AndrewW
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- Oct 30, 2016
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So this story or a variation there of is probably not unique to me but this is my version of how I got here. By here I mean acquiring the tools, materials and knowledge to hopefully build a rocket to fly in an attempt to get my L3 certification.
So like many of you I played with ESTES kits back when I was young, almost 30 years ago. I was always interested in designing new rockets and I remember to this day how excited I was when I got my hands on the ESTES Designer Pack. I hardly ever got to fly any of the ones I built but much like today I think the thing I enjoy most about this hobby is building things with the actual flying being more of a validation of a job well done.
I also remember going to hobby shops where D motors were about as big as they came and talking with my friends about rumors that there may be even larger ones like E or Fs. But like many of you, girls, school and cars began to dominate my late teens and rocketry was forgotten.
Fast forward to 2016 and a conference for work takes me to Florida. I now have two young children of 4 and 2 and decide to take the family along with me to the conference, with the only free day I have I decide to take them out to Kennedy Space Center, a place I have always really wanted to visit.
So after a very enjoyable visit I got to thinking about the rockets of my youth and how I thought it would be fun to build a couple of them again with my son and maybe launch at the local school yard. So back at the hotel I got online and ordered an ESTES starter kit with the launch pad and two rockets, the Amazon and Crossfire. We built them in short order upon our return home and launched them a few days later. So I thought that was fun and got back on the old interweb machine and began looking for something a little bigger and it didn't take long for me to discover the world of High Power Rocketry.
In retrospect I think I was sold on just the name alone I mean come on High, Power and Rocketry those are three pretty cool things to put together into one hobby. But I didn't quite dive right in, I first found an ESTES Ventris for $20 and built that and started looking into motors for it. Needless to say I was super excited to see that not only could I buy E and F motors but that there motors up to O available. But initially I said this is crazy, to even spend $15 on a motor for a rocket that I will probably lose in the trees, it is just a waste of money. But before I even flew the Ventris I was already looking into my L1 cert and had purchased the 4" cardboard version of the Madcow DX3. I said that would be it, I would get my L1 cert to show that I could accomplish it and stop there because L2 and beyond just seemed just to out there for me.
So in September of 2016 I had my DX3 built and with my father and son we made the four hour drive out to URRG to try and get my L1. Before I flew the DX3 I figured I should get my feet wet first by flying the Ventris because up to this point I had only been flying low power stuff. Off to pads I went with my $20 rocket with a $15 motor and a $100 JL Alt3 in it and promptly got it stuck in one of the highest trees around. With this less than successful first MPR flight under my belt I hesitated to try my luck with the DX3 but finally decided that I drove four hours to get there I might as well give it a go.
With fear of losing another rocket to the trees I may have put a bit too much angle on the rod. It left the pad well on the I280DM and deployed near apogee albeit a bit far uprange. I initially thought I had successfully achieved my L1 but after a very long walk and finding that my rocket landed in a river I also discovered that I had zippered the air frame. I went home humbled and really decided that I wanted to learn more about this hobby and I wanted to do it well.
I got home and began to figure out what went wrong and how I could salvage the DX3. Before I had even gotten my L1 I had ordered a fiberglass kit for my L2. It was at this point that I realized that what had started as something for me and my son to do occasionally together for fun had turned into something that I was getting quite passionate about.
I got the DX3 together and got my L1 a month later at MDRA in MD followed by my L2 a month after that with a RW fiberglass Adventurer 3. Once again I said that is it, to spend over $100 let alone $300+ for on a motor that is completely useless after only a few seconds in pure lunacy. I had convinced myself that there would be plenty to do at L2 and I will likely not ever be able to justify the expense of a L3 attempt.
Well here I am two years later, I have travelled thousands of miles, burnt whole lot of APCP and generally had a whole lot of fun but I still want more. So now dropping $150 on a mid sized K seams completely reasonable and in my mind the next logical step is L3. Well that about sums up how I got here now onto the build.
I am going fairly conventional with the design of my L3 which is mostly based on a Performer 125 kit purchased from Ken at Performance Hobbies. I actually do like 3FNC rockets and this one in particular reminds me of the DX3 from my L1 cert. One of the things I enjoy most in life is refining my skills and knowledge in a particular subject so a couple of my goals for this project are to expand my knowledge of aerodynamics, develop some of my own electronics, and incorporate parts into the design fabricated on my newly acquired metal lathe.
I decided to go with a 5" kit as I found it to be a happy median between a 4" kit which on a M would seriously threaten our waivers here in the east and a 6" kit that I would hardly be able to fly on anything less than a mid size L. I have already fabricated most of the parts I need and started construction and will post some of the steps completed to date. I am hoping to have this done and fly it at URRF 5 at the end of June.
