Level Three Flight Report and analysis...

[mannyskid]

As many of you may know, I recently turned 18(August) and certified Level one and two at AIRfest. This past weekend at MWP X, I attempted my level three certification with a Wildman Gizmo XL DD and passed with flying colors (pun intended). My rocket was a slightly modified version of the wildman kit with a lengthed altimeter bay that allows for the use of much longer motors. The Wildman kit only allows for a 4 grain motor at maximum, while mine allows for a 6gxl 75, or 6g 98 motor. For the certification, I used the one, the only legendary M2200 skidmark. The motor was generously donated to the cause by my mentor Gus Piepenburg. Gus has guided me through this process for a while now, and I could not be more grateful for his help. MWP was a long and interesting weekend for me, (never a dull day when flying rockets...) I started off by not leaving work on Friday night until about 11 O'clock, arriving at my hotel (Tim Lehr's house), at around 2AM, and was then attacked by his dogs. I attempted to sleep for a couple hours, but CJ and the dogs snore really loud! When everyone was awake, we talked about how the day was going to go, and then we left the house for the launch. When I got to the field around 8AM, I began preparing my recovery gear as the elctronics were prepared the night before after work. The rocket was ready to go by 10AM. I then had to wait for my parents to get to the field because they really didn't want to miss this flight. When they got there, I got my ground support crew (my dad, Gus Piepenburg and Dave Kittel) and we went out to the pad. The RSO (Jim Scarpine) gave it the thumbs up, and off to the pad we went. While at the pad, we had some minor rail button issues. This is one thing that I will need to rethink. I have never built a rocket even close to being this heavy(57 Lbs.). The well nuts and short screws were barely enought to hold the weight of this rocket on the pad. I will come up with a new method of rail button attachment by the next time I fly this rocket. After a long announcement and some teasing by the other Chicago rocket mafia members, it was time to push the button. The M2200 lifted the rocket clean and straight off the pad atop a massive plume of sparks. She arched over at the top, and initiated the drouge-less descent. Right on cue at 1000 feet, the main popped out. A tracker was not even needed, it landed not 100 yards from the pad. Dave and I carried her back and got my L3 paper work signed off. It was a picture perfect flight to 6114 feet, I could not have asked for better. But there was one anomaly though. There were three altimeters on board, two missile works and a Raven 2. All 6 charges fired, but after further review of the flight data, the Raven did the same thing that it did at LDRS. The apogee charge did not fire until it had reached it's main altitude, the preferences were set right for both flights, but still did this. I know this to be true because when looking at the .fip file (which I have attached), it shows the apogee pyro channel as lighting at the same time as the main pyro channel. I do not know why this is happening and I will be contacting Adrian. All in all, it was a successful certification, and now it is time for me to move onto bigger and faster rockets!

P.S Here is a video that my dad took of the flight.
[YOUTUBE]hE2xgHU6Hro&feature=plcp[/YOUTUBE]

Manny "Meatball" Ballestero

View attachment L3-Gizmo-M2200.FIPa

 

[Quaranta]

Congratulations! Awesome video. That must have roared!

 

[cvanc]

Congratulations, it must feel great! If you want to sort out the Raven issue post your config page & we'll take a look (example of mine attached).

 

[Mick2b]

Congrats, I am flying mine on Friday or Saturday at Red Glare. 57lbs? Mine is coming in at 26 before the motor. I have put some additional weight in the nose for stability. Did your modification add the weight. I went with the standard set up. Flying a CTI 1560.

 

[Blastcap Rocketry]

Congrats M. Great flight.

 

[UPscaler]

Congrats man! What an awesome flight!

The M2200 has been the motor locked in my head for L3 since I first saw it!

Now go fly an N :wink:


Braden

 

[SS/EA 6BBL 71 Cuda]

Ahhh ha! This is where you've been hiding......
Awesome flight Manny, i'm very proud of all that you've accomplished so far and, worried about what the world will encounter in your imminent future.....
Nice rendition of Eye of the Tiger Jason!
Thank those Missileworks altimeters for saving your backside and, quit jerking around.... call Johnny D. up at Marsa to get your new "smart" altimeter....

Now mail me altimeter number 3 and, when i smack that #$@%'n thing with a five pound sledge hammer....everything will come full circle.
Notice i didn't blink.