Wildman Motor Eater L3 build

[UPscaler]

@UPscaler got some great video of the test flight, and put it in his first LDRS video.

I have a solid video of the cato, too! It's up now via Patreon in the full-length video and will be out in part 3 of my public releases.

Such a bummer because the shakedown went so well! Glad you got taken care of warranty wise.

Braden

 

[Neutronium95]

Jim Wilkerson got some great photos. The M1780 is a gorgeous motor when it isn't shooting flames out the side.

 

[Neutronium95]

@UPscaler also got some great footage of the rocket's second flight, and my L3 attempt. Things didn't go so well this time around...


I'm going to let this project sit for a while. I'm pretty sure that it can be repaired, but I really don't feel like touching it again anytime soon. I do have some other ideas for L3 projects that I'll be looking at starting in the near future.

 

[Tim51]

I'm going to let this project sit for a while. I'm pretty sure that it can be repaired, but I really don't feel like touching it again anytime soon.

Totally understandable. Most of us have been there. Can take several years. Good luck with your other projects in the meantime.

 

[Neutronium95]

I just had the oddest feeling of deja vu. I wonder what that's about.

 

[Neutronium95]

Builds go much smoother the second time around.

This isn't entirely complete, but all of the gluing is done. I just need to finish up the avbay, add rail buttons, and rig up the recovery system. I don't have time for paint before the flight on Friday, but the eventual paint scheme will be gloss black on the fins, and then a nice clear coat to make the filament wound parts really pop.

 

[Neutronium95]

And here it is almost ready to fly. Hoping I can launch on Friday as soon as the range opens, but that remains to be seen.

Overall, while this second attempt is almost identical in terms of structure, it's also a significantly cleaner build, as shown by the lack of a black smear of epoxy inside the motor mount area, and significantly neater wiring in the avbay. I also borrowed the sled from my BALLS project this year, which packaged the electronics inti a significantly smaller volume.

 

[Jay Dub 4009]

Good luck!

 

[rfjustin]

And here it is almost ready to fly. Hoping I can launch on Friday as soon as the range opens, but that remains to be seen.

Overall, while this second attempt is almost identical in terms of structure, it's also a significantly cleaner build, as shown by the lack of a black smear of epoxy inside the motor mount area, and significantly neater wiring in the avbay. I also borrowed the sled from my BALLS project this year, which packaged the electronics inti a significantly smaller volume.

Motor?

 

[JohnCoker]

Well that wasn't supposed to happen.

Sorry to see this!

The fin that came off did so pretty cleanly, so I should just be able to put epoxy on the root edge and inside the slot and reattach it.

This might be an indication of insufficient prep of the fin. Did you rough up the fiberglass parts with sandpaper and clean them with alcohol first?
This thread has good info.

 

[Neutronium95]

Motor?

M1297W

Wildman and Aerotech replaced the hardware and reload onsite at LDRS. Wildman didn't have a M1780 in stock, so I took a M1297 instead.

This might be an indication of insufficient prep of the fin. Did you rough up the fiberglass parts with sandpaper and clean them with alcohol first?
This thread has good info.

I follow the advice in that thread for all of my composites bonding. I'm not too concerned about the fins breaking. The force on a fin when the booster fall from a few thousand feet without a drogue and impacts a dry lake bed are much more than will be encountered during a nominal flight.

My philosophy when designing and building rockets is to ensure that there's a decent factor of safety for a nominal flight, but I don't really go beyond that. If the fins break when the rocket lands without a parachute, then the problem isn't weak fins, it's a problem with the recovery system. Or the motor in my case.

 

[Neutronium95]

The Motor Eater flew great on the M1297. It went about 14,300 feet, and went super far downrange. I lost sight of it at motor burnout, but the Featherweight GPS kept giving good telemetry, showing a good descent on drogue, and then main deployment. Jim Deveau gave me a ride out to it in his buggy and we found it in perfect condition.

 

[Rustoleum]

Glad round two went better.
Congrats

 

[smstachwick]

@UPscaler also got some great footage of the rocket's second flight, and my L3 attempt. Things didn't go so well this time around...


I'm going to let this project sit for a while. I'm pretty sure that it can be repaired, but I really don't feel like touching it again anytime soon. I do have some other ideas for L3 projects that I'll be looking at starting in the near future.

Hey, that was me on the PA! I remember that.

I’m glad your second shot at the cert went better.

 

[Neutronium95]

Just got home and got pictures off of the memory card. My uncle snagged this nice liftoff shot. I also remembered to grab the GPS data, I'm going to look at that and try to figure out why it ended up flying about 1600 feet lower than simulated. While it was very calm on the ground, the winds aloft were crazy, when it was coming down on the drogue it had a horizontal velocity of 50 ft/s.