We didn't get a chance to test the sustainer this weekend as it literally rained non-stop the whole weekend, as well as strong winds on Saturday with gusts up to 80km/h. This is the second weekend we haven't been able to launch. :(
We stayed indoors and continued the development. We made good progress with the Acceleron III pod, mounting the servos in it and connecting the staging mechanism to the servo. We did a dry test to see if the servo had enough strength to release the Gardena staging mechanism and it looked good. We also fitted a micro-switch to the TDD so now the flight computer will be able to know when burnout has happened.
We now only really need to finish building the flight computer and making the parachute and the rocket will be ready to go. We will still need to do a few full system tests with staging and parachute deployment before the actual launch.
We also tested the spliced bottle we glued a few weeks back. We pressurised it up to 100psi and it held well. We didn't want to burst test it as there is no guarantee that the next splice will be as strong. We will test these splices to perhaps 20% above operating pressure without destructive testing.
We will make up a number of these spliced pairs (as opposed to sliced pears) and then make our first rocket out of them.
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