Activity

12 grams may seem excessive on a 6″ airframe, but it depends on the length of the bay and as I recall Conway’s bird was a bit long. The UprOar project, a 7.5″ project with an inner airframe of 6″”…   Read more»

There you go, Chris! To each his own. YouWarren M. were not there to see my L3, lessons learned and a perflect flight! We are all brothers in this.

12 grams may seem excessive on a 6″ airframe, but it depends on the length of the bay and as I recall Conway’s bird was a bit long. The UprOar project, a 7.5″ project with an inner airframe of 6″”…   Read more»

I use 2+ grams for a 3″ airframe, depending on the volume, so 2.8 g on a 4″ PR kit seems a little low. Ever since Conway used 12 grams on his secondary charge on his 14′, 6″ L3, I…   Read more»

On the other hand, if failure deterred us, we’d have all quit!

My friend , failure is NOT an option.

are a must. Heftier ones than you think you need seem to reap benefits.On the other hand, if failure deterred us, we’d have all quit!Nothing is guaranteed, only death, taxes, and if your rocket goes up, it will hit the…   Read more»

Well, JW, I agree with you on LONG shock cords, my L3 100 foot can attest to that. Although this guy, JW, doesn’t use masking tape to reef the Kevlar, he uses electrical tape! I have yet to use latex…   Read more»

I’ve really never worried about black powder under about 20K MSL. Above that, I do three things…First, I follow the technique here http://www.wimpyrockets.com/page16.html Note that the author there is none other than Tony2. I’ve used this with clean recovery to…   Read more»

I flew my Pork Arrow at Hartsel and had a partial as in NON-separation at Apogee. You could see an apogee event of sorts, but no separation. Someone said “it’s still traveling…” giving me a rather sickening feeling. Finally the…   Read more»

Chris is right, the longer you can contain the bp the more will burn. When ground testing you want to have a fairly energetic separation but not quite like Ernie’s. With the drag on the ground you may not get…   Read more»

Well, if you can contain the black powder, it works pretty well at nearly any altitude. I’ve had good success with surgical rubber tubing and zip ties for a number of 12000-19000 foot flights (including my L3), and I’m planning…   Read more»

Great post James, and it hits on one of my biggest concerns for this L3 project, ejection charges. How do you figure out how to compensate for altitude? I’ve always ground tested my stuff, but how valuable is ground level…   Read more»

Wow, I need to get out more, this is a great thread!I have not seen this until today and replying to this having not read all of the thread but If you are getting ready to go for your L3…   Read more»

And these are the areas were I think the “how hard should you push it on a cert flight” comes into play. While pushing the envlope is certainly part of the fun in our hobby, how far can you push…   Read more»

And these are the areas were I think the “how hard should you push it on a cert flight” comes into play. While pushing the envlope is certainly part of the fun in our hobby, how far can you push…   Read more»

Tell us so we can all watch! Some times we are all so busy doing our own things at launches that we miss some of the good stuff.I’m not too concerned about failures, as long as I learn from them….   Read more»

And these are the areas were I think the “how hard should you push it on a cert flight” comes into play. While pushing the envlope is certainly part of the fun in our hobby, how far can you push…   Read more»

Crap. Something new to worry about ;-)Per Wilke: “or a nosecone ablating to where a hole forms”Uh, this is something I have not worried about. I’ve had polystyrene over Mach 1 with no obvious damage. I am going to try…   Read more»

I seem to continually find new means to mess up my rockets. Ablation of the Nosecone is something new. I sort of think/hope I’m not near that in my rather modest rockets.LS, as Bret stated, just because others have done…   Read more»

Crap. Something new to worry about ;-)Per Wilke: “or a nosecone ablating to where a hole forms”Uh, this is something I have not worried about. I’ve had polystyrene over Mach 1 with no obvious damage. I am going to try…   Read more»