Progress update

This week we continued with the nosecone plug and it's now ready to start forming nosecones. I need to get some mould release agent this week so we can start. The fiberglass is all cut up as well. The guys on  Australian rocketry's forum as well as the Yahoo water rocket forum have given me some really good tips on on preparing the mold and the upcoming moulding process.

We also pressure tested 3 more of the spliced quads to 270psi. We have 5 of these now ready for flight, with two more to be fiberglassed this week.  So far we are quite happy with the quads, but until we test them on real rockets with the kind of forces they will experience in flight and landing we won't know for sure.

To get an idea on what we are up against, we assembled the spliced quads into the Phase 3 main stage, and put a representative sustainer on top. The boosters and fins are not shown.Once on the pad it will sit at least another foot off the ground. We will definitely need a full size ladder for launch day. :)

Last night I also prepared the 3 fins to be used on Phase 1 of the rocket. All three of them weigh 83 grams, but will need to be attached to the removable fin can which will likely double that weight.