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Hey Ben,
Funny you should post something this week. I'm starting to prep the Mars Lander for a flight August 23rd, about a week from now. Haven't been able to fly at all this season, just like you. But, I really want to get the big 3X back in the air so if everything works out, I'll be launching near Brothers Oregon in a week or so. Not much to do to get ready. ML is good to go.
Have you heard any other purchasers? Are other ML3Xs flying yet? Any good stories?
David
David, so glad I checked back before the 23rd! I was out of town for 4 days and just missed your post. Best of luck on the flight. What are your plans for the launch? What motor? Same recovery set-up?
I think I mentioned I am flying on an estimated L1000 Smokey Sam with a 3 second burn. I have to say I am a bit concerned with the liftoff force going from the K650 up to a 1000. I hope the legs stay on! I am thinking pretty seriously about using a Rattworks ARRD unit to release the main at landing so that it won't get pulled over in the wind. I think I will try it in September. Not too much risk with that.
But what I really want to do is dual deploy with a Tether Descender on the drogue. Setting up the charges is the tough part of that. I think I would need to set a charge forward of the main chute to pop the nose off and pull out the drogue - how do I do that? Can I set a charge inside the nosecone? The tether would then release the drogue at the chosen altitude which would pull out the deployment bag and main. Then another charge at landing on the ARRD unit. I only have the Raven 3 and it could do it, but I don't see an opportunity for redundancy with the Tether? If the Tether charge does not fire, there is no way for a back-up option - so that seems risky.
I have sold several kits over the winter, but have not heard from anyone on completed builds. Nearly everyone has stated that they are using your build thread as a guide - which is really cool. I only have 3 kits left from this first (but hopefully not last) run.
Are you taking video? You need to get some GoPro's set up, and you need a guy with a quadcopter to fly in during liftoff. There is a guy in our club who has done this at several of our launches and the video is really cool. Maybe you've got folks out there doing that too.
[video=youtube;Wy-dGLOgyuM]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wy-dGLOgyuM&list=UUpvkOGOMwWOSMgd60sKHWKQ[/video]
Anyway - good luck - let me know how it goes,
Ben