I got to witness the three flights of the Minie Magg and they were all great!
I felt a little bit bad about the circumstances of the L1 flight because it was so rushed. The club wanted to close the waiver at 6pm, and at first it seemed like plenty of time, but buying and prepping the motor took a bit longer than expected. And then the person advising on the cert was a bit rushed at that point too because he had other things he was also trying to do at the LCO desk at the same time. He asked SC to Z fold the shock cord and put a wrap of tape around it to keep it organized. He also wanted SC to add some duct tape to the nose cone to make it fit tighter. These were both new techniques. There was some discussion about using masking tape instead but the advisor felt duct tape was better. The fit was pretty tight with the tape, and on a couple of tries at fitting the NC a sticky roll got started and wedged the NC in tight. That got straightened out, but it took a few minutes. The advisor was happy with the fit with only a few minutes left to launch the rocket!
When it took off, the launch was just beautiful. The light was starting to get low, so the skidmark motor was really bright. The rocket went up, arced over, and started to drop. It just kept dropping and picking up speed! At some point I thought, "It's the duct tape! It's stuck! It's gonna crash! Nooooooo!!!" Finally the chute deployed, but not before I had a minor heart attack on behalf of SC.
It all worked out great in the end. But the rush to beat the deadline was unfortunate. A cert flight is a great time to learn some new techniques from the advisor, but you don't get the most out of it doing it in a rush. And I don't mean any criticism of the club or the advisor! He's a great guy and very knowledgable about rocketry, and the club did a fantastic job handling a ton of certs. I guess my main point is that the circumstances added a bit to the tension of the cert flight and the drama of the long delay.
Congratulations and good job SC!
