IT FLYS

More documentary pictures here

All pieces recovered.  Awaiting post flight inspection by the Supreme L3CC Dutch -

L3 Granted!  Woot (whatever that means but I see it alot)

A big thanks goes out to Mike Dutch who advice and counsel made this a successful flight.

Also I have to thank Sir Thomas Jones whose unselfish donation of rare natural Kevlar fabric made everything hold together.

See Delilah fly again at NYPOWER 15.

Unfortuneately the nosecone section is not recovered yet which is required for the L3 certification. But the search will continue

The work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives and the dreams shall never die.

Here are where both peices landed.

Below is a screen shot of the altitude (red) and acceleration (green) plot from the MARSA4 Connect software. There is a very large acceleration spike (26g) corresponding to the first apogee event. It is unlikely that the apogee charge by itself could have caused such a large acceleration. Most likely that this was cause by the nosecone reaching the end of the shock cord.  This jolt is what likely caused the deployment bag failure which allowed the main to deploy at apogee.  The second large acceleration spike down (-20g) is the main chute inflating about 2 seconds after the apogee charge.

There are 4 to 5 (!) Mars members possibly going for L3 certs this year.  Here is a description of my project.  It may or may not be ready for NYPOWER 14.

This started out as an upscale of the Estes Guardian.  But after I messed up on the tube cutting and had no hope of making it scale it is now Guardian Like.  I also went to 4 fins instead of 3 because I like needless complexity. UPDATE: I am leaning to going back to 3 fins. (actually 9 fins, instead of 12).

Here is a rocksim picture of the project.

	This rocket will be 8.25" in diameter (lower section) and a little over 10 feet tall (121.75").  Flying weight will be between 30 and 40 pounds depending on how much paint and epoxy I decide to slather on. Its sims to about 6000' on an ~6000 NS M motor.  Final choice of motor is not made yet but it will be the lowest cost option I can find. UPDATE: Motor will be AMW M1350 White Wolf!! I'll most likely build it with a 4" motor mount. It will probably fly with 4-6 2 altimeters and up to 17 2 arming and ematch shunting switches.
Construction Details
	Here is the transition section. The plan is to wrap the outside of the stringers with either card stock or wood veneer. Then it will be covered with fiberglass. The inside core tube is 3". Another ring will be installed at the top of the tube.  Then the 5.5" section of airfram will be installed over this. This transition and upper airframe will be one piece. The 5.5" airframe tube will be removable to expose the electronics compartment.
Above is a picture of the lower and upper section in a dry fit. Its just waiting for the nosecone which will be supplied by Al Gloer. One the right is a close up showing the unfished lower airframe made from a sonotube, glassed with Soller composite fiberglass sleeve and filled with a mixture of epoxy and microballoons.  Final sanding not done yet.
Above shows the glassing of the transition section.  I used some left over fiberglass sleeve material and the left photo shows it being stretched over the transition for a dry layup.  The right shows the semi-trimmed covering after resin application and partial cure.  Ultimately will apply some fairing filler to fill the weave and round out the section.
	I haven't seen a build thread yet without a picture of the cut fins.  So here is mine.  Not pictured are the fins for the top because I haven't cut those yet.  These are cut from 3/8" baltic birch. If you are in the area Bristol Valley Hardwoods has 60" square sheets of decent quality and price. They'll ship also but will have to rip the sheets in half for shipping.

Next page - Starting the Fin can