havoc821
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Feb 2, 2003
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Over the past 5 months or so, I had built some rockets that I forgot to post on TRF, so I guess I will do that now. When I first joined NAR, I got the Guidebook of Rocketry magazine (or something like that) from them. On the cover was a picture of an upscale Maxi Citation Patriot. I didnt know it was that rocket at the time. I loved the rocket on the cover, so I set out to make my own that looked similar. I ordered the parts from PML. It is 3 in diameter and about 49 long. I made my own version of the fins and cut them out of 1/8 craft plywood. The rocket has a 29mm MMT and uses a baffle system to eliminate wadding. It uses ½ rods. I primed and sanded the rocket many times until it was very smooth. I used Plastikote paint for the rocket. This is very high quality paint, but I wish I knew that it took longer than overnight to dry. I finished painting it the day before the launch and it turned out that the paint wasnt dry and the white on the rocket has dirt in it from hands and the nosecone had little imprints on it from where I wrapped a towel around it. I bought some gold tape stuff for the stripe, but I wasnt able to put it on straight without wrinkles, so I took it off along with some paint. Oops! Oh well, I was able to fix a lot of the mistakes and it doesnt look as bad as it sounds. It weighs about 2½ lbs. ready to fly. I put a G38-7 in it for its first flight and a PML 48inch chute. Deployment was soon after apogee and the parachute didnt come out. The rocket came to the ground in a flat spin. No damage though. The cause of the chute not deploying was because where I attached the chute to the shock cord, when the shock cord was fully extended with the shroud lines extended, the parachute was still in the rocket. I moved the parachute down a few inches, loaded the rocket with a G64-7 (my first reload flight) and gave it another try. Picture perfect flight with apogee around 1300 and came down fairly slow. Unfortunately, the rocket landed on a barbed wire fence and it put a couple of scrapes on the rocket. I now have attached a mirror clip for motor retention instead of using bolts and washers.