National Association of Rocketry Junior Level One Certification (AMRAAM-3)

[Chris LaPanse]

This is my thread about my successful NAR HPR Junior Level One Certification, allowing me to build and fly rockets with up to 640 newton seconds of total impulse, or a full sized I motor (this is NOT your typical estes rocketry here). The kit I built is a Public Missiles Limited (www.publicmissiles.com) AMRAAM-3 3" scale model of the US Air Force Advanced medium Range Ait to Air Missile (AMRAAM). The body tube is Quantum Tube, a PML trademarked high-strength, shatter resistant plastic, and the fins are G10 fiberglass (WAY stronger than the fiberglass in my boat - almost no flex, incredibly strong, and perfectly flat and smooth on both sides). The motor mount has a 54mm mothertube, with a 38mm or a 29mm adapter that can be screwed in to fly smaller motors (a standard estes motor is 18mm, an estes D motor is 24mm). The complete data sheet can be found here: https://secure.consumersinterest.com/pml/images/AMRAAM3DataSheet.pdf

I will start out by posting a picture of all the pieces on the kitchen table.

[Chris LaPanse]

Here is the motor mount and motor adapters with the centering rings and threads glued on. Anyone who's done estes rockets probably recognizes this with the only difference being that I can fit my smallest estes rocket (a star dart) in this motor tube!

[Chris LaPanse]

Here is the shock cord mount - it is attached directly to the outside of the motor mount with 30min epoxy - it isn't going anywhere:

[Chris LaPanse]

Here is the motor mount installed in the rocket (a 2" mount in a 3" rocket? What am I thinking?)

[Chris LaPanse]

Here is the side view after I installed the bottom fins

[Chris LaPanse]

Here is a rear view showing how the fins fit through slots in the body tube and how each fin is reinforced with epoxy in all 6 places they contact a tube (both sides of the fin on the motor mount, on the inside othe body tube, and on the outside of the body tube)

[Chris LaPanse]

And with the rear centering ring installed:

[Chris LaPanse]

Here it is with the canards installed: (but no recovery system yet)

[Chris LaPanse]

And with the recovery system installed:
total of 15 feet of 3/4" tubular nylon shock cord, 2000lbs breaking strength
Piston to eliminate the need for wadding and to ensure a safe and immediate parachute deployment
48" conical parachute made from 1.1oz ripstop nylon with an 8" spill hole to prevent drift

[Chris LaPanse]

Here is my set of motor casings. The red one on the right is the one I used in this rocket, the far left one is the size of a standard estes motor, the one next to it the size of a D motor.

[Chris LaPanse]

Here is the rocket after paint and decaling (a LOT of decaling)

[Chris LaPanse]

And there you have it, how to build a pml high power rocket (abridged and without the epoxy fumes). Here it is on the pad (same pic as in the other thread)http://forums.radiocontrolzone.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=55507&stc=1

[Chris LaPanse]

Liftoff:
http://forums.radiocontrolzone.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=55508&stc=1

[Chris LaPanse]

Here it is climbing out. Although in the first pic, it appears to be going slightly crooked, it really was a minor wobble, and straightened out immediately into an arrow-straight flight.

[Chris LaPanse]

Climbing higher:

[Chris LaPanse]

Near burnout

[Chris LaPanse]

Here it is under chute about 2/3 of the way down - around 500' up (expected altitude was 1500 feet)

[bugfanatic]

Perfect, absolutely perfect. Nice way to start off the 'Off Topic' section. Great pics, great explanation, nicely done!

[MattHiggins]

Very cool stuff. Now I just need one of those for my Limited Sport Hydro.

[Chris LaPanse]

Thanks for the complements. BTW - Matt, how would you like a FLYING LSH? That motor casing puts out (depending on what type of propellant you put into it:
Blackjack (slow burn, thick black smoke): H73J, 3.5 sec burn, 16-17lbs avg thrust, 180 newton seconds total impulse
White Lightning (thick white smoke, large white flame, med burn, what I used): H123W, 2.5 sec burn, 25lbs avg thrust, 230 newton/seconds total impulse
Redline (fast burn, large red flame,thin white smoke): H148R, 1.5 second burn, 35lbs average thrust, 220 newton seconds total
Blue Thunder (VERY fast burn, no smoke, small blue flame) H242T, 1 sec burn, 45-50lbs average thrust, 230 newton seconds total

Compare these stats to an Estes C6 motor:
Black Powder (Very fast burn, low specific impulse, small yellow flame, thin white smoke)
1.4lbs average thrust
1.5 second burn
8.7 newton seconds total

See a difference? :D
As you can tell, I really like rocketry; it and rc boating are my two major hobbies. If you guys want, I can post a new thread at the end of the summer (i'm spending my summer job money on 4 or 5 new rockets and a COMPLETE set of 29 and 38mm casings), so I could post a build thread showing the construction during the build instead of after the fact. Also, I will be flying my first I motor at the end of the summer, so I could also post pics of that (my biggest motor so far is the aforementioned H123W)

[Doubledog]

Thanks for the article CL. Interesting... but tempting is more like it.

