As the title suggests, I have recently resurrected a minimum diameter rocket of mine that last "flew" at Red Glare 18 back in 2016!
For those that remember 2016, Cesaroni drew the short straw for bad luck... twice. First in the form of the unfortunate accident that resulted in the fire at their plant. Next later on in the year in the form of Pro38 motors CATOing due to bad forward closures. I was unfortunate enough to be on the receiving end of one of these forward closure failures.
The rocket in question was scratch built back in 2015. Had it's first flight in September of that year and broke a fin on landing due to an unsuccessful parachute deployment. I reattached the fin and got it ready for Red Glare to fly on an I216. The predicted altitude was around 15,000 feet and was to reach a top speed of almost Mach 2! Unfortunately, as stated before, it wasn't meant to be. The rocket got off to a great start out of the tower, but very quickly appeared to take a hard right turn. Turns out that was actually the motor and the rocket continued straight. The rocket was designed to use friction fit to retain the motor, which ended up being it's saving grace. When the forward closure blew out, it kicked the motor out the aft end, saving the airframe and electronics from a catastrophic end. Everything was recovered in working condition, albeit with burn marks on the body tube, aft end of the av-bay, and forward end of the motor casing.
Now nearly five years later, I'm ready to give it another go. Same rocket, same motor. Going to be flying it either this next weekend, or the weekend after with the Lake Winnipesaukee High Power club in NH. I spent a good chunk of time over the last day preparing the rocket to fly again, even going as far to double check the forward closure to make sure I don't have a bad one again
Beyond the I216 flight, I do plan on flying it with an I540 as well. Hoping to go for a top speed of around Mach 2.5, although realistically it will be around Mach 2.3. And lastly I want to fly it on an I1299. No real reasoning other than for fun. Should the rocket survive all of this, I will likely retire it and put it aside in favor of other more efficient designs. But I couldn't let it rest on surviving a motor cato.
For those that remember 2016, Cesaroni drew the short straw for bad luck... twice. First in the form of the unfortunate accident that resulted in the fire at their plant. Next later on in the year in the form of Pro38 motors CATOing due to bad forward closures. I was unfortunate enough to be on the receiving end of one of these forward closure failures.
The rocket in question was scratch built back in 2015. Had it's first flight in September of that year and broke a fin on landing due to an unsuccessful parachute deployment. I reattached the fin and got it ready for Red Glare to fly on an I216. The predicted altitude was around 15,000 feet and was to reach a top speed of almost Mach 2! Unfortunately, as stated before, it wasn't meant to be. The rocket got off to a great start out of the tower, but very quickly appeared to take a hard right turn. Turns out that was actually the motor and the rocket continued straight. The rocket was designed to use friction fit to retain the motor, which ended up being it's saving grace. When the forward closure blew out, it kicked the motor out the aft end, saving the airframe and electronics from a catastrophic end. Everything was recovered in working condition, albeit with burn marks on the body tube, aft end of the av-bay, and forward end of the motor casing.
Now nearly five years later, I'm ready to give it another go. Same rocket, same motor. Going to be flying it either this next weekend, or the weekend after with the Lake Winnipesaukee High Power club in NH. I spent a good chunk of time over the last day preparing the rocket to fly again, even going as far to double check the forward closure to make sure I don't have a bad one again
Beyond the I216 flight, I do plan on flying it with an I540 as well. Hoping to go for a top speed of around Mach 2.5, although realistically it will be around Mach 2.3. And lastly I want to fly it on an I1299. No real reasoning other than for fun. Should the rocket survive all of this, I will likely retire it and put it aside in favor of other more efficient designs. But I couldn't let it rest on surviving a motor cato.
