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BSD High Power Rocketry Horizon (3")

BSD High Power Rocketry - Horizon (3") {Kit}

Contributed by Peter Valenteen

Construction Rating: starstarstarstarstar_border
Flight Rating: starstarstarstarstar
Overall Rating: starstarstarstarstar_border
Manufacturer: BSD High Power Rocketry

Brief:
The 3" Horizon is an easy to build sturdy mid-power kit geared towards mid-power beginners. It flies on a single 29mm motor, RMS or SU.

Modifications:
Recovery system as detailed below.

Construction:
-3" diameter tube 26" in length
-12" plastic nosecone with 2" shoulder
-three 1/8" thick plywood fins that go to the motor mount
-two plywood centering rings
-29mm motor tube
-motor retention system:two Allen head bolts,two T-nuts,and two retaining clamps
-rail buttons
-10 feet of 1" wide elastic
-24" high-strength ripstop circular nylon chute
-grometed nylon strap 2 1/2
-vinyl decals
-fin alignment guide for 3" or 4" tubes
-4 page instructions

The contruction starts with the motor mount which is very simple. A motor retention system is included in this kit, which is a nice bonus. The aft centering ring (the forward one has a notch cut in it for the nylon strap) needs two 5/32" holes drilled 3/16" away from the 31mm hole in it for the T-nuts. Next, I put the T-nuts in and secured them with a drop of Balsa USA Gold CA, which I have found to be strong enough I can substitute it for epoxy in some cases. After that I attached the centering rings in the normal manner. After that the instructions tell you to pass the nylon strap through the notch and epoxy it to the forward centering ring. I opted to deviate from the instructions. I decided to drill a hole in the centering ring and replace the nylon strap with an equal length of tubular Kevlar®. I passed the Kevlar ® through the hole and CA'd about 4 inches of it to the outside of the motor tube. The next step was to cut the fin slots into the motor tube with an X-Acto knife - what fun! There are lines predrawn for the slots but cutting them correctly takes a lot of time and patience. After that I CA'd the motor mount assembly in to the rocket.(Note:I had a major problem here! Make sure when you put the motor mount in that neither of the Allen head bolts will be directly under a fin slot. If they are they will not go into the T-nuts all the way due to the fin-tabs. I had this problem with both bolts because there is no warning in the instructions. I managed to cut a piece off the bottom of each bolt to make them fit into the T-nuts.) I put a layer of CA on the rear centering ring with a shot of accelerator for added durability. Next comes the fins. First I put very sharp double wedge airfoils on them with only a sanding block. It took me about an hour. After that you test fit the fin slots to make sure they fit correctly. I then tacked the fins to the motor tube with CA and put epoxy fillets on them. I used Devcon 2Ton Clear Epoxy which is very strong, although it is hard to work with because it has the consistency and stickiness of pine sap. After I sanded the fillets I then went on to the next step. BSD includes rail buttons with all their kits now, but due to the size of this rocket I decided to use Acme Conformal Launch Lugs. I used lugs designed for a 2.26" diameter airframe because they are the biggest size available for a 1/4" rod. I used the same epoxy I used for the fillets to attach these. One little anoyance was that the nosecone shoulder was very loose inside the body tube. The shoulder only has two little 1/16" bands of plastic to make the nosecone the slightest bit tight in the tube. I ended up using about a quarter of a roll of masking tape to make the nosecone snug in the body of the rocket. Next I moved on to finishing.

Finishing:
Finishing was easy for this kit. I hit it with two coats of Krylon gray primer with sanding in between. I then painted the entire rocket Krylon Stone Gray gloss. I then masked parts of the rocket and painted 6 1/2" down from the nosecone Krylon Regal Blue gloss. I also painted the fins blue except for the outer 1/2" edge of the fins. I put the silver BSD vinyl decal in the center of the blue section of tube. The decals are great.

Construction Rating: 4 out of 5

Flight:
I had an AeroTech G35-7 laying around and that was the motor that BSD recommends for the first flight so I decided to use that. I used the masking tape retention method which is easy and is fine for SU motors. BSD recommends using cellulose wading but I used a Top Flight Recovery 9"x9" Kevlar® square to protect the chute. When the LCO hit the launch button the igniter(Copperhead) smoked then the motor roared to life. The Horizon took off at a decent speed considering that it is a 3" diameter bird. It flew straight as an arrow throughout the entire flight. It had a nice big flame on it with a large smoke trail. I only have one flight on this kit so far, but I plan to to fly it on a wide variety of motors in the future. I'm not sure if this kit can really fly on the E30-4 like BSD says, but I plan to try it out. I may fly it on an H motor one day.

Recovery:
The G35-7 is about 1 second too long, but it deployed fine with no zipper regardless of the fact that I was using all 1/8" diameter tubular Kevlar ®(18')from Pratt Hobbies. I used a blue 24" Ultra X-Type parachute from Top Flight Recovery for recovery with a swivel. The chute quickly but gently brought the Horizon back down to earth. I think the included circular chute would work fine but I prefer the quick low drift descent that TFR's X-Type chutes provide. It was recovered with absolutely no damage.

Flight Rating: 5 out of 5

Summary:
I really think this is a great kit. It looks good and flies good. Although for a cardboard, plastic, and plywood kit with no precut finslots or payload section, it is a bit expensive ($60.00). It all depends on how much you want to spend.

Overall Rating: 4 out of 5

Other Reviews
  • BSD High Power Rocketry Horizon (3") By Mark Morris

    Brief: The BSD 3" Horizon is a wonderful kit designed for the builder new to high power rocketry. It flies on 29mm SU or RMS motors from G to low H power. This was my first HPR rocket. Construction: The kit went together very easily with extremely clear, well written, and detailed instructions, including many black and white photos of the build process. Construction starts ...

Flights

ID
Date
Flyer
Rocket
Kit
Motors
Altitude
Action
52486
2008-11-01
Mark Morris
Horizon - 3 inch
BSD High Power Rocketry - Horizon (3") {Kit}
G64-7
-
list
52484
2008-09-01
Mark Morris
Horizon - 3 inch
BSD High Power Rocketry - Horizon (3") {Kit}
H165-M
-
list
52480
2008-07-04
Mark Morris
Horizon - 3 inch
BSD High Power Rocketry - Horizon (3") {Kit}
G76-7
-
list
52487
2007-12-01
Mark Morris
Horizon - 3 inch
BSD High Power Rocketry - Horizon (3") {Kit}
G71-7
-
list
52482
2007-08-04
Mark Morris
Horizon - 3 inch
BSD High Power Rocketry - Horizon (3") {Kit}
G77-7
-
list
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