Underdog Rockets Gamma III Optimized

[WiK]

Much to my suprise this morning, the postman knocked on the door and handed me a package from Underdog Rockets! Inside was their newest kit which I had pre-ordered a while back. The GIIIO is a design by Jason Toft (TRF's jetra2). The main feature of the kit is the two fall-away boosters that hang off the side. The sustainer has a 24mm motor mount, while the boosters have a single 18mm mount each.
All was packaged nicely, they certainly managed to fit a *lot* of parts into the bag! Also included with the kit was a beautiful Rockethead Rockets 15" mylar chute and two mylar streamers (althought mine had four, two packages with two streamers in each).
This is the second RR chute I've recieved, another one was packeged with my USR HiTest, and the quality of the chutes is extremely high! Can't wait to see how these perform in flight.
Another extra with the kit was a DMB Rocketry 3 motor clip whip, which is also of high quality, and came with seperate instructions.
All parts were present and correct, thought I can't get it all back into the bag

Instructions are printed in full colour on glossy paper, with a ringbinder doo-hicky holding them all together which is a nice touch. A template sheet with shock cord mounts, spacers, a body tube marking guide and a fin template was stapled to the back.
A quick read through shows that the instructions are well detailed and clear, with photos and line drawings to illustrate them.

Overall impression so far, a very detailed kit, that has clearly had a lot of time and effort spent in its development.

IMO, this kit has had nowhere near the amount of attention it deserves. There was a slight delay in getting the kits out, due to a problem getting the Facecards designed and printed. Patrick (Phaar) kept me constantly informed on the kits status. The pre-order promise of free shipping was kept, allthough I did offer to pay for it seeing as I live across the pond, but they refused to let me pay!

Ok, time for the parts pic:

Cheers,

Phil

 

[phaar]

Phil,
Thanks for the compliments! I hope you enjoy your build! I can assure you that it will not be easy, despite what you may think. This is one of the most complicated I have seen(which may not be saying much... ). Good luck!

-Patrick

 

[WiK]

Well I managed to get a bit of building done this morning Its all going together nicely.

Making the motor mounts:

Glued into body tubes:

Fins cut and sanded:

Thats all for now,

Phil

 

[jetra2]

Good...you got the right fin pattern...:whew:

Umm...in my version, I had al the MMT's flush with the bottom of the tube, but I guess that's just my style. You might end up wanting to add a bit of noseweight to balance it out, but you should be ok.

MORE! I WANT MORE!!

Jason

 

[phaar]

Originally posted by jetra2

Umm...in my version, I had al the MMT's flush with the bottom of the tube, but I guess that's just my style. You might end up wanting to add a bit of noseweight to balance it out, but you should be ok.

Well, I said in the directions how far to put them down because it worked well for me so I think it will be fine.

 

[Stymye]

Phaar, please send me an email updating me on the status of my order for Production# 1, your mailbox is full

 

[WiK]

Well I managed to get some more building done tonight . Fins have all been glued on and filleted. The attatchment points for the boosters have been glued on to the main airframe.

Booster attatchment point:

Lugs glued on to one of the boosters:

All shaping up nicely! Should be ready for painting later today

Phil

 

[WiK]

I finished building a couple of minutes ago! All I need to do now is paint and launch It looks *sweet*.

Finished:

Any idea what the weight of this thing should be? I think I might have overbuilt it a tad...

Great kit! I can't wait to fly it, should go up on 2xC6-3's and an E9-6 at the end of the month.

Cheers,

Phil

 

[AlexM]

2x C6-3's and a E9-6 should be fine. Just make sure yo have someone help you watch those drop away boosters as they fall off.

Edit: Patrick will probably post something on Tuesaday. He is in the Bahama's right now.

 

[jetra2]

VERY NICE!

That looks awesome! Now paint her and get her flying!

Can't wait to see launch pix!

Jason

 

[cydermaster]

Looks REALLY cool - I hope to see it fly this season!

 

[WiK]

Originally posted by AlexM
Edit: Patrick will probably post something on Tuesaday. He is in the Bahama's right now.

Lucky! Rocket has had a couple of coats of primer so far, just waiting for everyone to wake up before I can start putting the rest on. Not sure what colours it'll be yet, will think of that when I come to it.

Cheers,

Phil

 

[WiK]

Well its about half painted now! Hasn't been my best paint job (I seem to be getting worse ), theres an awful run going down one side of the bottom BT, and the colours don't look great with each other.

The main pic doesn't show the colours very well. Insert shows them much better, with the rectangle on the booster so I can tell the difference between each booster (done by spraying white on that area after the primer, putting a piece of masking tape (not cut very well ) over it, then spraying white over the masking tape to seal it. Then main coat was sprayed.). The other one will have that rectange split into two squares, or somethign like that. Then it justs needs a clear coat and she's good to launch!

Phil

 

[WiK]

I got the second booster painted, then clear coated the whole rocket yesterday

Will submit a full review to EMRR once its been flown. It has been a 9/10 - 10/10 build though!

Phil

 

[WiK]

Well I managed to fly this yesterday. Didn't go *too* well. Basically, after it cleared the launch rod, it veered off to the right, going almost horizontal. Did a barrel roll, carried on going to the right at about 30ft. Pods ejected beautifully, except the shock cord came loose on one of them and the nose cone floated away with the streamer. Main rocket spacked around 1 second into the delay, which then ejected on the ground. Found the seperated nose cone, the other complete booster and the main rocket.
I think a few things attributed to this. I only had about a foot, foot and a half of launch rod to go from, the motor in one of the boosters lit half a second later than the other two, providing asymetric thrust. Finnaly, the wind wasn't too great.

