I acheived a milestone in high power rocketry this weekend by certifying as Level 1. For non-rocket types, that means I can now fly H and I motors in my rockets. If you’ve ever flown model rockets, you are probably familiar with the small A motor. Each letter is double the impluse in Newtons of the previous letter. This makes an H equal to 128 A motors and an I equal to 256 A motors for anywhere between 160 and 640 Newtons of total impluse. Pretty cool, huh?

So here are some pictures of my rocket and flight:

This attempt was made at MRFF 2005 (Midwest Regional Fun Fly) at Bong State Recreation Area, about 10 miles west of Kenosha, WI. The rocket is a PML Tethys built almost completely stock. Instead of the included launch lugs, I opted for PML rail guides. Also, since I may fly this on a small J motor for a Level 2 attempt, I used PML’s expanding foam to fill the cavity in the fin can. This provides strength and stability in the the fins without compromising weight. Lastly I added PML’s motor retention (I just bought Dr Rocket’s 38mm motor hardware. No way am I friction fitting my motor for this flight!). The motor for this flight was an Aerotech H123 White Lightning, medium delay.

It was a pretty successful flight… right up to the point where it landed in a rocket-eating tree. It took my dad and me about two hours to retrieve it (What better way to spend Father’s Day Weekend that helping your fully grown adult son get his rocket out of a tree). At that point, I wasn’t as concerned about actually certifying as I was about getting my brand new 38mm motor hardware back. But in the end, I was certified.

Thanks to Tim Lehr of Wildman Rocketry for all his help!

For non-rocket types, flyrockets.com has some good info on How Rockets Work. They also have good pictures if you want to see what these things look like.

Well, I had planned on attempting my Tripoli Level 1 Certification (that’s High Power Rocketry lingo for H and I motors for you non-rocket types) at the Midwest Regional Fun Fly. MRFF is usually put on as a joint effort between NIRA (Northern Illinois Rocketry Association) and WOOSH (Wisconsin Organization Of Spacemodeling Hobbyists). However, this year it looked like only NIRA would be there as they were the only one’s with it on the calendar. As such, I scrubbed my plans to make a L1 attempt. NIRA dropped their Tripoli association (I believe), and I prefer to certify with Tripoli since most of the HPR (High Power Rocketry) launches I attend are Tripoli. WOOSH is a Tripoli group, but it looked like they wouldn’t be there.

Now I see that they have it on their calendar. They also have this nifty little handout. So it looks like my attempt may be back on.

The problem is, I slowed way down on construction of my L1 project since I didn’t expect to be launching it this weekend. Granted, there isn’t that much left to do, just finish the paint and install motor retention. But with limited time between now and Saturday, that may be a bit of a scramble to complete. So I will scramble and get it flight ready by Saturday morning.

If there is time, I will post pictures and details of the project from start to finish.