| TigerShark! BT-70 based twin 24mm upscale of the original 'LandShark' |
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HOW TO BUILD A SHARK: Start with a Fliskits twin 24mm canted motor mount kit for maxi Deuces Wild or scratch build your own. Use the cut out template supplied with the kit but locate it 3/4" lower on the tube for deeper MMT installation. Yes, I used 30 min epoxy on the motor mount kit, this baby's gonna rock the sky ! |
Take Apogee BT70 size plastic nosecone, and first cut the shoulder 3/4" long, then notch the shoulder on opposite sides to fit over canted motor mount. A razor saw works great on this... Heat tops of the cut outs carefully with a lighter or ye to soften up the plastic and use a spent (preferred) Estes D or E motor casing to gently push sides in for the canted MMT's to clear. Do a little at a time and try until it fits snug... |
Here's another view, it's easier to see from this angle. Dry fit everything together before glueing, these babies usually take a little bit of tinkering, some patience, a gentle touch and about two bottles of cheap red wine per step to get the fit right.... |
Epoxy the motor mount in the BT-70 tube, When it's dried, epoxy the chopped up nosecone, now a tailcone in. While that mess is drying, go ahead and cut up three plywood or basswood fins. I used 1/8" aircraft lite 5 ply. Free form your fins to loosely resemble your fav shark, or scale up the ones on the bottom of 'LandShark' page like I did. Root cord is 4.25", semi span is 4", edges beveled on belt sander... It takes a bit of playing to get the root to fit the nc ogive shape right. Use 30 min epoxy. |
After carefully lining up and tacking in the dorsal and pectral fins ( Hey, we're talking about a Shark here, not any rocket with just 'forward' fins ) with CA first, it starts to look like a Shark! When you're happy with the alignment, do all the fillets with 30 min epoxy. These are big fins and if one motor misfires, there'll be a wallop of twist on them... Remember to sand glazing off the tube and tailcone first thou... I used 1/8" ply on these too, these are easier since the root cord is not curved. Root cord length is 3" as well as the semi span too... Front of the fins is 4" from the top of the tube. Ahh... that reminds me, the trailing edge of the main fins is 1" forward from the tip of the tail cone. Or ye, this really ain't rocket science... |
| I made the coupler into a baffle with a couple of home baked bulkheads all drilled up and a half of a Dutch Chore Boy stainless steel pot scrubber off the Wallyworld epoxied together. A length of 300# Kevlar cord threaded thru the baffle and tied into the bottom end of the baffle makes for a perfect shock cord mount... I epoxied this into the bottom body tube only. Front tube is a friction fit with a permanently attached Fliskits maxi Deuce nc for a center break zipperless design... (Oops - I did it again... playing in the background) |
Here she is with the original ! Next up will be the launch lugs - 1/4" Acme conformals - motor retention if any - I hate taping RMS casings - paint job and decals, then it's off to the launches !! Length 48.5" Weight at this point 10.5 oz. Yes, I'm trying to keep her light, after all she's supposed to be a 'lean, mean, cloud-eating machine' |
TigerShark! had her maiden flight 02-18-2006 Check out the 'Videos' page for a clip of my latest Shark going up on twin Estes D12-3's I wanted to launch her with twin E9-6's but due to strong high altitude winds causing me to fish 3 rockets off the trees I decided to keep her closer to the ground. Even so you can see a nice little 'twirl' on her smoketrail right after burn-out... |
TigerShark! flew again on 03-18-2006 Here she is finally with a halfway decent paintjob ! I had some issues with my new airbrush on the first time around, so I had to redo her furcoat... She is still missing all the decals, now my printer is on a fritz - again ! ( I'm having it with Lexmarks ) This time I let her roar on twin E9-6's, she did quite a corkscrew, so next launch is going to be with a bit noseweight and more power... |