"Cleanest" Exhaust of Aerotech Reloads?

Here's a different question: I just launched a two-stage 3" dia. Blue Tube rocket using a 38mm I225FJ Black Max for the upper stage motor. I had a keychain camcorder positioned on the booster section, looking up at the upper section. I was hoping to capture the moment of stage separation from the booster's perspective. The keychain camcorder was about 32" below the upper stage.

At the ignition of the upper stage, the thick black smoke of the exhaust instantly "blinded" the keychain camcorder's lens with grime. It cleaned off with a Q-tip and some alcohol, and the keychain camcorder still works fine, but the video from it was unsuable.

Which Aerotech reloads would give me a better chance of not depositing grime on the keychain camcorder lens? The Black Max was great from the standpoint of viewing the airstart from the ground, but not so good as far as keeping the keychain camcorder lens clean.

By the way, here's the video from the launch- from the upper stage camcorder. It has some neat vidcaps of the booster stage rotation/ separation over a 1/4 second period of time (the Aiptek Hi-Speed HD camcorder records at 60 fps):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NuKGgre7GMo

Mike Momenee
TRA #12430, L3

Blue Thunder and Warp 9 have the least amount of smoke, I think those would make for some pretty dramatic staging video with the aggressive propellants - maybe with FJ in the booster.

jmmome said:

At the ignition of the upper stage, the thick black smoke of the exhaust instantly "blinded" the keychain camcorder's lens with grime

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Anything would be better than Blackjack. I had a similar problem with a CTI I175 upper stage (White, which I'd have said was fairly clean), though my camera was closer to the stage than yours. My lens were permanently hazed by the exhaust.
See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDYGeiIznjE although the video is pretty crappy from transcoding.

Warp 9, by far. It's as if it puts out less smoke than a smoke grain.

I would go with Blue Thunder. Not much smoke, and a better burn time than the warp 9. I think a warp 9 first stage might be good with a blue thunder upper.

CarVac said:

Warp 9, by far. It's as if it puts out less smoke than a smoke grain.

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The 39/360 I49 would be a good choice. For the same case as the I225, the I59 works but is White Lightning at the beginning of the burn. Both have 8 sec burns.

Thanks for the feedback!

Great video and nice coverage! Those key chain cameras work great. I have 3 of them.

Rocketjunkie said:

The 39/360 I49 would be a good choice. For the same case as the I225, the I59 works but is White Lightning at the beginning of the burn. Both have 8 sec burns.

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Warp-9 is by far the cleanest. It is also exceptionally easy to ignite, at least the core-burners (black jack to I1299N... lol). However, the endburners don't seem to burn as long as advertised, based on 4 static fires and flights.