So launch day was today. It was not without excitement. Yeah, well call it that. Just getting there was a challenge.
On my way home from work Friday, the transmission in my car started acting up. Needless to say, that is a bit distracting.
So I had to pack up all my gear and rockets in my fiancé's car for the 3.5 hour trip to Walnut Grove, MO.
I went through final tests the evening before and hit a hitch. My second quantum was showing continuity, but didn't fire the drogue test charge. Last minute, I pulled it out and went with just one quantum and no backup. I had motor ejection timed for about 3 seconds after apogee as a backup. It was L1, so I wasn't too worried about no backup for my dual deploy system. I'll cuddle with the secondary quantum later.
Went to charge up my lipos and one showed* low voltage alarm and wouldn't charge. Sheesh. Luckily, I had one spare left. Charged up the batteries for the deployment and GPS transmitter and receiver.
For everything finally packed up at 1am.
This morning, got up early to get fiancé and our 4 kids all ready for the road trip. 4 kids = chaos. Dropped off my car at dealer on the way.
Launch day started off good. Put up my 13 yo's mid power rocket on an F23 and it did great.
Next was my scratch built, heavy rocket on a G78. Flew really well and motor deployed as planned at apogee of 1100 feet. However, the nose cone separated with a busted nose one loop. It bounced with no damage and the rest came down nice under chute. Uh... OK. Soldier on. I'll fix the nose later. Was going to put it up on 3 other G motors, but nope.
Next, I tried my MIRV on a C6 staging to 3 independent subassemblies on A10-3T. It snagged on the rod and went cruise* missile. The second stages ignited and went over a hill to not be found. Hmph.
OK. Time to prep my L1 attempt. Went through my checklist. Got to the motor point and put in my 38mm CTI I242 in the case. The case needs to go onto my 54 to 38 adapter first since the rocket is built for a 54mm. So I grab my adapter... I grab my adapter. OK, I first need to dig around for it.* OK.* I now flash back to 1am and see all my motor hardware lined up on the black leather sofa before packing it. Black adapter... Black sofa... Tired at 1am... I* left my adapter on the sofa. OK. No L1 launch today. I'm kicking myself.
Thata when another club member bringing back his rocket that went up on a 6 grain J and was a long walk heard me saying I forgot my adapter. Luckily, that's the exact adapter he just used. So he pulled it and loaned it to me. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
End result; the Binder Design Excel flew laser straight. Beautiful flight. Quantum popped the drogue at an apogee of 2500'. Motor eject popped a couple seconds later as a backup. Came down clean and popped the main as planned at 1000'. Landed soft under the stock 36" main with not damage and I passed my L1. Quantum beeped the altitude out fine and the Eggfinder Bluetooth worked really well to point me to my rocket. I knew I would t need it on the launch, but it was a shakedown test.
One more hitch. I can no longer connect to my Quantum WiFi. Second one that stopped transmitting WiFi after some deployments. Not sure what's up with that.
Spent the next few hours putting up various LPR to MPR rockets that all flew well. With all the focus I had on my L1 cert, I forgot to give the club head my launch fee. Doh! I emailed him for an address to mail it.
Now I need a drink. Several.
Then off to plan my L2 for MWP in Nov. I'll use the same airframe, but on* a 54mm 6 grain XL L265 mellow yellow longhorn simming to almost 15k feet.
