I’ve decided for sure that I want to go for my Level 3 High-Power Rocketry certification as my next major project, and I want to shoot for launching it at Red Glare, down at Higgs Farm in Price, MD, in April. I’ve tentatively settled on a 7.5″ diameter airframe (possibly sono tube that has been reinforced with fiberglass and vacuum-bagged) and a small Loki Research M motor. So far the simulations are looking good. This rocket will be a lot of work and a lot of money, but I am looking forward to it almost as a kind of break. See, my last rocket work was Jujubee. It was a cool project, with lots and lots of new ground I had to break. I was re-inventing everything just to make it fit within my size constraints while still meeting the strict stress requirements imposed by the cannon launcher… I’m looking forward to being able to just do something straightforward and simple, with room and thrust to spare.
On a side note, tomorrow I’ll be receiving my Bladerunner I ordered from rctoys.com. I had some project ideas relating to this (mostly focusing around trying to use back-EMF and inertial/magnetic sensors to close the loop and eliminate most of the need to trim the motors, and possibly even make it semi-autonomous). But now with the new focus on the Level 3 project, this will probably be relegated to “toy” status for a while.
What else? Well, me and Heeten are probably moving around the end of March. It’s a house with a small garage (suitable for curing epoxy, etc), a spare bedroom, and (best of all) a basement that I can move my little machine shop into.