A Good Day to Fly a Rocket (but, not so good for recovery.)

I puzzled over how to name this post for quite some time. I'll tell the tale and then you'll see why.

We had a late start on our day at the range due to Sam having a school event in the morning, so it was afternoon before we got to the launch site. As I unloaded the car I realized that I hadn't charged my AltimeterTwo since I last flew it more than a year ago. That meant it was almost certainly "flat" inside my rocket. I cracked open the payload bay and sure enough, there was no charge at all. I fortunately had come prepared to charge USB powered devices and got the altimeter plugged in and charging while I worked on the rest of the rocket.

I began loading up the 232H123-14A motor I purchased last and pulled out my Android with OpenRocket on it to determine what delay I should use, only to discover that I hadn't gotten the motors loaded into the rocket configuration file and therefor couldn't run a simulation. I was left to guess as to expected altitude and what delay I needed to use. Based on past experience I guessed I would fly 2000'-2500' and opted to not make any adjustment to the delay grain, as they have always been just right, or on the short side for Flying Colors, and loaded the motor.

I then waited around while the altimeter was charging. I set up my cameras at the pad and test recorded a flight of another Vulcanite. With the number of rockets headed to the pads slowing to a trickle I decided it was time to get Flying Colors assembled and flown. Final assembly was quickly completed and soon Flying Colors was on its way, atop a column of black smoke and sparks. I lost sight of it for a short time, but spotted the smoke trail as it was descending and saw the recovery system deploy. Since it had headed up wind it landed reasonably close to the launch site. Samantha and I quickly reached it. Everything looked fine at first, but then Sam spotted the "zipper." Thanks to the fiberglass reinforcement I did during the build it isn't bad and should be reparable, but it could keep me from flying next month. I need a number of supplies in order to do the repair right. It has been suggested that I cut off the damaged portion, but if I do that the payload bay coupler is going to hit the recovery system mount point inside the airframe.

Of course this damage could have been avoided if I had made appropriate decisions. When I discovered I couldn't simulate the flight I should have aborted the launch. If I had simulated the flight I would have seen that I needed to adjust the delay grain by 3 seconds. Since I didn't make this adjustment Flying Colors descended some 400' before ejecting the recovery system which allowed it to build up a head of steam which resulted in the "zipper" when the recovery system did deploy. I'm lucky to have gotten off with as little damage as I did and will definitely take this lesson to heart. Don't guess, simulate. If you can't simulate, don't fly.

So, back to naming this post. With the damage that occurred to the rocket during the flight I considered several names for the post, along the lines of "Rocket vonZipper!", but decided most folks wouldn't get the reference. Also I'm not happy about the outcome of the flight, so I'm not really in the mood to joke about it.

Photo Album: 2012-11-03, AARG Launch, Hutto, TX

Video: AARG, 2011-11-03

Flying Colors, Flight #8, "A Date with Kate"

Yesterday was our final launch opportunity of the spring season. We had a very good turn out with many launches. I shot quite a lot of video, capturing 15 launches in 13 segments. There were many more launches than that, but I wasn't always in position to take video. I was there to fly my own rocket after all.

We got to the site early so we could set up our own equipment and help with the launch equipment. I was still working on setting up the weather station when other people, including the person towing the club trailer, showed up. With a number of people working on it, the range was set up well in time for the opening of the launch window at 10:00.

Vern Knowles, "parent" of the ever-popular "Kate", is working on making a version of her available for sale. Kate is an automated flight data reporting system that receives GPS data transmitted from a rocket and announces the details of the flight in near-real-time. Vern had prototype transmitters, pre-installed in various size nose cones, available for test flights at this launch. For various reasons I was the only person to take Vern up on the chance to give Kate a ride at this launch. Having Kate on-board meant I would not be able to include my Walston Tracker, which is installed in my usual nose cone. I was still able to fly my AltimeterOne, which meant I'd have two sources of data regarding my maximum altitude. The Kate nose cone is also heavier than my usual nose cone, so I anticipated a lower than estimated flight. Based on RockSim v9.0 my expected altitude was 6830' AGL. According to my AltimeterOne I reached an altitude of 6210', while Kate reported 6449'. Kate did lose GPS during the ascent, but reacquired a fix before apogee and reported data for the rest of the flight. It is a good thing she did, as I never saw Flying Colors after it left the pad. There were people that spotted it, but I think they were able to due to Kate's reporting. Since Flying Colors landed 1.33 miles from the launch site I probably would not have received a signal from the tracker if I'd been flying it, particularly after Flying Colors landed. With Kate having provided landing coordinates it was a simple matter of punching them into a hand-held GPS unit and walking right to my rocket. Thank you Vern for letting me fly your transmitter for you.