Talk a little more about these motors. I'm reading the charges/propellants. The red cannister is the casing but is it reloadable? Roughly whats the cost of such? Theres more into this & we're going to get it out of you. LOL.

[Chris LaPanse]

Yes, the red tube is a motor casing. The different motors I described (other than the C6) are all different reloads for this casing using different propellants. I am planning on inreasing my casing collection by a lot this summer. They are all reloadable and reuseable, and all are made out of T6 heat treated aluminum. The cost of a casing is about $70 for a 38mm high power casing with the end closures, and about $30 to $40 for one without the end closures (once you have one with closures, the closures can be used with all other casings of that diameter). The reloads cost $15-20 each for that casing, and for high power reloads (that I can fly), they cost anything from $8.07 (Aerotech F37W) to $49.87 (Cesaroni I540). The casings I am certified to fly range from the Dr Rocket 29/60 (29mm diameter by 3.5") to the Dr Rocket 38/720 (38mm diameter by 13.8") or the Cesaroni Pro38 5 grain case (38mm by 14.2")

[Doubledog]

Was at Wally World the other day and came across the Estes kits. Stood there looking and then started smiling from ear to ear thinking that it would be cool to own one for myself. Said something about 600 ft altitude w/ 'such & such' motor. The cost of the RTF kit isn't that bad even after a few extra packs of motors. Okay, wheels are turning now. :D

[Chris LaPanse]

yep - I don't know of any estes kit more than about $30-$35 (except on new rocket they have with a videocamera on board for about $70). With motors, it shouldn't be more than about $30-$40 max, and although 600 feet and a C6 (the motor it probably said for 600 feet, as well as the one I compared to my H motors) motor don't sound like much next to mine, 600 feet is respectable (for a rocket that size), and about as much as you'd ever want to fly from a baseball field unless it is DEAD calm. Also, you might want to find a local NAR section (NAR club) and just visit it once or twice and see some big ones. Also, they would provide the launch equipment for your rocket if you decided to join (some even let you fly low power without joining). A club list can be found at http://nar.org/NARseclist.asp (sorted by zip code #). Which kit is it, btw? Also, sometimes, it can be better to get a kit than an RTF. Some are very easy to assemble, and are cheaper and better performance than the RTF's (usually lighter, due to the fins being balsa instead of plastic and the lighter tubing).

[speeeeed_boat]

Wow gettin one of those would be a blast (literally :D )! I managed to get one of those cheap Estes kits pretty high up. It was the MaxTrax (the name tells you its cheap :D ) and I used C6-5 engines. It had an altimeter (which has since been lost on a roof) that registered an altitude of 902.3 feet. Not too bad if you put it up against something like these rockets you can launch :cool:

[Chris LaPanse]

Yep, the MaxTrax is OK for an Estes rocket, although the altimeter is junk. Someone on a rocketry forum once stuck a real barometric altimeter in a MaxTrax, and found the altimeter included (which is really just a timer that times it's fall from apogee) is usually only 80% accurate. Sometime, I would like to get an altimeter and put it in the payload bay (the top section) of my rocket to see what altitude it actually can reach. Also, Estes aren't all junk - most of the rockets I own are estes (although the percentage is shrinking). They are still good when you just want to go out to a baseball field and launch a few rockets (instead of all of the procedures you have to go through to fly the big stuff).

[Chris LaPanse]

The AMRAAM-3 flew again this weekend, on an H148 Redline motor. It was a beautiful flight, to 1650 or so feet with one problem (more on that later). Here is a liftoff shot (note the red flame):

[Chris LaPanse]

Here it is under chute. Now, if you look carefully, you'll notice that some of the forward (canard) fins are missing (two, to be exact). This happened sometime after motor burnout and before landing, and I'm really not sure exactly when or what caused it. Luckily for me, the canards can be purchased seperately, for only $2.50 a fin, so it is an easy fix.