Tom and the rest of the “rocket pit crew” helped me get it on the rail. (photo by oddwick)
It’s my heaviest rocket project so far. I fiber-glassed the body, added a flight computer up in the nose cone, epoxy-coated the fins, and filled the remaining free space in the nose and tail cones with expanding two-part foam.
I like the sleek shape and symmetry of the design. In the early days of rocketry, I wonder if the comic books were the design inspiration. It turns out that this shape and weight distribution is unstable, and so I epoxied two pounds of lead buck shot into the tip of the nose cone to keep it from spiraling out of control.
Here I am adjusting the angle to tilt slightly into the wind (to reduce the recovery hike distance).
I have already armed the on-board computer which will detonate 5 grams of black powder to pop a large parachute when it detects apogee (it has barometric and tilt sensors and an accelerometer; it also logs flight data for later PC download). The motor also has an ejection charge that will detonate 14 seconds after launch as a redundant precaution.
The last step will be to thread the electric igniter up through the center of the solid-AP Aerotech K550 motor. After clipping to the 12V power supply and a continuity test, she is ready to fly.
We are go flight.
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