- Joined
- Oct 2, 2011
- Messages
- 974
- Reaction score
- 543
After two beautiful flights in Wisconsin this past summer at Bong, Christophers Viper IV was cleaned up and painted again to prep for decal installation. The copper and black looks really cool, even without the decal.
I found the time to visit a friends 10 acres which, happen to butt up to a huge pasture (lots of recovery room if the winds are from the south); so the boys and I loaded up and headed out this past Saturday.
The first two launches were great, Tristans Screaming Mimi weather cocked into the wind as she took off and headed south. Fortunately; deployment was perfect. The South wind Blew the model almost right back to the pad. He sent up my Nike Smoke model which flew even straighter despite the now growing wind.
Christopher prepped the Viper IV to fly on two D12-3's to avoid the higher altitude flight, With the remaining engine tubes plugged to retain ejection charge, the rocket was loaded on the Aerotech Mantis pad. After the countdown, from my view it seemed to roar to life but stuck on the launch rod.
From his angle it looked to him that only one of the D-12s built up pressure and it wasnt until almost the top of the rod that the other finally came up to full power. Either way, there was a definite point near the top of the rail that it seemed to have a burst of energy. What ever happened, the Viper cleared the launch rail and started to arc over and head west to the neighbors. The flight was very cool looking except for the fact it was totally horizontal at this point and about 20 feet off the ground!!! Not cool
It impacted the ground still under power form the two D-12s Once the rear fins caught the hard soil it ripped the motor mount and fin section apart like a rag doll. Whatever plugs we had in the rear end to retain ejection gas, were now useless as a 6 section of motor tube was torn wide open the body tube also took some damage as you can see in the photo. The impact was hard enough it allowed the entire motor mount assembly to come loose form the epoxy inside the body tube! That is why you can see it on the table next to the body tube.
Christopher did a great job building this and was really hoping to get a great finish on the paint before putting the decal on! I think I will get him a new kit to make another one.
Christmas is just around the corner .
I found the time to visit a friends 10 acres which, happen to butt up to a huge pasture (lots of recovery room if the winds are from the south); so the boys and I loaded up and headed out this past Saturday.
The first two launches were great, Tristans Screaming Mimi weather cocked into the wind as she took off and headed south. Fortunately; deployment was perfect. The South wind Blew the model almost right back to the pad. He sent up my Nike Smoke model which flew even straighter despite the now growing wind.
Christopher prepped the Viper IV to fly on two D12-3's to avoid the higher altitude flight, With the remaining engine tubes plugged to retain ejection charge, the rocket was loaded on the Aerotech Mantis pad. After the countdown, from my view it seemed to roar to life but stuck on the launch rod.
From his angle it looked to him that only one of the D-12s built up pressure and it wasnt until almost the top of the rod that the other finally came up to full power. Either way, there was a definite point near the top of the rail that it seemed to have a burst of energy. What ever happened, the Viper cleared the launch rail and started to arc over and head west to the neighbors. The flight was very cool looking except for the fact it was totally horizontal at this point and about 20 feet off the ground!!! Not cool
It impacted the ground still under power form the two D-12s Once the rear fins caught the hard soil it ripped the motor mount and fin section apart like a rag doll. Whatever plugs we had in the rear end to retain ejection gas, were now useless as a 6 section of motor tube was torn wide open the body tube also took some damage as you can see in the photo. The impact was hard enough it allowed the entire motor mount assembly to come loose form the epoxy inside the body tube! That is why you can see it on the table next to the body tube.
Christopher did a great job building this and was really hoping to get a great finish on the paint before putting the decal on! I think I will get him a new kit to make another one.
Christmas is just around the corner .
