Level III Certification
September 9, 2000
"Leap'n Lizard"
Trevor spent a good part of the summer building this 15-footer! The altimeters said it went up about 7800 feet and hit about 500mph peak velocity. Peak acceleration was about 5.5 G's. Powered flight lasted 6 seconds, and the rocket reached apogee at about 22 seconds. It took about 5 minutes to float down under the parachute. It was launched at a Tripoli event held out in the middle of a dry lake bed at Black Rock Desert, Nevada (about an hour north of Reno).
The following documents are in PDF format. You'll need the Adobe Acrobat Reader to read and print. It's free, and works across the major platforms (PC and Mac).
Here are the gory details for the rocketeers in the group:
- lvl3construct.pdf - construction narrative (8Kb)
- lvl3drawings.pdf - drawings and schematics (115Kb)
- lvl3check.pdf - pre-flight checklist (4Kb)
- lvl3parts.pdf - parts list (4Kb)
- lvl3data.pdf - basic flight datasheet (6Kb)
- lvl3calcs.pdf - pre-flight prediction calculations (5Kb)
- lvl3thrust.gif - actual thrust plot (15Kb)
- lvl3plot.gif - actual velocity/altitude/acceleration plot (20Kb)
If you'd like to contact Trevor: duhTrev@aol.com
Here's a good view of the electronics compartment. Two electronic altimeters were on board, each of which sent two leads to two separate parachute-eject charges. The various pins are pulled out to turn on the power and initialize the electronics.
Trevor and the proud Grand Dad pose for this picture of the rocket.
Buzz Aldrin signed Trevor's rocket at the AIAA Conference in Long Beach, CA on September 20, 2000.
Leap'n Lizard was equipped with an 18-foot parachute and an M-class motor (Trevor's holding the motor casing).
The rocket was built in 4 pieces: tail section with motor and fins, two mid-sections (the lower one carried the electronics, and the upper the parachute), and a nose cone. A couple other rocket projects (different colors) are strewn about the FRL (Foster Rocket Lab).
Here's the tail section being painting.
Each of the two little cups held 5 grams of powder for the parachute ejection charges. Both ignited as planned, though one would have done the trick.
In the background is the rocket (orange/yellow on black) with which Trevor received his Level I certification, "Fractal Rocket". Behind it is the largest surviving piece (gray-green) of a StarBooster modeling flight.
Email: jamie@jf2.com
Home page: http://www.jf2.com
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