Pml Kits

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Bowhunter

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I Built a PML AMRAAM4 and The Quality of there kits are wonderfull. The G-10 fiberglass fins is such a plus with these kits. I would highly recommend PML
 
The King of my Fleet is a PML Explorer. The bloody thing is a Tank!

Pretty heavy, but a G54W is a perfect match for it.

Need to save money and buy more PML kits. It seems to be cheeper to buy their kits vs. buying the parts seperatly and kitting a scratch design.

Any comments?
 
I *love* my AMRAAM2. It works great as a 'show and tell' rocket, for teaching clases about how rockets work. Last tue I had such a class @ my CAP squadron, and i just passed the rocket around the room and stuff b/c i wasn't woried about any1 breaking off wood fins or anything! It sure brought some nice complements 2, but thats another matter :D
 
While you can often find them cheaper through other vendors, one of the most customer friendly HPR manufacturers is PML. And their kits speak for themselves.

My Phobos always gives me a great flight!
 
The PML Phobos is the King of my fleet flys good on G motors but flys even better on H motors. Gets up to about 3000 on an H180 or an H210.
 
I agree about the quality of PML kits. My X-Calibur has only had four flights, but every one was great. It has survived a lot, including landing over the back of a cow. It's great on a G64W and really scoots on an H128W.
Reed
 
Love my PML Explorer! I did my Level 1 cert with it and just this past weekend loaded a H123 in it. THAT was a fabulous flight...a real screamer. And despite the chute getting tangled and not fully deployed and a reasonably hard landing right next to the road, the only damage was a bit of road rash on the nose cone and one fin. A great flier and can survive non-optimal recoveries.

I plan on adding the 1/4 scale Patriot to my fleet. Another club member has one and love the flights he gets.
 
I'm finishing up my first PML kit right now, a Mini-BBX. The quality is very impressive, and I'll be building more in the future. Gotta get that Terrier booster to go with it...:D

My only concern is the piston recovery - won't that nylon strap eventually burn through? Will placing some dog barf in the motor tube solve that problem?
 
Count me in as a BIG fan of PML. I have 5 of them. The only one on my want list is Quantum Leap. My only complaint is that in the past 1-2years they have not offered any new models.

I asked them about it and was told most likely next year.

IRV
 
Originally posted by Chilly
I'm finishing up my first PML kit right now, a Mini-BBX. The quality is very impressive, and I'll be building more in the future. Gotta get that Terrier booster to go with it...:D

My only concern is the piston recovery - won't that nylon strap eventually burn through? Will placing some dog barf in the motor tube solve that problem?

Yes, it probably will eventually burn through. There are several club members with 20+ flights on theirs with no problems, but I like to replace the bottom (under the piston) cord with Giant Leap 1/2" tubular kevlar. I have yet to see the stuff break, and I've seen it take some pretty harsh stuff. It is also flameproof (the main reason for using it there). As for dog barf in the MMT, I don't know, but it can't hurt.
 
Originally posted by Chilly
My only concern is the piston recovery - won't that nylon strap eventually burn through? Will placing some dog barf in the motor tube solve that problem?

PML Phobos built stock with 11 flights and counting. Sure parts of the strap are a little crispy but it's going strong... Other parts of the rocket are more likely to fail or the rocket suffer other damage (such as a hard or ballistic landing) before I can see the strap failing.

Just because a kit (or elements of a kit) are unusual to you doesn't mean that you shouldn't use them or dismiss this so quickly. In fact, the piston is one of the main reasons that attracted me to buying one of their kits in the first place!

My rule of thumb is: Any rocket in my fleet that doesn't require wadding is one that will be flown frequently. That's a good thing ;)

HTH,
 
Originally posted by cjl
Yes, it probably will eventually burn through. There are several club members with 20+ flights on theirs with no problems, but I like to replace the bottom (under the piston) cord with Giant Leap 1/2" tubular kevlar. I have yet to see the stuff break, and I've seen it take some pretty harsh stuff. It is also flameproof (the main reason for using it there). As for dog barf in the MMT, I don't know, but it can't hurt.

My PML Callisto Has over 100 flights on it, and other than the paint is chipped here and there the piston is working perfectly and shows very little wear.
 
My Amraam 4 has over 40 "J" flights on it and the straps are still working. I have about 30 flights on a Amraam 2 and about 12 flights on my other Amraam 2...still going strong.

PML is good stuff and I for one have had nothing but good luck with the piston ejection system. Once you get it "tuned in", it works great, as indicated above by the flight counts. I use it on all my PML models and even use it on some scratch built models like my AGM-65A Maverick.
 
Hey Carl, where were you yesterday???

The Mini BBX had its maiden flight yesterday with Tripoli Mid-Ohio, on an H128. I was going to use an H180 or H210 but it was pretty windy. A smaller motor made more sense for a shakedown flight anyway. I also drilled about 1 sec. off the delay to compensate for wind. It was kinda stressful for me, because there was a *lot* of dust blowing around while I was trying to build the motor.

It was perfect. PERFECT. The paint scheme really stood out amongst the other birds on the pads, and the silver really caught the light. It also made it very easy to track in flight.

The boost was perfectly straight despite the wind, and deployed the chute right after apogee. Rocsim predicted 1675' but everyone thought it cracked 2000' easily. I'll have to work out the numbers myself and see.

Piston and chute worked great, and it drifted maybe a half-mile but came down without even a scratch on the paint. Beautiful!

Now for the 4" BBX...:cool:
 
I'm looking at one of thier kits for my Jr. L1, so it sounds like a good manufacturer! I've also been looking at LOC, but PML sounds good :D
 
Originally posted by Chilly

My only concern is the piston recovery - won't that nylon strap eventually burn through? Will placing some dog barf in the motor tube solve that problem?

Maybe, but I've never had it happen. If I were concerned about it, I would slide a nomex sleeve over it during construction. I've done that on some non piston rockets.
 
Originally posted by hokkyokusei
Maybe, but I've never had it happen. If I were concerned about it, I would slide a nomex sleeve over it during construction. I've done that on some non piston rockets.
I put nomex over 1 or 2 of my PML piston straps, but all that happens is that you can no longer get everything packed indide the rocket. This is especially true for those kits less than 3in dia.
I would recommend dog barf or similar, especially with meaty Pro38 charges in smaller rockets or if like me you use all the AT BP charge regardless.
I only use Nomex now on 4inch rockets, where I'm going to be using a motor which sticks out the top of the MMT (eg Pro38 4grain).
 
Originally posted by andysrockets
I put nomex over 1 or 2 of my PML piston straps, but all that happens is that you can no longer get everything packed indide the rocket. This is especially true for those kits less than 3in dia.
I would recommend dog barf or similar, especially with meaty Pro38 charges in smaller rockets or if like me you use all the AT BP charge regardless.
I only use Nomex now on 4inch rockets, where I'm going to be using a motor which sticks out the top of the MMT (eg Pro38 4grain).


You may well be right, I don't have any PML kits < 3", and, as I said, I have only used the nomex sheath technique on scratchbuilds.
 
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