Photo Album: 2011-06-04, Tripoli Idaho Launch



Video: 2011-06-04, Tripoli Idaho Rocketry, Launch Montage

Another Successful Launch Day

Yesterday was our regularly scheduled launch day and the rocket gods smiled on us and gave us decent weather. We got stopped by a train across railroad tracks on the way to the launch site, so things were pretty much set up by the time we arrived. Our president had had to bring out the club trailer, meaning he didn't bring his personal trailer, which had his rocket tracker receiver in it. Since for now I'm borrowing his receiver when I fly my rocket, I was quite nervous about launching up over a mile and trying to find it. Given these considerations I decided to proceed with a flight, but use the I255 motor I had instead of the I303, since it was supposed to provide me a slightly lower flight. I armed my tracking transmitter and installed it in my nose cone as a precaution against my rocket going missing, the idea being that if I did lose my rocket I'd be able to go back out to the launch site with the receiver and locate it. I took my time prepping the rocket and ancillary gear so I didn't forget to do anything this time. I took my rocket out to the pad once I had it loaded up and inspected, but before I had everything else ready to go. I think I irritated some of the other rocketeers by tying up the pad for a while as I was getting everything else ready. I'll need to modify my preparations to make sure I don't do this again.

By the time I had video cameras ready to roll, GPS receiver up and running, and binoculars, camera, and FRS radio located and checked Coldfire was loaded up on the away pad and ready to fly. I re-situated my tripod mounted video camera so it could capture both Coldfire's and Flying Colors' flights. I asked Coldfire's owner if he would launch first so I could watch Coldfire fly without worrying about losing track of where Flying Colors landed. I don't think he understood my reasoning, but agreed and that is how things proceeded. It did prove to be a mistake in one regard in that I ran out of memory in my camera at the base of the launch pad prior to Flying Colors launching, so I have no video from it.

For this flight there was a high layer of thin clouds. This is exactly the kind of situation where I lose track of my rockets. I simply can't see them against the clouds. I think everyone lost it this time, so it may have actually gone above the clouds, but it is not clear. We watched and listened and for what seemed for an eternity there was no sign of Flying Colors. Finally somebody called out that they saw it and soon many people were tracking it. Eventually even I spotted my brilliant red parachute. In this case I think I would have been blind to not ultimately spot my descending rocket as it landed a mere 288.8' from the launch pad, per my GPS. I made the short walk out to it and did my usual post-flight inspection, including checking my AltimeterOne to see how high I actually flew. I was disappointed in this case to find that my altimeter had malfunctioned and was only reporting a peak altitude of 953' AGL. This was with the altimeter installed in my ported payload bay in the same configuration as the previous 5 flights.

I returned to base with my rocket and contemplated the skies. Soon we had a large patch of blue develop right over us and I decided to go for a second launch, this time on the I303 I had brought along as my primary motor. I reset my AltimeterOne and, hoping for better results, assembled my rocket. Since I already had my gear lined up from the first flight I was much quicker getting ready to fly when I took Flying Colors out to the pad. Soon the LCO gave the count and hit the launch button. Flying Colors flew beautifully up into the clear blue skies and I watched it from launch to landing. I walked straight out to it with no difficulty, though before I reached it I was really beginning to think I must have some how walked past it. It had landed beyond a small ridge and once I crested the ridge the parachute was easily spotted. I really didn't think it had landed as far out as it had, at 1244' from the launch site. I popped open the payload pay to see how my AltimeterOne had performed on this flight and found it reporting a perfectly normal looking reading of 6661' AGL.

So, with one small hiccup I had a really nice day of rocket flying with two successful flights of Flying Colors. In all there were 6 HPR launches, though I only managed to record 3 of them. There were a number of LPR rockets flown, at least one of which went AWOL. It was a rather detailed model, so I hope it can yet be found.


