Checklist and a sponsorship!

Sorry for the lack of updates. work and travel have taken over a bit.

T-2 weeks and counting until lift-off!

I’ve added a page for my pre-flight checklist. you can see it here: http://mylevel3.wordpress.com/pre-flight-checklist/ this is a work in progress, so let me know if you think I’m missing anything obvious.

My rocket now has a few sponsors! I took my rocket into a local automotive paint dealer, The Ultimate Paint Shop in Lake Bluff to get an early start on the paint job(weather has been bad in the Chicago area, they have an indoor paint booth). By the time I left their facility, I had two firm sponsors, with the possibility of adding more.

I checked with my TAP sponsors to make sure it would be ok to have ‘professionals’ finish the exterior – they were all for it. Feels a bit strange – I have no idea what the rocket is going to look like when they are done. I picked out the primary colors, but told them they could add their logo’s and names as necessary for the sponsorships. The one thing I can be sure of is the paint job will certainly look a lot better than if I did it.

In the meantime, I’ve been finishing up the programming on the Altimeters and prepping the GPS & trackers. I decided to add a terminal block for my raven to simply the connection process since it has a common ground. I also learned something new about my Marsa4. I’ve been running low on my ematch supply (Wildman ejection charge lighters), so I ordered a few Quest Q2G2 long’s to use as ematches. I use the Q2’s a lot for lpr rockets as they are very easy to set up, and are extremely reliable. The Q2’s require a very small current to go off. Turns out the Marsa4 puts out enough milliamps during it’s continuity check to ignite the Q2’s. Reinforces the “ground test, ground test, ground test” adage. I will use the Wildman ejection lighters for the marsa4, and the Q2G2’s for the raven.