I finally flew my L3 project this past Saturday at Tripoli Central California. I started the project almost a year ago, and it was ready to fly in May, but the flight was scrubbed due to unforeseen issues with my electronics. Thanks to John Derimiggio for troubleshooting and tweaks to some firmware, I was ready to fly this weekend.
This is a post-mortem because it didn't go well, but as always, I learned something.
First of all, here's some details on the rocket:
Rocketry Warehouse Terminator 5, flying on a CTI M1540 (5 grain IMAX).
Fully redundant Marsa54L's, using Marsa gadgets (MrfBridge, and MrfPyros)
Drogue in forward payload pay; Main in nose cone
Raven 3 as tertiary altimeter
Real Flight Systems GPS system
The up was beautiful. Real-time GPS tracking allowed me to watch it race to apogee, even though the rocket was out of sight. Unfortunately, however, the same real-time GPS showed it losing altitude VERY quickly - it was obvious the drogue didn't deploy.
Here it is at takeoff (Thank you Benno!!!)
And Google Earth view of the flight, up and down, using data from the GPS1:
The main deployed on cue at 1,000', but the rocket was descending at about 550 fps, instantly shredding the high quality Fruity Chute, but slowing the descent just enough allowing the electronics to survive.
The SIM predicted 12,075'. Here's what was recorded:
Device..... Apogee.....Peak Velocity
Marsa #1.....12,169'.....1060 fps
Marsa #2.....12,183'.....1058 fps
Raven 3.......11,983'.....1317 fps
GPS-1..........12,377'.....1341 fps
Stay tuned for more photos, what went wrong, and what I learned.
This is a post-mortem because it didn't go well, but as always, I learned something.
First of all, here's some details on the rocket:
Rocketry Warehouse Terminator 5, flying on a CTI M1540 (5 grain IMAX).
Fully redundant Marsa54L's, using Marsa gadgets (MrfBridge, and MrfPyros)
Drogue in forward payload pay; Main in nose cone
Raven 3 as tertiary altimeter
Real Flight Systems GPS system
The up was beautiful. Real-time GPS tracking allowed me to watch it race to apogee, even though the rocket was out of sight. Unfortunately, however, the same real-time GPS showed it losing altitude VERY quickly - it was obvious the drogue didn't deploy.
Here it is at takeoff (Thank you Benno!!!)
And Google Earth view of the flight, up and down, using data from the GPS1:
The main deployed on cue at 1,000', but the rocket was descending at about 550 fps, instantly shredding the high quality Fruity Chute, but slowing the descent just enough allowing the electronics to survive.
The SIM predicted 12,075'. Here's what was recorded:
Device..... Apogee.....Peak Velocity
Marsa #1.....12,169'.....1060 fps
Marsa #2.....12,183'.....1058 fps
Raven 3.......11,983'.....1317 fps
GPS-1..........12,377'.....1341 fps
Stay tuned for more photos, what went wrong, and what I learned.