• Home

• Kit Docs

• Kit Mods

• CG/CP Examination

• Construction Info and Notes

• Active Recovery Info

FLASH !!! - A test flight was undertaken on July 3rd, 2010 with an Aerotech L1150 3grain 75mm motor. Pictures of the specially modified launch pad and a couple of movies of the flight are found on the Construction Page. The L3 cert. flight is currently planned for July 31, 2010 at the NAR Annual Meet (NARAM-52). This will be the first time that such a certification flight has been scheduled in associated with the oldest sport rocketry gathering in the world. Selected for this flight is a CTI-M1230 4 grain 75mm motor. Links to these motor thrust curves have been added to the middle of this page.

This website is meant to be a repository for my L3 HPR (High Power Rocketry) certification project's documentation An L3 certification is the last of three such certifications and is culminated with a successful flight demonstrating an individual's ability to successfully integrate electronic controlled recovery systems into a HPR flying with motors having at least 5,120.01 Newtons-secs total impulse (1150.61 pounds of force -sec).

My experience with well over 100 flights of various wide-bodied "flying saucer" looking 'odd-rocs', including my L1 certification flight with a spinning cubit (1/2 of a cube, best described as three complete sides of a cube) suggested that this would make a good choice for my final certification project. Unlike that attempt however the airframe cannot be built for a mere 17 cents. In fact this attempt will encompass a more involved level of engineering than an L3 project consisting of the more conventional "3 fins, nose cone, and body tube" type of rocket.

Previous flight experience with this design indicates that the maximum achieveable altitude will not exceed 1500 feet above ground level when using either the L850 or M1297 Aerotech brand motors planned for flight testing and the certification flights.

I will be taking a non-marketed (beta-level) kit of parts produced by Art Applewhite and modifying it to encompass the "active recovery" issues presented by the NAR (national Association of Rocketry's Board of Trustees and administered by the NAR L3CC (Level 3 Certification Committee). More of the specifics on the beta-kit, the modifications, the issues on the Active Recovery itself, and the stability characteristics of wide-bodied odd-rocs can be found on their respective webpages linked to on the left.

Pictures of the assembly process will be included here as well as any construction notes, again on a specific webpage linked on the left.