So it’s 2:40am and I’m eating a sammich before hitting the bed. Haven’t had lots of free time for food the last couple of days.
So is Jujubee done? Of course not! I still have to lathe up a coupler in the morning. The electronics are all wired up and tested (mostly). Besides the coupler, all that needs to be done is to tie everything together (the chutes, couplers, and airframe sections), pack the chutes, make up some charges for the electric matches, and attach the igniter. Most of that will happen at the field anyway.
I think I just might pull it off. There are some compromises I’ve had to make that, while imperfect, helped me make good progress. For example I cut the fin slots in the airframe but didn’t have time to cut out (and then carbon-fiber over and cure) the fins themselves… so I just cut the fin can from the last Jujubee and that should work ok. I also tried embedding the copper tape underneath the carbon fiber (with a layer of insulation), making it seamless. Unfortunately by the time I’d squared up the tube, the copper situation didn’t look very good. The compromise is to go with outer copper “racing stripes”. They’ll tarnish, but they’ll take about 2 minutes to replace.
With all the extra weight of the new couplers and electronics, the latest (crude) simulation is putting Jujubee at just under 8700 feet up, and 1043 fps peak velocity (about Mach 0.93). That is without the cannon, though.
I hope I have the presence of mind to get some good pictures of this rocket before I send it to its fate. Even with the (medium-grade) RF locator, I still bet it’s a crap shoot whether I ever see this thing again or not.