Winter Project - Scratch built triple cluster

[Mad City Flyers]

Hi,

Thought I'd share the scratch build project I've been up to over the winter. The project started with an Ebay purchase of a Thoy Snipe kit that was missing the body tubes and nose cone, but had the motor mounts for a 24mm triple cluster, centering rings, plywood fins, parachute etc.

After getting the heavy wall 2.6" body tube and nose cone I decided to tweak the design.


24mm triple canted motor mount following the flis kits design and a 15 degree angle
changed the fin design and went bigger
Ejection baffle
Dual deploy with AV bay from Mad Cow Rocketry
Stratologger CF altimeter
9/16 tubular nylon shock cord
Epoxy for all attachments
through the wall fin mounting
rail buttons with stand-offs from Doghouse rocketry
Fin fillets were made using a mix of Great Planes 30 min epoxy, West System 403 microfibers and FGCI Phenolic microballons.
primed with Rustoleum 2x gray and finished with metallic blue and silver


I also built a standard bulkhead which is attached to the payload section to allow the rocket to be flow without the AV bay for lower altitude flights. Seems better to have the option of proving its flight worthiness first without the complexity of the dual deploy. Total weight with motors came out to around 850G without the AV bay and 1050g with AV bay. Open Rocket predicts somewhere between 1500 and 2500ft depending upon motor configuration.

Can't wait to bring it to Bong this spring. Plan is to fly it on a combination of 3x F44-8w and then 3x F32J-8T composites. Will of course wait to fly after completion of L1 certification as the combined thrust is over 100N.

I attached a few pics.

Cheers!!

Matt

[Kevin Huddleston]

Nicely done! When will it be ready to fly?

[Mad City Flyers]

Hi Kevin,

Thanks for checking out our project. She's ready to fly now as a standard engine eject single parachute deploy.

I need to get some BP and igniters to ground test the altimeter set up. I hope to fly it at the next Bong launch with the Woosh club in April.

We've also got a Mega Der Red Max and NCR SA-14 Archer ready to go.

Can't wait for some sun and dry ground.

Matt

[Kevin Huddleston]

No kidding! Warm weather and dry ground has been a long time coming this year. I have a Binder Design Velociraptor still awaiting her maiden voyage that I hope to fly at Bong in April -- maybe, hopefully, for my L2 cert.

I look forward to seeing your birds fly! The challenge of watching successful cluster-motor rockets is always exciting. :D

[Randy]

Verrrry interesting!

Hurry back with launch photos!

Randy
www.vernarockets.com
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00HHJHOK6
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00O14ET8K
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[PaulK]

Hey, looks great Matt, look forward to seeing it fly. F32 clusters should light fine, being blue thunder. The F44 motors are a variant of white lightning, and are a bit more difficult to light, though better than standard white lightning. Make sure you've got good igniters, don't use the ones that come with the F44 for a cluster, they're fairly light on pyrogen. I've had 2 F44/G74 Economax motors fail to light on the provided igniters, and saw another F44 fail to light at the last Bong launch.

[Mad City Flyers]

Hi,

Great advice on the igniters. I've been waiting, like most I imagine, for the Quest Q2G2 igniters. I have seen the Wildman igniters suggested as a suitable alternative.

Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated as we do not want the dreaded CATO.

Thanks,

Matt

[Mad City Flyers]

Just picked up some Blackhorn 209 black powder substitute at the newly opened Cabelas in Sun Prairie.

Looking for advice from anyone who has used it for ejection charges in a dual deploy. I've read the tips about packing it tight and taping over the caps.

Plan to ground test prior to flying. Let me know if there are any tricks I should know about.

Thanks,

Matt

[Mad City Flyers]

Finally got the chance to fly the Sky Needle triple cluster this past Father's Day at the Bong!

It was windy, but we launched on 3 x F32J-8T composites with altimeter triggered drogue deployment at apogee and main deployment at 500ft.

Ejection charges were fired using Quest Q2G2 igniters and Blackhorn 209 powder. Turned out to be a good first flight as everything worked and the rocket was recovered with just a few dents and scratches. Had to use 3grams of the Blackhorn powder per charge.

One of the F32 motors seemed to ignite a little late and the main parachute did not fully open so it came down a little hard right on the gravel within 20 yards of the launch pad.

Altimeter beeped out 645 ft for apogee, which was less than expected.

A short video of the launch is posted on my Youtube channel:

Sky Needle First Flight 6/21/15 (http://youtu.be/G3W072o0P4Y)

As this was a test flight of many firsts for us, we were thrilled at how it fly. The big tail fins and canted cluster produced a very nice flight.

Planning to move the E-bay over to our SA-14 Archer and try the Sky Needle again as a single motor deploy. Should reduce the weight a bunch.


Matt

[Kevin Huddleston]

Sweet!

[Mad City Flyers]

Got to fly the Sky Needle again at Bong. This time we took out the AV bay and used a single parachute with motor eject. The reduced weight resulted in a nice flight to 1500 feet and the lack of wind kept the drift to a minimum.

Here's a link to the Video (http://youtu.be/JObq52NfP4Q)

Matt

[Rex R]

nice birds and great flights! couldn't help but notice the bystander in the background of your mega max flights...:)
Rex

[Mad City Flyers]

Thanks Rex!

We were hoping you would notice that we caught you in the background of of our MDRM launch.

Hopefully you're not going to charge us a fee for using your likeness on YouTube 😜😜

Nate and I are going down to the Midwest Power launch to get a first flight in with our Madcow Tomach. We'll use the I-357T-M motor. We ground tested the ejection charges last weekend. I posted some videos of our ejection charge tests on our YouTube channel (MHinMadison). We learned that 2 grams of FFFFg BP puts the nose cone on your neighbors yard and wakes up all the dogs. 1.4 grams turned out to be just right.

Matt

[Rex R]

should help disprove the rumors that I'm a vampire and that folks need to pay attention to what is going on around them. granted it might not have been the best viewing angle, it still looked good. so what did you think of my pvc pad? fair skies and light winds at MWP
Rex