Door Knob

Sent her up to 3789' on a AT DMS K455 on 15 July '23. See the LOC FB page for the videos. Nose deploy with JLCR set to 700'. Everything worked perfectly. I did add glass to the body and the fins, but other than that, the kit was built as shipped. Also, I had to add 1.6lbs of weight to the nose to get her CG balanced.

Man I cannot say enough great things about this kit. You get almost a completely turn key kit for the price point, including harness and chute! You could very easily build this stock, fly motor eject on a J381 or similar motor, go about 750 feet, and have the easiest L2 out there. I was specifically looking for a short fat rocket that would limit altitude for a low and slow certification and this is it.

All that being said I was planning on flying this on frozen lakes, so I beefed it up with 2 layers of 6oz cloth, tip to tip glass on the fins, and added an altimeter bay and 24" drogue chute for dual deployment. Ready to fly with everything but a motor it's 17 pounds and it's bullet proof now. Has come down with a foiled main at 30-40 feet per second and was completely unscathed. The rash from the launch rail caused more damage to the paint than a harsh landing.

Feel free to reference my build thread here:
https://www.rocketryforum.com/threads/7-5-loc-doorknob-level-2-build-thread.169638/

Or watch a playlist of me building it on youtube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCi9vUnvbDI&list=PLTOn8BOa7O0SC6nuz-M8WJgREnS5NBNB6

I purchased this rocket to use for a small field L2 certification flight, and it was perfect.

The kit is by far the largest I’ve built and the experience was wonderful. The laser cut plywood parts were made from excellent quality wood, and the fit was perfect after sanding just enough to remove the laser burn marks from the edges. This kit appears to be updated some older build threads found on the internet from >5 years ago. This kit includes some really cool features including the MMAS (multiple motor adapter system) and the RNWS (removable nose weight system). The kit includes instructions for these two new features which I needed since I didn’t have experience with anything like this before. The instructions make it very easy to assemble these features on the rocket. Note that the kit includes the mount for a 54mm motor. If flying a different size motor, just by the MMAS adapter for the size you want. The MMAS adapter just slides in the back and is retained with 4 screws. It is very slick and easy to change.

I built mine fairly heavy including lots of epoxy on the fin can (built the fin can outside the rocket then installed it into the airframe) and fiberglassed airframe tubes. I also purchased an extra length of 7.5″ coupler tube to allow doubling the airframe the entire length of the rocket (from upper motor mount ring to nose cone shoulder). Flight weight came in at 17.2 pounds and I hit 741 feet with a J350W. It was plenty of height for a complete recovery system deployment and very clearly visible the whole flight. The included LOC 78″ chute lowered my heavily built rocket onto the field with no damage. I did use a chute release on this chute to delay opening until 500 feet (didn’t have to wait long) and it worked nicely even on this large chute.

I really enjoyed building this kit and highly recommend it if you’re looking for something to use for an L2 cert on a small field.