Photo Album: 2011-05-21, Tripoli Idaho Launch Day



Video: Montage of Tripoli Idaho Rocketry launches on 2011-05-21
Video Playlist: 2011-05-21, Tripoli Idaho Rocketry Launch

Flying Weather Arrives

After scrubbing the last two weekends due to weather we finally got a "go" for launching today. Early in the day weather conditions were not very favorable for flying. Winds were coming from the north-northwest at approximately 15 mile per hour. Those rockets that were flown were targeting the 2000'-3000' range due to the winds and a low ceiling. I could have flown my Dragon Fly with the last of the G76 reloads I purchased last year, but with the cold temperatures I really didn't want to risk the non-ignition fiasco of our last outing. That meant I needed a much higher ceiling and preferably lower winds so I could fly my Flying Colors. The expected altitude for the smallest reload I had available, a Cesaroni 517I255-16A, was 6471'. After noon we started getting some blue patches of sky going over, so I prepared Flying Colors for flight with the I255 reload. When the next patch of blue rolled over us my rocket was launched atop a brilliant red flame and zoomed off into the sky. It weather-cocked a bit into the wind and deployed near apogee as expected. I had a long walk to recover it and discovered that my rocket had received new cosmetic damage, this time on both the payload bay and one of the fins. Due to paint transfer evidence it is obvious that the two parts collided, presumably during deployment of the recovery system. My altimeter recorded a maximum altitude of 6479'.


Video: Flying Colors, Flight 4


Video: Flying Colors, Flight 4 (1/20 normal speed)


Photo Album: 2011-04-09, Start of New Rocket Season

While waiting for a chance to fly my own rocket I shot video of a number of other launches. The videos will be posted to my YouTube playlist for the day as I get them processed.

Scorched Chute

During yesterday's recovery system deployment test I observed some scorching on the parachute. Today I got better pictures of the damage. Nothing that will keep me from using the parachute, but I definitely have to find a way to ensure it doesn't happen again. The last thing I need is for my rocket to come down with the parachute going up in flames.


Photo Album: 2010-10-23, Flying Colors

Flying Colors - Ejection System Ground Test

Today I finally got the recovery system ejection charge tested. I'd been concerned about the system deploying correctly due to how tightly it seemed to fit inside the airframe.

The first challenge to performing this test was the fact that while I'd managed to obtain a spent rear closure for my CTI Pro-38 motor case, I didn't have a forward closure to properly simulate the burn-out condition of the motor. The forward closure in these motors is part of the reload kit. Looking around my garage for something to fabricate a closure from I saw the can I'd been using to mix epoxy in for fiberglassing the airframe and fins. Fiberglassing the fins had in particular resulted in quite a bit of unused epoxy. I cut the can off the epoxy and then used a hole saw to cut a blank from the cleaner portion of the material. I mounted the blank on my hand drill and used this arrangement as a lathe to turn the blank down to the final diameter I needed. I also turned a shoulder on the part to insert into the front of the motor case. The hole saw left too large a hole through the blank, so I epoxied a washer with a small hole on the forward end of my pseudo-closure. I placed tape on the back of the washer before mounting it so that I was able to fill the central hole with epoxy on a second pass. Once the epoxy cured I drilled a 1/16" hole through the epoxy to simulate the hole between the delay charge and the ejection charge in the real motor. I applied double-sided outdoor carpet tape to the shoulder to secure it to the motor case once I had the ejection charge prepared.

I prepared a 1g charge of FFFF black powder by containing it in the tip of the thumb from a nitrile glove. I chose the thumb because I was able to obtain a large opening to pour the pre-measured powder into. Once the powder was in the tip the excess material was cut off. An Estes igniter was placed into the powder. One leg of the igniter was insulated with masking tape in advance of the insertion. Masking tape was used to gather the end of the glove tip together and tightly compact the powder. A drop of CA glue was applied to the opening to help insure it remained closed. The leads of the igniter were threaded through the 1/16" hole in the front of the simulated closure. The leads were restrained on the back of the closure by attaching them with double-sided tape after twisting them with the wires I'd be using to trigger the charge. More tape was placed over these weak unions to help insure they didn't separate. The wires had previously been threaded through the retainer ring, aft motor closure, and the motor case itself. At this stage the protective film was removed from the carpet tape and the simulated closure was stuck to the front of the motor case. Excess wire was drawn back through the motor and the rear closure attached. The assembly was then inserted into the rocket and the retainer ring installed. All that remained was to start the video camera recording, back off to a safe distance, and remotely trigger the charge with a 9-volt battery.

The photos and video show the results.


