SMR
Entropy Demonstrator
- Joined
- May 15, 2009
- Messages
- 2,134
- Reaction score
- 171
You ARE cruel.
I hear that all the time... :wink:
Actually, I reached the 5 picture limit and took a break to mow the lawn. And broke the lawn mower.
So, let's see, where were we. Oh, yes, the flight. The problem with a really long telephoto lens is that, when you are close to something, you can't pan out far enough to get it all in frame. The chutes unfurled and the rocket came by and landed in the field about 50 yards away, still pouring out tracking smoke. (Cesaroni must assume that most flights are airborne longer than mine are.) I was able to get a nice shot of the rocket, and then a nice shot of the parachute as it went by. EDIT - I finally got around to stitching them together with Photoshop.
The lander had a little issue with the deployment bag. I usually use Spherachutes in Giant Leap deployment bags, and have never had one get stuck. Unfortunately, since LDRS was only a week after ECOF, my three 192" Spherachutes were packed up in the triple deployment bag for my big Jayhawk, but left at home. But, hey, I've got this brand new TAC-3C just sitting here, and this is the exact parachute this bag was made for. What could go wrong?
Well, the drogue generates an amount of drag as a function of it's speed. Due to the way I packed it, the main came out feet first. When it got out far enough to taste the air, it opened up and started to generate it's own drag. Enough so that the drogue stopped pulling, which left the main halfway in the bag. With a little more altitude to work with, it might have shaken the rest of the bag off, but this was a pretty low deployment, and it came in pretty fast. To add insult to injury, she landed on the gravel runway - the closest thing to playa we have in Wisconsin. The good news is that the bungees did their job. In addition to pulling the legs down to extend them, the bungees stretch back out on ground contact to allow the legs to absorb some landing shock. The legs did crack on landing, but the capsule remained intact, undamaged, and upright.
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