Type

Payloader 1 (PL1) is a 3x24mm cluster model built to test electronic recovery devices.

She is a BT-60 airframe model with a 95mm (C/D/E) central motor mount and two 70mm (C/D) motor capable BT-50 outboards. The recovery system is a baffled piston design and the fins are TWMM 1/8" basswood. She's just over one meter long and comes in at 2.2N dry and naked.

Design criteria

A couple things dictated the design of this particular rocket:

1. My club's launch site is near a lake and the prevailing launch winds seem to always blow in it's direction (afternoon upslope flow along the foothills of the Rockies). I don't want to dunk this rocket, so her flight characteristics need to be as predictable as possible. The clustered motors are more to get her off the rod at high velocity than to lift a heavy payload. A high launch velocity will help minimize tip off in the everpresent crosswinds and give a more vertical, and hopefully predictable, flight profile. So far, she's exhibited vertical flights in both loaded and unloaded test flights, albeit in light crosswinds.

2. The first electronics tests will be simple timer circuits to implement a pseudo dual deployment; drogue (booster chute) by motor ejection, main (payload section) by electronic timer. A consistent flight path will make this testing easier. Although she's long and skinny (not good for large AOA corrections), she'll have a larger than "normal" moment of rotation about the CG due to the mass of the payload, recovery system(s), and clustered motors. With a high velocity off the rod, she should be a fairly consistent and predictable flyer.