Video: 2010-10-22, "Flying Colors", Ejection Charge Ground Test


Video: 2010-10-22,"Flying Colors" Ejection Charge Ground Test (Slow Motion)


Photo Album: 2010-10-22,"Flying Colors" Ejection Charge Ground Test

Fin Reinforcement

I finished sanding out the fillets on the fins and decided to get going this evening on the reinforcement of the fins. I set up the airframe on my workbench and applied fiberglass to one side of one set of fins. This time I applied the epoxy before applying the fiberglass. I still had to apply epoxy to the fiberglass after I laid it on the rocket. Unfortunately I'm going to have more sanding to do as the epoxy has obviously settled into the area of the fillets. I'll also have to apply more epoxy to fill the texture of the fiberglass after the current round of epoxy has cured. I'll only be able to do one side of one fin at a time as I'll have to have the fin horizontal while the epoxy is curing. I'm going to first get the glass applied to all three sides of the rocket before I tackle this step. The thing I hate most about it is how wasteful it will be of my epoxy. I have to mix a full pump up and won't come close to using it all. I don't have any projects waiting in the wings that I can use excess epoxy on either. :-(


Photo Album: Tip to Tip Fins

Busy Weekend

On Friday afternoon I installed the centering rings on my engine tube. Since I plan to install an Aero Pack Engine Retainer I had to alter the assembly instructions slightly. The instructions call for the centering rings to be mounted 1/8" from each end of the engine tube, but the motor retainer requires 3/8" for mounting. I checked the fit with the rear centering ring moved 1/4" forward and found that that puts the forward edge of the ring right at the back of the fin slots in the tube, so proceeded to assemble the engine tube in this configuration. I then prepped the bad area of fiberglass on my payload bay tube for patching by sanding out the bad area and feathering out the surrounding area.

On Saturday I fiberglassed, patching my payload bay tube and adding a layer of the fiberglass sleeving to the engine tube between the centering rings. The primary motivation for adding the fiberglass to the engine tube is to account for the extra thickness of the airframe tube when mounting the fins. There is an added benefit in that the fiberglass should also strengthen the connection between the engine tube and the centering rings.

One of these days I will learn that fiberglass doesn't like making 90° bends. I cut the sleeve for the engine tube quite a bit longer than the tube in order to allow for fraying as I worked the sleeve over the centering ring and stretched it out on the engine tube. I thought I'd be able to bend the sleeve up along the centering rings. This proved harder than I anticipated. Once I had my epoxy applied I found that I couldn't keep the fiberglass in contact with the tube as it approached the centering rings. I had a length of the shrink tubing available that was the right length, but I couldn't see how I was going to keep it from contracting lengthwise while I shrunk it as the centering rings would keep me from holding it with my pliers. I decide that I had to try using the tubing anyway, as I wasn't getting what I wanted without it. When I tried to pull the shrink tubing on over the engine tube the fiberglass pulled off the engine tube and ended up a wadded mess inside the shrink tubing. I pulled the shrink tubing back off and straightened out the fiberglass. I ended up doing this twice as a second attempt yielded the same results. I finally resorted to cutting two lengths, each about 1" in length, from the shrink tubing and working them onto the engine tube. After sorting  out the fiberglass yet again I put one at each end of the engine tube and shrank them in place, using my stirring stick from my epoxy to push the tubing sections towards the centering rings as I heated them. I did a better job of this apparently at the forward centering ring than at the aft one. The finished product has a fairly tightly radiused curve in the glass as it transitions up onto the centering ring with the gap under the radius filled with epoxy. At the aft end the radius isn't as tight and there are areas that are not epoxy filled.

On Sunday I installed the engine tube in the airframe and proceeded to install the fins. I had to use my Dremel with an engraving cutter to cut out the radiused fiberglass at the aft centering ring in order to get the fins to insert into the slots. The poor bonding at the aft centering ring worked in my favor in this case, making it easy to remove the obstruction.

On Monday I used Loctite Repair Putty to form fillets between the fins and the airframe. I worked on sanding out the fillets, but ran out of time. More sanding tonight.


Photo Album: Fiberglassing 103

Sanding out the "bulge".

I sanded out the bulge in the fiberglass on the payload bay. Almost as soon as I touched it with the sand paper it disintegrated, leaving a nasty void in the fiberglass with epoxy underneath. Now I have to figure out how to fix it.


