EVENT ThunderStruck 2023 Registration Open

[Finicky]

First let me offer a huge THANK YOU to all the folks at Indiana Rocketry for hosting an amazing Thunderstruck ! I had an incredible time. I wish I lived closer

My first flight was my two stage Sweetness flying with an L-1400 staging to a K-1000. Both were sugar motors. The rocket had one of my NoseCam video stabilizers up top, and this particular NoseCam also included a Vertical Orientation Control (VOC) system.

This was an unexpected and amazing trial-by-fire for the VOC system. A launch pad issue caused rail binding and a very violent launch which ripped the rail guides from the booster. The rocket left the pad at 35 degrees of tilt (very bad), but the VOC system brought the rocket back to vertical (very good) before the sustainer motor fired. Even with all of the wild steering the apogee was 14,600 feet. The 3-axis gyros in the NoseCam saturated on the pad due to the extreme motions of the rocket at ignition, which did result in trajectory calculation errors throughout the flight. This is the reason for some of the instability in the later parts of the flight.

 

[Finicky]

My second flight was a rocket named Showtime flying on an L-800 EX Orange Sunset motor with a 5 second burn time. Apogee was 14,164 feet. The rocket reached Mach 1.2

During some of the flight when the velocity was above Mach the NoseCam motor stalled due to excessive drag forces. This portion of the video was edited out.

 

[Finicky]

My third flight was a two stage rocket named Wicked Sugar High flying on an L-1600 staging to a J-600 Sparky. Both were sugar motors. Unfortunately the second stage motor did not fire because the tilt lockout of 15 degrees was exceeded. Apogee for the sustainer was 7,729 feet. Both rocket sections were recovered safely. The booster landed in Indiana, and the sustainer landed in Illinois. So it was a 2-stage 2-state flight

 

[Highpowerrocketyahoo]

The Kentucky crew from BRS had a great time. Nice field. Good seeing everyone again! Thanks for hosting.

 

[ThePlmbr]

I would also like to thank everyone that ran ThunderStruck 2023. It was great time and it was good to see the newer field. The landowners seem to be very nice! I will return again. Thanks to all. Greg Olson

 

[Rocketclar]

Kudos to Indiana Rocketry and landowners! Thunderstruck was very well run! Excellent safety and pad operation efficiency! Thank you very much! Allan Howard

 

[Rocketclar]

Justin, thank you very much for the photos! Most excellent!