Brad Morse

Personally, I’ll always use motor retention if possible — and there are a lot of wonderful systems out there. Aeropack’s is wonderful, G-Leap systems are great, etc. That said, I have friction fit perhaps 40 of my last 50 flights,…   Read more»

Regarding the AMW / Aerotech / RATT thing. I realize I added the RATT component to your thread, and you may have zero interest in pursuing it. That said, I’m a huge fan of long-burn motors. TWELVE seconds of burn…   Read more»

I like AMW because they essentially all assemble the same — doesn’t matter on formulation, diameter, etc. If you know how to assemble a small load, then you know how to do a large load. Combine that with local availability…   Read more»

BALLS is indeed the epicenter of rocketry. If you go once, you will probably never miss it again… The Q was a monster. Whatta thrill to be on the same lakebed as a bird like that!JW

Thanks john. What is it made of?Ken.I bought this really cheesy, shiny fabric that is silver in color. I folded it to the appropriate size and “X” stitched it back and forth the length of the streamer, as well as…   Read more»

JW, how big is your streamer? WxL? I wouldn’t want to impose, so I’ll either make one myself out of nylon (or my wife will!) or just buy one. No big deal. I’m more concerned about the decent speed than…   Read more»

FWIW, I’ve flown almost 200 HPR flights, and I’ve used drogue chutes exactly three times. I’ve used streamers for some pretty big projects, and the *vast* majority of my shots use nothing at all– I just break them at apogee.I’d…   Read more»

JW,Not to get personal but how’d you lose your nose cone at Balls? Where did it break?JohnJohn-At BALLS the Ellis Mountain motor chuffed and just like at MHM, my bird went off on a less-than-vertical boost. This culminated in the…   Read more»

and any knot except robert DeHate’s finger trap will become the weak link in the chain, that much isn’t opinion. All’s I know is that I’m unscathed with knots, and 0 for 1 with stitching. $300 worth of reload later…   Read more»

Laboratory tested. The loops are stronger than the cords!Loops are sewn with fire-resistant NOMEX®!

Good luck I’m tyin’ knots…

My bad, Bruce! For some reason, I was thinking you were using flat stuff… You will do superb with the tubular Kevlar. It is wonderful stuff.FWIW, I failed an L3 attempt because my sewn loops failed. It was on a…   Read more»

For some reason, I thought Bruce was refering to FLAT Kevlar. Tubular stuff is another matter. Tubular = good for L3, flat stuff is wonderful but not for a project of this size. I’ve seen flat stuff break three times……   Read more»

Bruce, I’m 3 for 3 in warning people about 1/2″ Kevlar. Maybe it is me giving them the kiss of death… but all three times I told guys it would NOT hold, and it did not. Is this the MW…   Read more»

The cone length is interesting to me. This may be the place to try it.Dale — yep, EK is who I’m talking to about the milling project. I’ll let you know when I head over there. I’ve been on the…   Read more»

I don’t know how much this would help, but how about enclosing your rails on your tower with a tube. Kind of like a piston launcher but it just acts a on the rocket. I know we are talking small…   Read more»

JW,Why not use an edge sander? I don’t know how precise you have to be but you should be able to get in the range between 0.080 and 0.100. If you send me the rocket, I’ll sand them off for…   Read more»

How about a planer and a jig clamped in place to control the cutting depth?First of all, I want to publicly say THANK YOU to Ed Dawson for his help on my boost. He lent me some internals that allowed…   Read more»

But a straighter boost would–I guess the H268 went sideways by at least 10 degrees.Just a notion, but as i have suggested before a beau coup tower of 10′ long that carries levels with it dialed in would do it…   Read more»

Edward, I had a question for you on the Alpha hardware. One of the things that I see as a real advantage for SRS and RATT is that their hardware has a threaded hole on top of the fwd closure….   Read more»

I hear you. The boogeyman for Elvis has been the HyperTEK L… he told me recently he was 1 out of 4 with that configuration. We’ve had wonderful luck w/ the Ratts and SRS stuff over the years.I have a…   Read more»