Pics:

Nose cone found 5" in the ground

Nose cone and payload bay damage.

Payload bay damage.

Tube crunch.

Motor mount damage, CR has been torn up, and the motor tube has been forced right foward. It appears the motor kicked out the back on ejection.

Will be rebuilt, simmed and flown with Quickmatch at UKRA

Phil

 

[Karl]

WiK.......

At UKRA......Me, you, 2x 1/4" rods and our rockets.....It's time to drag

Karl

 

[WiK]

You've got one of these?

Phil

 

[Karl]

Nope but its Weightlofter vs Gamma III Would be awesome watching a clustered drag

 

[WiK]

Lol. 7D's vs 1E and 2C's. Very fair I'm thinking maybe adding some noseweight to this, and CHAD staging a D12 to the E9 on the sustainer. Light the D12 and the two C6's at the pad, then the boosters should drop off maybe halfway through the E9's burn, leaving it free to get some altitude! Obviously I will get a proper flight in the normal configuration first.

Phil

 

[nialloswald]

Hey Phil, I have to say that was one hell of a cool flight you made!

Shame about the damage, but if you're going to crash, may as well do it in style From what I saw the ejection and impact were fairly close - it made quite a sound when it hit.

 

[benjarvis]

Originally posted by nialloswald
Hey Phil, I have to say that was one hell of a cool flight you made!

Shame about the damage, but if you're going to crash, may as well do it in style From what I saw the ejection and impact were fairly close - it made quite a sound when it hit.

Hey.... was that the flight at EARS I voted for as 'Spack of the event'???

It arced from the model pads over the hedge and across the crop field to the side of the camping area.... dumping boosters as it went.... then impacted the field and ejected almost similtaneously.... and most of the crowd clapped


Sorry to see it damaged... but if it WAS that flight.... well done, that was trully an AWESOME bit of 'precision crashing'!



Ben

 

[WiK]

Thank you . Damage isn't too bad, just need a couple of centering rings and it'll be ok. Gotta rebuild one of the boosters that got lost, but ah well. I didn't see it hit the ground, (stupid hedge), but I certainly heard it!
It will fly again, UKRA I will launch it using quickmatch.
Phil

 

[WiK]

Originally posted by benjarvis
Hey.... was that the flight at EARS I voted for as 'Spack of the event'???

It arced from the model pads over the hedge and across the crop field to the side of the camping area.... dumping boosters as it went.... then impacted the field and ejected almost similtaneously.... and most of the crowd clapped


Sorry to see it damaged... but if it WAS that flight.... well done, that was trully an AWESOME bit of 'precision crashing'!



Ben

That sounds right!

 

[nialloswald]

Hey.... was that the flight at EARS I voted for as 'Spack of the event'???

Pretty sure it was, it was very cool...who could beat Rick Newland's creation though....I was cracking up as I ran back down the HPR range to see what the hell was going on!

 

[andysrockets]

Originally posted by nialloswald
Pretty sure it was, it was very cool...who could beat Rick Newland's creation though....I was cracking up as I ran back down the HPR range to see what the hell was going on!

OMG what has Rick been up to this time?

He has certainly cracked many people up in the past, what with his 'token gesture recovery' (ask Mupp about Rick's rear-eject streamer some time), and his antics with CA at IRW last year (put CA down, looked high+low for it, and eventually found the bottle stuck to his elbow, and that was after having stuck the bottle to his fingers).

 

[nialloswald]

his antics with CA at IRW last year (put CA down, looked high+low for it, and eventually found the bottle stuck to his elbow, and that was after having stuck the bottle to his fingers).

I believe this is why Mupp and Chris referred to him as 'sticky' throughout the weekend!

Have you seen the photos of his creation in my gallery? If not, look at this one first:

https://www.bits.bris.ac.uk/niall/gallery/Saturday/IMG_2448_copy

 

[andysrockets]

hmmm nice ground hugging smoke. that wasn't a pitfield perchance?

 

[nialloswald]

hmmm nice ground hugging smoke. that wasn't a pitfield perchance?

Nope, all Estes. There's a few more pictures of Rick's rocket (which, incidentally won Grottiest Rocket, Best Spack and another award I can't remember) in my gallery. It was some kind of ring-clustered, ring-finned monstrosity, made of corrugated cardboard and offcuts from Marcus' Miss Piggy.

I think much of its problem was that it was lit by accident from another rocket - after bouncing off the RSO tent it ended up motors up in the crops, multiple D12's make quite a plume when 'static fired'

I found its noseweight by the pad, I think it lost it very rapidly!

 

[andysrockets]

Originally posted by nialloswald
It was some kind of ring-clustered, ring-finned monstrosity, made of corrugated cardboard and offcuts from Marcus' Miss Piggy.
I think much of its problem was that it was lit by accident from another rocket - after bouncing off the RSO tent it ended up motors up in the crops, multiple D12's make quite a plume when 'static fired'

Classic!

 

[WiK]

Well, I managed to fly the Gamma this weekend. Using Quickmatch for igniting the cluster this time, other than that I prepped it the same as last time.
On the pad, looking scarey:

And the cracking lift-off shot that Cydermaster got can be found here.

Ignition from the QM was fast and smokey, and it shot up in the 10-15mph wind on 2 C's and a D. Boosters ejected within half a second of each other, although both of the plastic nosecones seperated due to the attatchment point melting. The sustainer came down on an 18" chute into the crops. All in all, a much better flight than the last one

Phil