Okay folks ... finally. I was about to the point I was going to ship this off unflown. I never got the go ahead for the original launch site but after reviewing the sims for The Wanderer and for previous flights here at my place I decided that it would be safe to do it here in the yard. Almost no wind. The wind of course knew I was trying to fly a rocket so it would gust a tad but not too much. Just enough to let me know it was there...watching. I bought a 15" Top Flight thinmil for this project which I decided to reef to bring it down faster. Motor was the C18-4. It had plenty of punch and a nice throaty roar. I was not expecting the roar for sure.
First some pics of my ground crew, with her recovery vehicle ready to go ... bird poop freshly washed off (the launch was delayed waiting on her to get it clean). She loves that thing.
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And on the pad. Remember what I said about my rack not being portable. Now you see why. It is a repurposed weight bench. Works great here at the house and when I had a pickup to carry it in.
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Liftoff!!
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Every rocket I have flown here has gone out into the field, some have drifted out of the field into the woods beyond but The Wanderer decided to do something completely different.
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And it paid for it.
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That is the tallest skinniest tree in all of Slagle. That tree and the ones beside it are part of a single row of trees left alongside the road when the timber was cut off of that property a year or so ago. They left a single row of trees. There were more but, with them being a single row as they are, they acted as a wall to catch the wind when Hurricane Laura came through as a Cat 2 hurricane and laid several of them over the road into my yard, bringing with them the power lines. The idiots that left them like this....well....they're idiots. One tiny limb snatched it. A larger chute and it would have missed entirely and landed in my yard. A streamer and it would have landed safely behind them. It tried to come through that gap (the tree that was in that gap is still there, it is just snapped off about halfway up thanks to Laura) but that tiny limb wanted it badly.
With the help of a friend we were able to recover it safely and intact.
Short video. Sorry ... TRF doesn't like my video and won't let me upload or embed it. So it is on my Youtube Channel. While you're there take a look at my other videos and subscribe if you'd like.
It took a hard hook not long after it left the rail. It wasn't the wind. It looks like it left with plenty of speed and OR said it was good and although it could have been an irregularly eroding nozzle, and I can analyze the flight to death, it's likely the C18 was not the right motor for the job, I have only had one hook hard like that and it was flying on a subpar motor. I would have liked to fly it on the D12 or D15 but that just isn't in the cards. Hopefully the other Hosts have nicer flights. I may have the record for flight duration though. The numbers don't lie. My sims say around 280', had it not hooked like it did, it could have made 220', maybe 250'.
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The descent with the reefed chute is exactly where I like it, 22ft/s. I marked the shroud lines in case anyone else wants to reef it. I used blue tape to reef it and marked the top side of the tape. I am also sending along the 18" rotofoil for anyone wanting to use that. I'll sign it and let the gremlin paint her heart on it and it will be on it's way.
@shawn_rocket
You're next...You ready?
@Angie
I told ya I would keep you in the loop. You're in the loop. Still waiting on those stickers BTW.
I'm ready! Great flight. Won't be able to match that duration...unless a find a higher tree!
I have TRF stickers. I'll slap one on it before I fly. Thanks again for getting this going!