So like many of you I played with ESTES kits back when I was young, almost 30 years ago. I was always interested in designing new rockets and I remember to this day how excited I was when I got my hands on the ESTES Designer Pack. I hardly ever got to fly any of the ones I built but much like today I think the thing I enjoy most about this hobby is building things with the actual flying being more of a validation of a job well done.
I also remember going to hobby shops where D motors were about as big as they came and talking with my friends about rumors that there may be even larger ones like E or Fs. But like many of you, girls, school and cars began to dominate my late teens and rocketry was forgotten.
Fast forward to 2016 and a conference for work takes me to Florida. I now have two young children of 4 and 2 and decide to take the family along with me to the conference, with the only free day I have I decide to take them out to Kennedy Space Center, a place I have always really wanted to visit.
So after a very enjoyable visit I got to thinking about the rockets of my youth and how I thought it would be fun to build a couple of them again with my son and maybe launch at the local school yard. So back at the hotel I got online and ordered an ESTES starter kit with the launch pad and two rockets, the Amazon and Crossfire. We built them in short order upon our return home and launched them a few days later. So I thought that was fun and got back on the old interweb machine and began looking for something a little bigger and it didn't take long for me to discover the world of High Power Rocketry.
In retrospect I think I was sold on just the name alone I mean come on High, Power and Rocketry those are three pretty cool things to put together into one hobby. But I didn't quite dive right in, I first found an ESTES Ventris for $20 and built that and started looking into motors for it. Needless to say I was super excited to see that not only could I buy E and F motors but that there motors up to O available. But initially I said this is crazy, to even spend $15 on a motor for a rocket that I will probably lose in the trees, it is just a waste of money. But before I even flew the Ventris I was already looking into my L1 cert and had purchased the 4" cardboard version of the Madcow DX3. I said that would be it, I would get my L1 cert to show that I could accomplish it and stop there because L2 and beyond just seemed just to out there for me.
So in September of 2016 I had my DX3 built and with my father and son we made the four hour drive out to URRG to try and get my L1. Before I flew the DX3 I figured I should get my feet wet first by flying the Ventris because up to this point I had only been flying low power stuff. Off to pads I went with my $20 rocket with a $15 motor and a $100 JL Alt3 in it and promptly got it stuck in one of the highest trees around. With this less than successful first MPR flight under my belt I hesitated to try my luck with the DX3 but finally decided that I drove four hours to get there I might as well give it a go.
With fear of losing another rocket to the trees I may have put a bit too much angle on the rod. It left the pad well on the I280DM and deployed near apogee albeit a bit far uprange. I initially thought I had successfully achieved my L1 but after a very long walk and finding that my rocket landed in a river I also discovered that I had zippered the air frame. I went home humbled and really decided that I wanted to learn more about this hobby and I wanted to do it well.
I got home and began to figure out what went wrong and how I could salvage the DX3. Before I had even gotten my L1 I had ordered a fiberglass kit for my L2. It was at this point that I realized that what had started as something for me and my son to do occasionally together for fun had turned into something that I was getting quite passionate about.
I got the DX3 together and got my L1 a month later at MDRA in MD followed by my L2 a month after that with a RW fiberglass Adventurer 3. Once again I said that is it, to spend over $100 let alone $300+ for on a motor that is completely useless after only a few seconds in pure lunacy. I had convinced myself that there would be plenty to do at L2 and I will likely not ever be able to justify the expense of a L3 attempt.
Well here I am two years later, I have travelled thousands of miles, burnt whole lot of APCP and generally had a whole lot of fun but I still want more. So now dropping $150 on a mid sized K seams completely reasonable and in my mind the next logical step is L3. Well that about sums up how I got here now onto the build.
I am going fairly conventional with the design of my L3 which is mostly based on a Performer 125 kit purchased from Ken at Performance Hobbies. I actually do like 3FNC rockets and this one in particular reminds me of the DX3 from my L1 cert. One of the things I enjoy most in life is refining my skills and knowledge in a particular subject so a couple of my goals for this project are to expand my knowledge of aerodynamics, develop some of my own electronics, and incorporate parts into the design fabricated on my newly acquired metal lathe.
I decided to go with a 5" kit as I found it to be a happy median between a 4" kit which on a M would seriously threaten our waivers here in the east and a 6" kit that I would hardly be able to fly on anything less than a mid size L. I have already fabricated most of the parts I need and started construction and will post some of the steps completed to date. I am hoping to have this done and fly it at URRF 5 at the end of June.
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