Oct 23, 2023
Building the Phoenix
It became one of those projects that I really connected with and poured a lot of myself into. I'm really proud of the result and get great satisfaction seeing it on the shelf.
I'm writing this long after completing the build, but I wanted to document some of the things I learned along the way. I'm not going to go into a lot of detail about the build itself, but I'll try to cover some of the things I learned along the way.
This turned into a much bigger project than I expected. I thought I'd be able to build it in a few months, but it ended up taking over a year. I'm not sure how much of that was spent scouring the internet for information, and how much was spent actually building, but it was a lot of time.
It became one of those projects that I really connected with and poured a lot of myself into. I'm really proud of the result and get great satisfaction seeing it on the shelf.
Anyway, here are some of the things I learned along the way. and a video of the maiden launch.
The Loc Precision Phoenix kit is a great starting point
As an expert level kit, there are no instructions but the parts are excellent quality materials and fabricated to high precision. Everything fits as it should and presents a lot of scope for customisation.
The nosecone is an exceptions here. The kit is supplied with a standard Loc 7.5" ogive nosecone, which is a heavy duty part and great for normal use. The Phoenix requires a Phoenix nosecone and I fabricated that myself. The difference is remarkable.
Otherwise, I built the kit largely as intended.
The details for the nosecone fabrication are over in the build section