Photo Album: 2010-08-24, Patching the Payload Bay

Fiberglassing 102

So today was the day to strip the shrink wrap from the practice tube and see what I had. I'm not completely happy with the results. As you can see in the photos there are areas the appear to correspond with where I started heating the shrink wrap that are not bonded to the underlying tube. The areas are also rough when compared to areas further away, as if there is significantly less epoxy in them. My first impression was that I may have held my heat gun on these areas too long and somehow caused this.

With this information in hand I proceeded to glass the real airframe and payload bay tubes. I decided that the easiest way to do them would be to mount them up adjacent to each other on a single PVC pipe, with a small gap between them. I then slid the fiberglass on them and secured it. When applying the epoxy I again found myself working excess fiberglass down the length of the tubes. Apparently the epoxy is acting as a lubricant and allowing the glass to slide along the tube and I suspect even more importantly along the weave.

I made what I feel was a mistake when I started putting the shrink wrap tubing on. Without thinking about it I started sliding the tube on from the end that I had worked the excess fiberglass down to. As I was pulling the tubing up I started seeing the fiberglass come off of the airframe tube as I was obviously pulling slack up the with the shrink tubing. I stopped and pulled the shrink tubing back off and then pulled it on from the opposite end.

I made sure my heat gun was on its low temperature setting to ensure I didn't overheat the fiberglass, due to my impressions from the practice tube. I shrank the tubing without any apparent complications until I got down to the payload tube. There I had a bulge that I could not get out.

I hung the tube up and let it cure. I then grabbed the practice tube and sanded it with 80 grit paper to prep it for a layer of epoxy per Soller Composite's recommended process. With the tube prepped I applied the epoxy and hung it up to cure.

Next I took the coupler tube and used the fiberglass sleeve to line it. This proved to be somewhat tricky, as the sleeve's natural tendency is to contract, not expand (think Chinese finger trap). This proved to be a real problem after I applied the epoxy. I ended up working the fiberglass until the epoxy got very tacky in order to get it adhered to the inside of the tube. Any force that pulled toward the ends of the tube would cause the sleeve to contract and pull away from the tubing. The ends absolutely refused to bond, particularly the end where I'd started applying the sleeve and had come hard around the end of the tube. It finally got to the point where the epoxy was so tacky that attempting to manipulate the fiberglass any further was doing as much harm as good due to it attempting to adhere to my glove.

Late in the day I was able to use the coupler tube as a gauge and determined that I could strip the shrink tubing from the airframe and payload bay tubes. I was really eager to do this in order to see my results and investigate the bulge on the payload bay. As you can see in the photos the bulge is an area that is not bonded to the underlying tube. My conclusion at this point is that when I smoothed the fiberglass back out after pulling the shrink tubing on from the wrong end that I missed a spot. I thought I had it all, but the evidence speaks for itself.

The main airframe tube looks great. I applied scotch tape over the pre-cut fin slots in order to prevent them getting filled with epoxy. It looks like I left a scrap of tape on the tube, though I really don't remember it. I don't see this as a real problem.

I don't think I'll be able to repair the bulge on the payload bay tube. I do have a solution though. The practice tube has plenty of good sections, so if the original payload bay is unsalvageable I'll cut a new one from the practice tube.

Photo Album: Fiberglassing 102

Fiberglassing 101

Today, for the first time in some 30 years, I did fiberglassing. The last time was working with my Dad to do some body work on a rusted out fender and then he handled the epoxy mixing. Today was the first time I would do the entire process on my own.

For this reason I purchased the practice tube I previously spoke about and today it was time to glass it.

I'm using the West Systems epoxy and fiberglass sleeve sold by Soller Composites with the 207 hardner.

I started by borrowing a trick from Vern Knowles and using foam to make centering rings to mount my tube on a PVC pipe. I then slid the fiberglass sleeve down the tube and used masking tape to secure the first end to the PVC pipe. I then worked the fiberglass back along the tube to make it as snug and even a fit as I could. I used the masking tape to cinch down the sleeve on the second end of the PVC and then borrowed again from Vern. I masked off all but a narrow band of the sleeve and then applied the same 3M Super 77 adhesive he used to prevent fraying. I gave that a bit of time to set up then cut the sleeve off and finished securing the second end to the PVC pipe with more masking tape.

