Successful L1 on a scratch built

[spacecowboy]

Coral Snake II, my successful L1.
I'm normally pretty shy about publishing pix, but here it is :
and the guy that helped me find it (Dave on the left, me right).

It's basically the same airframe as the LOC IV, but I bought parts, cut the fins myself, out of 3/8" aircraft grade P/W. I stuck an extra (3rd) CR in it, just because I was paranoid. CR at the top, before the fins, and at the back end.

WHAT A FLIGHT.
H153-7.
STRAIGHT UP.
It was windy, and I thought I got a good time of no wind, but on reco, the wind picked it up about 300' off the ground and carried it into the trees. Fortunately, it landed outside the reach of the tree demons.

About 9' of 3/16 kevlar around the MMT, through the top CR for reco, some Nomex to cover an additional 9' of tent cord, and a 24" chute.

One thing for sure, I learned a lot on this project.

L2 next ? probably not. the engines get way expensive.

I'D LIKE TO THANK THE CROWD AT AARG.

sc

 

[Johnnie]

Congratulations on your L1 flight...L2 is not as much out of reach as you might think. Again, welcome to High Power.

 

[rstaff3]

Good job! Photos?

 

[spacecowboy]

RSTAFF3

unfortunately, all I have is the two post flight photos,
my cert dude and the guy who helped me find it.

My photography crew (wife) was not there.

I would love to have a movie of this L1 cert flight. It went exactly straight up, no screw, no W/C, everything was perfect except the chute was a bit big, and I should have adjusted for a shorter delay.

BTW, I do have the LOCIV kit built, it was a backup for Coral SNAKEII. I lost my first L1 attempt, the LOC nuke pro max. It went at least 3500 ft up based on what SIM says, bye-bye, down the road a few miles.

I'm going to get a movie of this LOCIV, H153 maybe, some "I' possibly.
I can watch movies of my birds for hours. It's just too cool.

 

[bmhiii]

Originally posted by spacecowboy

I would love to have a movie of this L1 cert flight.

I'm going to get a movie of this LOCIV, H153 maybe, some "I' possibly.
I can watch movies of my birds for hours. It's just too cool.

I think you should buy a digital movie camera and bring it to the next CRAWL! If you do, I'll buy a Boostervision rig and we can have on board vids!!

bmhiii

 

[firemanup]

Congrats..........

 

[SwingWing]

Way to go doing the scratch build!!
Congratulations on the L1!!

 

[Stymye]

scratch built,way to go ! I like the coral snake scheme..

 

[spacecowboy]

I especially want to thank the guys at AARG for helping me send off a successful L1.

But I'd also like to thank the people on the forum who had some nice compliments.

I am very proud I designed it myself (though it's a close clone of LOCIV). It made the L1 flight even better.
And I DON"T think I've seen one of my rockets yet go that straight up. Cutting my own fins, kick in the pants. NICE.

Tongue in cheek, humans rarely see Coral Snakes, even in the southwest. Perhaps I should have painted the first L1 attempt (Nuke Pro Maxx) with this paint scheme, the one that decided to go into orbit. I never found it. Some poor boy in Louisiana is probably thinking the Martians have invaded after he found my Maxx in his front yard.

 

[gerbs4me]

Congrats on your L1
nice paint job on the rocket, welcome to High Powered Rocketry