1) The Super Weasel will fly to 9600 feet on an Aerotech I59WN-P
2) The 29mm mach breaker (still need a name) will fly on either an I224 classic or I243 white to 9000 feet and mach 1.7
3) The Eclipse will launch to about 5000 feet on a K360 white
4) Positive Ascent will get a new paint job and launch on an M of some sort.
Picking up where I left off last year...
First up is the Super Weasel. Last year I launched it on an Aerotech I161W to 5608 feet and it was lost for a few weeks. After incurring some water damage (though all electronics survived) one of the farmers found it and returned it to the club. It turns out that the only damage was the coupler tube/ electronics bay.
I decided to reuse the booster and nose cone portions of the rocket since I already have the I59WN-P specifically for a high performance flight with this rocket. The result is the SSW (Shortened Super Weasel).
The following are the modifications from the Super Weasel:
1) Overall length shortened from 48" to 33.5"
2) No true electronics "bay"
3) Single deployment, single separation point
4) The tracking transmitter will be in the nose cone
5) Battery for altimeter is a 7.4V Lipo battery instead of a conventional 9V battery
6) Overall weight cut to 16.1 ounces without motor (compared to 25.9 ounces before mods.
7) Static margin is about 1.0 instead of 2.85 which should make it fly much straighter
In Rocksim, the above modifications simulate to 9607 feet and mach .72. That's 1500 feet higher and .1 mach faster than the previous configuration. Not bad for being "unintentional" modifications.
It was a challenge to figure out where and how to mount the electronics with so little room to work. Here's what I have come up with so far:
I plan on adding some black to the shoulder of the nose cone to make it look nicer
I cut the base of the nose cone off to open it up. With the tracker removed from its plastic shell it fits neatly inside the nose cone.
Fortunately the forward closure of the I59WN-P is threaded to accept a 5/16" rod or bolt. I used a piece of threaded rod to mount the altimeter and Lipo battery to the forward closure of the motor.
It's not too elegant but electrical tape will work just fine to hold the battery and altimeter in place to the threaded rod.
I made an "electronics cap" to seal the altimeter from ejection gases. The e-match wires will exit through the center hole for the separation charge.
Here's what's left to finish:
1) Mount an arming switch for the altimeter
2) Figure out how to keep the tracker in place in the nose cone
3) Attach shock cord to nose cone without obstructing removal of tracker
The next project I'll be working on is the 29mm minimum diameter mach breaker. What's mainly holding me up on that project is a nose cone which I am currently in the process of acquiring.