I then mixed up the epoxy using the pumps I'd purchased to ensure the proper ratio of resin and hardner. To apply the epoxy I opted to just pour it onto the fiberglass and then use my gloved hand to spread the it along the tube. The only issue I had was when I was working at the end of the tube the fiberglass wouln't adhere despite having plenty of epoxy. Apparently I still had some slack in the sleeve that I'd not been able to work out during prep. I was not overly concerned about this as I intended to use heat shrink tubing to squeeze out excess epoxy and this would also have the affect of compressing the fiberglass against the tube while the epoxy cured, ensuring there would be no long term issue.

I did find that I'd mixed up more epoxy than I really needed and like my fellow local rocketeers I was trying to find something to do with the excess. Unfortunately I didn't come up with anything. It wasn't a whole lot and I'm not sure that using only 2 pumps of resin and hardner would have made enough epoxy.

The heat shrink tubing went on without any difficulty and performed as advertised. The tube is now hung (as recommended by Jon Soller) in the garage while it cures. Tomorrow I intend to strip the shrink tubing from it and dismount it from the PVC so I can glass the real airframe, payload bay, and coupler tubes. Fortunately the heat shrink tubes that were missing from my order showed up in the mail today.

Photo Album: Fiberglassing 101

Ordering Fiasco

I placed the order for the fiberglassing materials for use on the Vulcanite on July 28th or 29th with Soller Composites. (I can't tell from the receipt generated by Soller which day it was.) On the afternoon of the 29th I received an email from the sales department stating they were out of stock on the nitrile gloves I'd ordered and that they expected to have them back in stock on Monday (presumably August, 2nd) and asking if I wanted to wait for them to arrive. I replied that I would wait until they could ship the entire order. I was expecting an email to tell me my order had shipped on the 2nd. When I hadn't heard anything by the afternoon of the 4th I sent an email inquiring about the order status. I got back an email (with a time stamp more than an hour before I sent my inquiry) stating the order was still being held pending delivery of the gloves and they expected them to be back in stock later in the week. I again agreed to continue waiting. By August 11th I was tired of waiting and called them up and left a voice mail advising them to cancel the gloves and ship the order posthaste. I followed the phone call with a an email stating the same. That afternoon I got an email stating that my order was shipped and provided two tracking numbers. While Jon Soller had said it would only take UPS three or four days to get the order to me, it took the full week I had predicted, so I finally got the order on August 18th. I inspected the order and discovered that I'd only been shipped one of the three shrink tubes I'd ordered. I called and left a voice mail stating the deficiency. On the morning of the 19th I received an email stating that a package had been shipped via USPS priority mail, so I assume my missing tubes are on their way.

In the mean time Soller charged my credit card for the full amount of the purchase on July 30th, a charge that included the cost of the nitrile gloves. To date they have not applied the credit for the gloves, so I will be back on the phone with them on Monday.

Due to the quality of service I've received so far I really wish there were another vendor out there selling the fiberglass sleeving material. So far Soller is the only vendor I've found. I've also not heard any complaints from the other local rocketeers that have used their services, so hopefully my experiences are an isolated event.

Order Recieved

I received my order today from Apogee Components. It consisted of my practice airframe tube and Modern High Power Rocketry - 2nd Edition. There was a short delay in getting my order filled because Apogee was out of stock on the book. They did a good job of keeping me informed on the issue and when my order shipped. While I'd have liked my order to have shipped right away I have no complaint with how the situation was handled.

The book was highly recommended by several members of the local Tripoli chapter and has already started showing its value, providing some guidance on how I should fiberglass my fins. With this additional input I have finally made up my mind on how I want to proceed and must now select my fiberglass materials and get them ordered.

Hopefully in another week I'll be ready to start glassing the rocket.

Stepping up to a High Power Rocket.

I've made my choice for the rocket I intend to use to my get Level 1 and Level 2 TRA Certifcations. I'm going to build an LOC/Precision Vulcanite H76 kit, with numerous upgrades. I'm following the upgrade recommendations that can be found on the Apogee Rockets web site in order to beef it up for flights on the J class motors.

I ordered the kit from Hobbylinc.com. The order was shipped within 1 day and delivered promptly via FedEx Ground, arriving in Idaho from Georgia 5 days after I placed my order. Kudos to both for fine service.

Since the first upgrade will be to fiberglass the airframe I'm also ordering an LOC airframe tube of the same dimensions as the main tube in the kit  from Apogee Rockets. This tube will be my practice piece before committing to glassing the real tubes from the kit. If it comes out good I'll have it available for use on a future project.

The packaged kit as it arrived.

The components of the kit laid out.