K Up Yonder
This is a custom, 54mm minimum diameter airframe, based on a KestreL kit from 3 Dogs Rocketry. The name is a play on "Way Up Yonder", chosen when the intended initial motor was the Cesaroni Pro54 6xl K300 long-burn reload.
Motivation
My original objective with this airframe was to "need" the high altitude window at the NCR North launch site in 2010. This would have had the consequence of raising my personal altitude record from 14141 feet AGL on an L730 in my Vertical Assault. A secondary objective was to take one of our TeleMetrum altimeters higher than it has ever gone before and demonstrate successful GPS based recovery with it. Unfortunately, thanks to weather conditions and related issues, this airframe did not fly in 2010.
I pondered various airframe and other materials choices and designs over several months. John's introduction of the Kestrel kit with an introductory special including the Cesaroni Pro54 6xl case and associated tail cone rear closure was too good pass up. However, as is often the case, I won't be building this kit stock!
Design Details
From the kit, we get:
- 54mm convolute fiberglass air frame
- 54mm Von Karman fiberglass nose cone
- 3/32" G10 fins
- Cesaroni Pro54 6xl case and tail cone rear closure
- G10 bulkheads and coupler stock
To which I added:
- TeleMetrum avionics in the nose cone
- 5.6oz 2x2 twill carbon fiber and 6oz glass tip to tip on fin can