ama
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- Joined
- May 26, 2015
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Around 1992, I bought my second rocket, the Estes Magnum, #2032.
On it's maiden flight, it was sent up with a D12, a C6, and an If found, please return to . note in the payload bay. I remember the first stage popping off and then the sustainer canting over to some non-vertical angle and vanishing. There may have been a glint of yellow as the huge 18" parachute deployed. As if on cue the wind picked up. I now think of the 1.5 hours after the launch as time well-spent with my father as we wandered aimlessly through a recently harvested corn field. Somehow we found both the booster and upper stage.
The magnum survived a number of other interesting launches. The failure to stage lawn dart. The failure to fully deploy the parachute core sample. Then there were multiple amazing vertical launches where I swore Id never find it again.
Yet here it is, 23 years later, pretty beat up. (Yes, it's missing a fin). I really like this rocket, but it always made me nervous every time I launched it.
In addition to rehabbing the old rocket, I wanted to make a new version. I don't have access to large corn fields anymore, and I've never built anything that flies on mini engines. There was some extra BT-50 tubing laying around, so I thought why not make a down-scale I can fly in a small park?
Though, it does seem sacrilegious making a mini powered magnum.
On it's maiden flight, it was sent up with a D12, a C6, and an If found, please return to . note in the payload bay. I remember the first stage popping off and then the sustainer canting over to some non-vertical angle and vanishing. There may have been a glint of yellow as the huge 18" parachute deployed. As if on cue the wind picked up. I now think of the 1.5 hours after the launch as time well-spent with my father as we wandered aimlessly through a recently harvested corn field. Somehow we found both the booster and upper stage.
The magnum survived a number of other interesting launches. The failure to stage lawn dart. The failure to fully deploy the parachute core sample. Then there were multiple amazing vertical launches where I swore Id never find it again.
Yet here it is, 23 years later, pretty beat up. (Yes, it's missing a fin). I really like this rocket, but it always made me nervous every time I launched it.
In addition to rehabbing the old rocket, I wanted to make a new version. I don't have access to large corn fields anymore, and I've never built anything that flies on mini engines. There was some extra BT-50 tubing laying around, so I thought why not make a down-scale I can fly in a small park?
Though, it does seem sacrilegious making a mini powered magnum.