Involver

I've dedicated this page to the design, construction, and flight of my TRA Level 3 project. It differs a little bit in layout from my other pages, because the project is a little bit more involved than the others I've worked on, requiring complete documentation of the design, construction, and flight. From the time that I discovered High Power Rocketry, I knew I wanted to be one of those crazy guys who flies M motors. Involver is my path to get there.

Design

OK, it was worth staying up late tonight to finish and put up the TAP package. PLEASE let me know what you think of it. I'm soliciting responses from everyone I can find to help me out with this monster...

That notwithstanding, for those of you who don't really care to read the nitty gritty details and want a general overview, here's the plan:

Working from the top down, the parts include a PML nose cone, 7.5" phenolic airframe tubing (wrapped in two layers of carbon), a main parachute (size to be decided from final rocket weight), the electronics bay built into a PML coupler, the drogue compartment, an anti-zipper coupler housing the upper end of the 6" motor mount, three fins built from 0.375" baltic birch, and a boattail rolled from 1/64 aircraft ply, foamed, and glassed. The rocket is designed for flights on up to mid-P motors, and can accept the 60" Loki 50,000 Ns motor casing.

The planned certification motor is an Aerotech M2500T. This will be housed in a 4" motor mount adapter for the certification flights. Another reason for including the 6" motor mount was to accept the future possibility of additional motor adapters, including a 4x 54mm cluster mount, and various 5" motor designs. Altitude predicted on the M2500T is around 6000 feet, while the maximum altitude on a Loki-cased P motor is projected at around 31,000 feet.

This project should be a very flexible and versatile platform for trying many new ideas, including on-board transmitting video, GPS systems, and perhaps functioning as a booster for a 6" sustainer project. Involver is named after the 2004 release by DJ Sasha (Alexander Coe).

Parts and Construction

On 3/2/2005, the airframe tubing, nose cone, centering rings, and bulkplates for the main airframe arrived from PML. I took a bunch of pictures as the box came apart... great packing job to protect everything on its way!

Parts in the box	Setting them out in the backyard...	...because it doesn't fit in the house!
Four centering rings for the tube, and one to fit inside the coupler... yeah, that's a 6" hole!	Near minimum diameter 7.5" rocket... good grief, what have I done?

The rest of the parts for the rocket arrived a few days later from Bill Rossi. The fins were expertly cut out of plywood and beveled beautifully. Bill even threw in the extra coupler bulkplates that I needed to finish the e-bay. What a guy!

It was about 10:30 when I got home and got the fins out of the package, but I still couldn't resist setting it up inside the house. Yeah, I live in a normal house. No, I don't have a special door for midgets. Yes, that is a large hobby rocket.

The pic to the right is of the first test fit in the backyard. It was windy, and my hair was having a bad day. Oh wait, my hair always has a bad day. But the rocket does look good...

I recently got TAP approval for the project, and am currently in the process of picking up the final supplies for the rocket. Unfortunately Aircraft Spruce is on "indefinite backorder" for Carbon Fiber thanks to the "confrontation" or "struggle" or whatever they're calling it these days... guess this isn't gonna happen until I get out of college and we get out of this... um... "dispute"?