Skylinkdave
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Mar 3, 2013
- Messages
- 47
- Reaction score
- 0
I'm starting this thread to document my Level 3 project. I'm planning to build a Talon-6 from scratch, and fly her on an M1350WW at next year's Mile-High Mayhem here in Colorado. I haven't actually started construction yet, but I have most of the materials to get started. In the meantime, I'd like to share with everyone a bit of the history of my love affair with the Talon.
I first heard about the Talon-3 when it was announced on Rocketry Online years ago, and I said "I gotta have one of those!" I bought a kit from ScotGlas in 2000, back when Chris was the only vendor who carried it. When I built it, I wrapped the tubes with fiberglass cloth and set it up for dual deployment.
Her first flight was on August 26, 2000 at the Tripoli-Colorado launch at Hartsel on an I284. This was only my second or third dual-deployment flight, and it was perfect. The next time I flew her was at Tripoli Rocky Mountains (before the PHITS merger) on a J350. I lost her on this flight due to a failure of the electronics. After recovering what I could of the rocket, I discovered that the deployment charges had not fired, which indicated that the power to the altimeter had reset during flight. I'm convinced that this failure was due entirely to user error, as are 99% of all electronics failures.
It was a heartbreaking loss, but after only two flights, I was in love with the Talon.
Of course, I needed to build a replacement, but by this time Chris was not kitting the T3 anymore. I think this was during the time when the Talon was being transitioned from ScotGlas to Giant Leap. So my only option at this time was to scratch build the replacement. I bought the nosecone and tailcone from ScotGlas, and the fins from PML. I built it a bit stronger this time, and used a different electronics bay.
After an extended period of mourning, I set a deadline of flying her at NSL in Utah in May of 2001. I put it off for a while, and ended up waiting until the last couple of weeks before the launch to finish her.
Her first flight at NSL was on a Kosdon J450 (back when Kosdons were still legal to fly). This was a scary-fast flight, and it wasn't until afterwards that I realized I had used the wrong nozzle for the J load. I had come very close to over-pressurizing the motor.
I discovered just how strongly I had built her the second time around when I flew her on December 1, 2001. I used a Pro-38 I360, which I think was the 5-grain load. The motor failed shortly into the flight, which resulted in the booster section separating from the rest of the rocket and free-falling from about 1,000 ft. The only damage she received was a cracked fillet on the outside. The rest of the rocket floated down on the main parachute.
Since then, she's flown on a huge variety of motors, including several Kosdon loads, a few homebuilt loads, and even a J570. The J570 flight was at LDRS in Texas in 2002, and is still her highest flight, at over 6,300 ft. She just had her fifteenth successful flight at a local launch in September.
Photographs of this rocket have been published in a couple of rocket magazines. There's a pic of me standing next to it in the SpRocketry issue with the NSL 2001 article, and there's a pic of it flying on a J350 in the issue of Extreme Rocketry with the SpringFest 2002 article. Someone with a better memory than mine could probably figure out which issues these are.
Somewhere along the way I built a down-scale of the Talon, because I wanted to be able to fly a Talon at our local non-waivered launches (this was before Giant Leap released the Talon-2 kit). I built it with BT-55 tubing and it flies on 18mm motors. I call this one the "Talon 1.3" and it flies surprisingly well on a C6-5.
For a number of years now, I've been kicking around the idea of doing a Level 3. I have been undecided about which vehicle to build, and had considered a 6-inch IQSY Tomahawk before settling on the Talon-6. I hope to start construction this weekend, and I will post photos of my progress here as I go. I'll also post a few photos of my T3 flights.
Dave1
I first heard about the Talon-3 when it was announced on Rocketry Online years ago, and I said "I gotta have one of those!" I bought a kit from ScotGlas in 2000, back when Chris was the only vendor who carried it. When I built it, I wrapped the tubes with fiberglass cloth and set it up for dual deployment.
Her first flight was on August 26, 2000 at the Tripoli-Colorado launch at Hartsel on an I284. This was only my second or third dual-deployment flight, and it was perfect. The next time I flew her was at Tripoli Rocky Mountains (before the PHITS merger) on a J350. I lost her on this flight due to a failure of the electronics. After recovering what I could of the rocket, I discovered that the deployment charges had not fired, which indicated that the power to the altimeter had reset during flight. I'm convinced that this failure was due entirely to user error, as are 99% of all electronics failures.
It was a heartbreaking loss, but after only two flights, I was in love with the Talon.
Of course, I needed to build a replacement, but by this time Chris was not kitting the T3 anymore. I think this was during the time when the Talon was being transitioned from ScotGlas to Giant Leap. So my only option at this time was to scratch build the replacement. I bought the nosecone and tailcone from ScotGlas, and the fins from PML. I built it a bit stronger this time, and used a different electronics bay.
After an extended period of mourning, I set a deadline of flying her at NSL in Utah in May of 2001. I put it off for a while, and ended up waiting until the last couple of weeks before the launch to finish her.
Her first flight at NSL was on a Kosdon J450 (back when Kosdons were still legal to fly). This was a scary-fast flight, and it wasn't until afterwards that I realized I had used the wrong nozzle for the J load. I had come very close to over-pressurizing the motor.
I discovered just how strongly I had built her the second time around when I flew her on December 1, 2001. I used a Pro-38 I360, which I think was the 5-grain load. The motor failed shortly into the flight, which resulted in the booster section separating from the rest of the rocket and free-falling from about 1,000 ft. The only damage she received was a cracked fillet on the outside. The rest of the rocket floated down on the main parachute.
Since then, she's flown on a huge variety of motors, including several Kosdon loads, a few homebuilt loads, and even a J570. The J570 flight was at LDRS in Texas in 2002, and is still her highest flight, at over 6,300 ft. She just had her fifteenth successful flight at a local launch in September.
Photographs of this rocket have been published in a couple of rocket magazines. There's a pic of me standing next to it in the SpRocketry issue with the NSL 2001 article, and there's a pic of it flying on a J350 in the issue of Extreme Rocketry with the SpringFest 2002 article. Someone with a better memory than mine could probably figure out which issues these are.
Somewhere along the way I built a down-scale of the Talon, because I wanted to be able to fly a Talon at our local non-waivered launches (this was before Giant Leap released the Talon-2 kit). I built it with BT-55 tubing and it flies on 18mm motors. I call this one the "Talon 1.3" and it flies surprisingly well on a C6-5.
For a number of years now, I've been kicking around the idea of doing a Level 3. I have been undecided about which vehicle to build, and had considered a 6-inch IQSY Tomahawk before settling on the Talon-6. I hope to start construction this weekend, and I will post photos of my progress here as I go. I'll also post a few photos of my T3 flights.
Dave1
