The Last Flight of Brent Dougherty's Predator Rocket

[candlstudios]

I want that 7 minutes of my life back. Boooorrrring.

[mrFragaz]

that sucked. TD'd

[vonrang]

So, if the rocket soared off, 7 minutes and 10 seconds would have been fine?This is just a film that covered the events of a failed flight. Sometimes you have to take the bad with the bad.

[vonrang]

It wasn't even my rocket and I felt crushed by it. The formula for the thermite igniter for the central 98mm motor was mixed with the amounts of each chemical reversed, which resulted in the central 98mm motor's failure to ignite. The failure was really no one person's fault. These things happen in rocketry.

[JDrockerDUDE]

@vonrang oh ok. still beautiful rocket, shame it didnt go far.

[slash778]

Shit man. Thats horrible.

[vonrang]

It was horrible. A complete let down. Everyone was bummed.

[JDrockerDUDE]

@vonrang wtf did you do wrong?

[hoardpm]

What kind of financial investment does a rocket of this caliber take?

[vonrang]

Brent used Sono Tubes for the airframe, plywood for bulkhead sections & fins. Phenolic tube motor mounts, plywood rings hold the tubes to form a fin can. Turned a block of wood for the nose cone form to cast a fiberglass nose cone, Aluminum base plate for the motor mount, altimeter, parachutes, rigging. Brent purchased a 98mm motor, seven 38mm motors from Binder Design and made all of the fuel himself. The main expense for Brent was all of the time and effort it took to put it all together. 8^{(

[vonrang]

The total financial investment in making a rocket like this is not a great deal of money. Probably well under $500.00 including electronics. The real cost is the amount of time one invests in constructing a rocket like this.

[vonrang]

It was a total heart breaker!

[tlfettled]

OUCH I BET THAT SUCKED BIG TIME .

[vonrang]

It was heart breaking!

[vonrang]

There is a full video of Brent's very successful flight of the very cool Predator Rocket on the LDRS/26 Video!

[nicksynnz]

Hey the rocket looked cool