocket, it has a 38mm MMT so it's not an extreme MD performer. It is more a 3-10,000', Mach 1.4ish profile which is perfect all of the club launches I typically attend. So tracking is not extreme nor would any of the build techniques require anything more than a moderate approach. I see this rocket being one of my favourite and easier to prep, recover, and maintain rockets which I look forward to flying many times.
For anyone not familiar with MAC performance component quality, this will be a treat. Mike @ MAC is a perfectionist for components, details and fitment, and this rocket exceeds that growing reputation.
This will be a fast build, or to qualify that better, this will be a fast build for me which likely means a month or even two.
When I came home yesterday this was waiting for me. Besides a bit of Ace Ventura damage to one corner, she arrived alive.
Now onto the proverbial un-boxing. I will post more details of each components as I work through them. Suffices to say the fit and finish is second to none, as you will see in the next pic.
I joke with Mike about being able to fly his kits without glue, due to the very tight tolerances, but you really need to hold these components in your hands to really appreciate this.
So here is a rough overview of what I am leaning towards for electronics, general build options, and theme.
Electronics: I am hoping the nosecone tracker sled I built for my 54mm Tomach will fit with minimal tweaking in this nosecone. If so this will host a TeleGPS as well as one of my tried and trusted Comspec AT-2B trackers for back-up. Altimeter wise I am leaning towards an Eggtimer Quark and an SL100, both of which I have spares in my altimeter stock. For switches I will use two of the new Featherweight Magnetic switches, which I also have in stock.
General AV Bay: Mike supplies an AV bay band, however I am undecided if I am going to use the band or not. For the AV bay lids I have some charge canisters in my stock that will work well for these lids so I will use those. I will likely remove the non-welded eye bolts and replace them with a Stainless Steel welded ones, for more piece of mind.
Retainer: I will have to check hardware inventory however I think I may a spare GLR slimline retainer and an Aeropack both of which would suite this well. The GLR has a longer tailpipe look to it and that may suite the overall look. I will confirm my stock and mock up the options, and post pics for opinions, but my preference is the GLR slimline hands down.
Fin attachment: No T2T for this one, not because it does not need it, as one could argue that none of my T2T reinforcements are required, however they serve a longer and bigger picture for my goals. In this case the Tailcone looks so good I see no need for the T2T practice which will just mess up the look and add weight were it's not needed. I typically use AeroPoxy ES6209 Structural adhesive for the fin root attachment however I may use some JB-Weld for the root then use the ES6209 to inject some minor internal fillets. External fillets I will use some Proline 4500.
Recovery: I have not done a final weigh in however I think a 30" FruityChute Iris Ultra may work well, with a 12" FruityChute Classic Elliptical for drogue. I have a 12" for the drogue but the smallest Iris Ultra I have is 36". I do have a 30" Classic Elliptical which may be an option once I run the numbers. However I like the Iris Ultra Compact because I can undersize the chute package and still get really good performance. For the recovery harness I think I might reach out to Teddy at One Bad Hawk and look at picking up two 3 loop 25' 3/16th braided tubular kevlar harnesses.
Rail attachment: I have had very good results using the fly-away rail guides and so I may just use them and not put any rail buttons on this one.
Theme: I like the name Rainmaker and it would be a shame to cover up all of the carbon fiber so I am leaning towards clearing or polishing the airframe and adding some details here and there. I recently picked up some Molotow Liquid Chrome after watching Adam Savage use it on a foam replica 1 day sword build, and I like the idea of painting one fin extending down to the fillet and flowing out onto the airframe, kind of like a raindrop. I may also add some detail here and there on the airframe as well as paint the nosecone with something, but I don't want to introduce anything that would depreciate the radio and GPS transmissions to an unreliable point.
At the end of the day, although this is a carbon fiber rocket, it has a 38mm MMT so it's not an extreme MD performer. It is more a 3-10,000', Mach 1.4ish profile which is perfect all of the club launches I typically attend. So tracking is not extreme nor would any of the build techniques require anything more than a moderate approach. I see this rocket being one of my favourite and easier to prep, recover, and maintain rockets which I look forward to flying many times.
