roytyson
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Oct 31, 2017
- Messages
- 435
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So I had a near-miss that could have resulted in a much different situation. One that could have had many injuries or damage to my body.
First off, I take full responsibility for my lack of understanding of what happened, so "those" post can stay inside your head, I just wanted to share.
I have ground tested nearly 20 rockets in the past 3 years of flying high power. But up tot his point, I have run exclusively Eggtimer stuff and done it all via wifi. Earlier this year I bought a BT60 Mach 1, Star Cruiser with SMT sled. At the time (and probably still currently) the Eggtimer was not an option. So I got a sled with a Perfect Flight Strattologger. I knew I would need to test with a shop vac, so after many hours of reading, I decided I was prepared to do this.
I first tested the drogue. Hooked the shop vac up, and everything was good. Turned it on, when it deadheaded, deployed, Perfect.
I then slide the rocket all back together, prepared for the main. Here I where my mistakes started. I taped over all the vent holes (before I started) in the AV bay except the one for the shop vac hose. What I didn't consider at the time when I slide the av bay and booster back together, I did not align the vent holes. So when I was prepared to test the main, I set everything up and turned on the vac. I let it pull a vacuum for 20 seconds, then turned it off, expecting it to deploy the main. Nothing. I cycled through this 3 times before I concluded something was a miss. After disconnecting the vac hose, I picked up (mistake #2) to turn off the AV switch. When I picked it up, the AV bay slides out of the booster section less than 1/4" (mistake #3). As this happened the nose come was pointed straight up (thankfully) and the main deployed. SCARED THE CRAP OUT OF ME!!!. His happed with the rocket about 18" away from my face (mistake #4).
What I concluded, unless some can assist me in a different thought was, since the holes were miss-aligned on the vac hose, it held vacuum until the AV bay slid out, or at least long enough the vacuum pressure bled off which just happened to be when I picked up the rocket....resulting in the electronics working as designed and deployed.
I was lucky, I see that. I made some safety errors, I also see that.
I just wanted to share to hopefully prevent a potential injury of someone else.
Thanks
First off, I take full responsibility for my lack of understanding of what happened, so "those" post can stay inside your head, I just wanted to share.
I have ground tested nearly 20 rockets in the past 3 years of flying high power. But up tot his point, I have run exclusively Eggtimer stuff and done it all via wifi. Earlier this year I bought a BT60 Mach 1, Star Cruiser with SMT sled. At the time (and probably still currently) the Eggtimer was not an option. So I got a sled with a Perfect Flight Strattologger. I knew I would need to test with a shop vac, so after many hours of reading, I decided I was prepared to do this.
I first tested the drogue. Hooked the shop vac up, and everything was good. Turned it on, when it deadheaded, deployed, Perfect.
I then slide the rocket all back together, prepared for the main. Here I where my mistakes started. I taped over all the vent holes (before I started) in the AV bay except the one for the shop vac hose. What I didn't consider at the time when I slide the av bay and booster back together, I did not align the vent holes. So when I was prepared to test the main, I set everything up and turned on the vac. I let it pull a vacuum for 20 seconds, then turned it off, expecting it to deploy the main. Nothing. I cycled through this 3 times before I concluded something was a miss. After disconnecting the vac hose, I picked up (mistake #2) to turn off the AV switch. When I picked it up, the AV bay slides out of the booster section less than 1/4" (mistake #3). As this happened the nose come was pointed straight up (thankfully) and the main deployed. SCARED THE CRAP OUT OF ME!!!. His happed with the rocket about 18" away from my face (mistake #4).
What I concluded, unless some can assist me in a different thought was, since the holes were miss-aligned on the vac hose, it held vacuum until the AV bay slid out, or at least long enough the vacuum pressure bled off which just happened to be when I picked up the rocket....resulting in the electronics working as designed and deployed.
I was lucky, I see that. I made some safety errors, I also see that.
I just wanted to share to hopefully prevent a potential injury of someone else.
Thanks