Dragon Rocketry Wolverine 2.6 flight report

[Wrightme43]

Flew my Wolverine 2.6 upscale yesterday, on G76-7 Mojave Green reload in 29/40-120 case.

I was very thoroughly examined and discussed at the RSO table. It really is just a beautiful design.


It had the altimeter 2 and the JLCR installed with a 30" flat chute. Ground tested and set at 500' (foreshadowing)


On the tape holding my ignitor to the fin for inspection, is written a final note, check to make sure JLCR is on. Yeah Steve, you know it's on, you just turned on. Stop micro analysis of every thing. It's wrapped up in the burrito with the altimeter. You have tested it twice.

Sooooo,
On to the midpower pad, insert ignitor, and walk back,
Launch, was just perfect.
Alt 1880
Top speed 360
Thrust time 1.2 secs
Peak thrust 24.4G
Avg thrust 14.7G
Coast-Apogee 7.4 secs
Apogee-Eject -1.9
Eject at 1762'
Duration 53.8 secs
Descent 25mph

Everything was fine up untill the parachute never opened. You know why???
Because I never actually turned the chute release back on.

Now in a testament to Scott's @DragonRocketry
Component quality, It fell from 1880 feet, landed tail fin first, rotated around that fin, buried it in the dirt and plopped into a pile.

I took the rocket back for inspection, found no damage, had Peter and Alan inspect it, and loaded it up to fly again.


The second flight is much more interesting so stay tuned for part two.

 

[cls]

Ouch! And haha. I've done that too, forget to turn on the JLCR.

 

[Wrightme43]

So flight 2 and here is where it gets wierd.
Clean the 29/40-120 case, get another G76-7 reload, go over to my table in the wind shadow of the silo.
Load motor, this is a Mojave Green reload, one of the two grains looks clean with white external wrap single green stripe, the other one is different, 2 green stripes, but the white paper wrap looked stained red, the surface of the propellant grain had red specks on it, the other one had white specs like the other two grains in the other reload.

I thought to myself, well thats wierd, but heck I don't know much so maybe they are just like that some times.
Load the motor following instructions step by step.

Verify JLCR is actually on, set for 400 feet this time, by golly I am going to nail it this time. Right??

Yeah not so much.

Sooooo

Head to the RSO table, discuss rocket, anticipated apogee, same motor as last time, yes the JLCR is actually on this time. Place it on rod, insert ignitor, walk back, Launch!!

Whhaaaahhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!
So check this out, Data first then a description of what happened.

Same exact motor mind you. Also before you decide it was misassembled it was torn down and examined, no burnt o-rings, no burnt insulators, no burnt delay spacer or insulator, and delay O-ring intact and in place. I came apart easy.

So data first.

Alt 482'
Top Speed 370mph
Thrust .67 secs vs. 1.12 that it is supposed to be.
Peak accel 39.1G vs 24.4G that it should of been
Avg accel 25.3G vs 14.7G
Coast-Apogee 1.4 sec
Apogee-Eject -1.4 sec
Eject at 226 feet
Descent 12mph
Duration 12.8 secs vs 53.8 with a chute held closed.


So this is what it looked like.
The nose could not get out of the way fast enough. The rear fins looked like someone had dropped a firecracker down Kim Kardashian's butt crack.

It was just whipping back and forth. Even with that terrible amount of side loading and drag, the rocket still stayed together, and can be flown again. I had two other people inspect it to make sure.

So the moral of my story,
If you are sure your JLCR is on and set, well check it again.
Second moral, hey if a grain of propellant doesn't look like the other one, its probably not like the other one. Go find somebody and show it to them.

Steve

 

[Wrightme43]

Also 118 newton seconds in .63 seconds made that a high power motor.