Red Glare X was awesome, and one of my favorite rocket events to date. Here is a quick flight report of the major flights.
I arrived at the launch site mid-day on Friday, and only launched a small Estes cluster rocket before the rain came and I headed out. The next day, the weather was more promising. I launched my new LOC/Precision Black Brant X on a F35 for its first flight (right). It was slow and low, but went very well. I also flew my Wildman Rocketry Darkstar Lite on a G76 Mojave Green (left). I attached my micro keychain camera to the rocket, as I was expecting awesome footage from a 1,400 foot flight. The boost was swift atop a green flame, and was perfectly straight. Unfortunately, due to a faulty homemade retention system, the energy of the ejection charge went into breaking the weak epoxy joint on the motor retention instead of fully deploying the parachute. The rocket flat-spun down and literally cracked one of the fillets right off. It has just been easily repaired, and the rocket will fly again soon, but with a new retention system. But, apparently, the impact caused the micro keychain camera to not record a single second of video from the flight! Although that was a major bummer, that didn't stop me from flying my Wildman Drago (below) on a Cesaroni Pro29 3-grain G54 moon-burner. This was the biggest motor I could fly before I get certified, but it was an easy prep with a Aero Pack retainer and the low assembly Cesaroni motor, the rocket was ready to go in a short time. The motor lit instantly, and the rocket streaked into the sky atop an awesome red flame. The motor just kept going and going! The rocket went to about 2,500 feet, and it would have gone higher if the rocket didn't have a strange tilt immediately after it left the launch pad. There was little wind, and the rocket had a safe, close recovery. That concluded Saturday, and the weather for Sunday was promising another great day of rockets.
On Sunday, the first to go up was the Black Brant X again on an Aerotech F62 with a reload adapter system in a 29/180 case. The boost was quick, but after about a second from motor burnout, my personally drilled delay burned through too early and popped out the parachute. Oops! I think I'll be more careful drilling my delays. The only damage was a snapped shroud line on the parachute because of the high speed ejection, but since the rocket was only a couple hundred feet in the air, the rocket was unharmed. After that, I flew my Lil' Nuke on an Aerotech F24-7 (left) for a nice, quick flight to 800 feet. The ejection of the parachute was pretty late, so I think a 4 second delay would be better. For the last flight of the launch, my stretched and very heavy (the nose cone is filled with a ton of steel shot and epoxy) Madcow Rocketry PAC-3 flew on an Aerotech G64 (below). The motor came up to pressure instantly and the rocket took off quickly with a sharp left turn of about 15 degrees off of vertical, but straightened out in a split second. I think that next time, I should use a longer launch rail for such a heavy rocket. The rocket headed pretty far downrange and suffered from a late deployment and a failure of the parachute to exit the body tube to recover the rocket at a slow rate. Fortunately, there was little damage when it hit the ground, only a partially cracked fin fillet and a bent body tube. It is currently waiting a fresh new paint job and should be clean and spiffy very soon.
I arrived at the launch site mid-day on Friday, and only launched a small Estes cluster rocket before the rain came and I headed out. The next day, the weather was more promising. I launched my new LOC/Precision Black Brant X on a F35 for its first flight (right). It was slow and low, but went very well. I also flew my Wildman Rocketry Darkstar Lite on a G76 Mojave Green (left). I attached my micro keychain camera to the rocket, as I was expecting awesome footage from a 1,400 foot flight. The boost was swift atop a green flame, and was perfectly straight. Unfortunately, due to a faulty homemade retention system, the energy of the ejection charge went into breaking the weak epoxy joint on the motor retention instead of fully deploying the parachute. The rocket flat-spun down and literally cracked one of the fillets right off. It has just been easily repaired, and the rocket will fly again soon, but with a new retention system. But, apparently, the impact caused the micro keychain camera to not record a single second of video from the flight! Although that was a major bummer, that didn't stop me from flying my Wildman Drago (below) on a Cesaroni Pro29 3-grain G54 moon-burner. This was the biggest motor I could fly before I get certified, but it was an easy prep with a Aero Pack retainer and the low assembly Cesaroni motor, the rocket was ready to go in a short time. The motor lit instantly, and the rocket streaked into the sky atop an awesome red flame. The motor just kept going and going! The rocket went to about 2,500 feet, and it would have gone higher if the rocket didn't have a strange tilt immediately after it left the launch pad. There was little wind, and the rocket had a safe, close recovery. That concluded Saturday, and the weather for Sunday was promising another great day of rockets.
On Sunday, the first to go up was the Black Brant X again on an Aerotech F62 with a reload adapter system in a 29/180 case. The boost was quick, but after about a second from motor burnout, my personally drilled delay burned through too early and popped out the parachute. Oops! I think I'll be more careful drilling my delays. The only damage was a snapped shroud line on the parachute because of the high speed ejection, but since the rocket was only a couple hundred feet in the air, the rocket was unharmed. After that, I flew my Lil' Nuke on an Aerotech F24-7 (left) for a nice, quick flight to 800 feet. The ejection of the parachute was pretty late, so I think a 4 second delay would be better. For the last flight of the launch, my stretched and very heavy (the nose cone is filled with a ton of steel shot and epoxy) Madcow Rocketry PAC-3 flew on an Aerotech G64 (below). The motor came up to pressure instantly and the rocket took off quickly with a sharp left turn of about 15 degrees off of vertical, but straightened out in a split second. I think that next time, I should use a longer launch rail for such a heavy rocket. The rocket headed pretty far downrange and suffered from a late deployment and a failure of the parachute to exit the body tube to recover the rocket at a slow rate. Fortunately, there was little damage when it hit the ground, only a partially cracked fin fillet and a bent body tube. It is currently waiting a fresh new paint job and should be clean and spiffy very soon.
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