Personal launch report, SARG launch 02/16/13

qquake2k · Feb 17, 2013

Well, the weather was pretty good, although it was a little windier than I expected, and the cloud cover was pretty low. My first was the Milestone, my first dual deploy flight. Epic failure. Not total failure, but definitely epic. Due to sheer laziness on my part, I didn't connect either parachute to the harnesses. I had laid out and adjusted the harnesses the day before, so I thought I didn't need to double check them. Stupid, stupid mistake. The good news is, the Adept22 altimeter worked flawlessly. The other good news is there was no strutural damage, just some cracks in the paint. Could have been a lot worse, I suppose. Ignore any wheezing you hear in the videos, I was a little congested.

[YOUTUBE]S14weoaDFtY[/YOUTUBE]

[YOUTUBE]WlWc4r78zcU[/YOUTUBE]

qquake2k · Feb 17, 2013

Apparently the drogue chute hooked itself to the harness initially, but eventually pulled free. If you look closely at the third and fourth photos, you can see the pink main chute still rolled up and falling free.

qquake2k · Feb 17, 2013

More recovery photos. The swivel and quick link were just heavy enough to cause the 18" drogue chute to drift quite a ways away from the rocket.

qquake2k · Feb 17, 2013

The damage. Just cracks in the thick paint.

iter · Feb 18, 2013

Jim, I'm sorry to hear about the recovery. I'm looking forward to a different flight at Snow Ranch!

Ari.

qquake2k · Feb 18, 2013

Second of mine was my Level 2 rocket, the Shadow XXL, on an Aerotech J575. Very nice flight. I love the fat chute! It's a 78" LOC parachute, and gave it a gentle landing.

[YOUTUBE]WgcaXGs164s[/YOUTUBE]

[YOUTUBE]d8u5aeLtEbk[/YOUTUBE]

[YOUTUBE]3loJVk7DV3I[/YOUTUBE]

qquake2k · Feb 18, 2013

Last of mine was the Centurion XL, on a G64 White Lightning. Nice flight, but I don't know why it took so long to light.

[YOUTUBE]6cdipEBOkBM[/YOUTUBE]

[YOUTUBE]vF7eEjVKwic[/YOUTUBE]

qquake2k · Feb 18, 2013

I forgot to mention altitudes. I put multiple altimeters in both the Milestone and the Shadow. The Milestone on the I212 simmed at 2700 ft. The Altimeter One gave me 2382, the Adept22 beeped out 2293, and the Adept Altim1 beeped out 2307. The Shadow on the J575 simmed at 1700 ft. The Altimeter One gave me 1748, and the Altim1 beeped out 1815. I don't know why the sim was so far off on the Milestone.

qquake2k · Feb 18, 2013

Kit launched a rocket with fins! Can you believe it? This is his Squat on an H165 Redline, I believe.

[YOUTUBE]9xPaMzDBOrQ[/YOUTUBE]

gdjsky01 · Feb 18, 2013

OMG... that had to hurt! :facepalm:

But at least it fell to nice soft grass. And the Adept-22 did all the right things. So you got that down. Not hooking up the parachutes... now that is a failure mode I did not think of!

Whenever there is something 'left to be done' from my preparation the night before, I take a little piece of thin orange masking tape and stick it to the nose cone. It's my 'tickler' that I need to do something (often like turn on the Altmeter One etc).

Sims can be finicky. And remember the motor variance as well (tho 18% is a lot). Double check your weight.
Nice to see all the altimeters come in so close. +-100 feet from three different altimeters is pretty good.

Look at the bright side. You've launch 3 more rockets.

bill2654 · Feb 18, 2013

Play around in Open Rocket with the "component finish" and see if you can get closer to the actual altitude. I some times forget to select the right finsh for all components and it WILL make a difference in altitude.

robbdm · Feb 18, 2013

I too had igniting problems on the C rack Saturday... I was out for most launches on the HP B pads but came in to the low/mid racks for one. After three tries... I move the same rocket/motor/igniter onto the B2 pad and had instant ignition.

gdjsky01 · Feb 18, 2013

bill2654 said:
Play around in Open Rocket with the "component finish" and see if you can get closer to the actual altitude. I some times forget to select the right finsh for all components and it WILL make a difference in altitude.

Yes I alway select matt finish no matter what in ROCKSIM otherwise its CD is too optimistic.

o1d_dude · Feb 18, 2013

qquake2k said:
Kit launched a rocket with fins! Can you believe it? This is his Squat on an H165 Redline, I believe.

[YOUTUBE]9xPaMzDBOrQ[/YOUTUBE]

Actually it was an H148R with a six second delay in a 38mm case adapted to the 54mm motor mount. The sim said it should reach about 1200' and 235 mph but I think it went a bit higher. Must be that glossy clear coat over the fluoro pink.

View attachment 118626
Prepped and ready to head out to the high power pads.
Igniter will be taped to rocket for safety check.
Notice how far the motor protrudes from adapter?
That's a habit I picked up from launching tube fin rockets.
Won't be doing that any more on conventional finned birds!

View attachment 118625
Obligatory pad shot before first launch just in case the flight proves to be "interesting".

View attachment 118624
Dwarfed by Jim's Shadow XXL and awaiting the go button.

Upon launch there were a little wiggle that was probably due to a bit of instability that can be seen in the launch video. Looks like weathercocking except there was almost no breeze at all. Fortunately, the motor mass burned up quickly which restored the balance and the flight was uneventful after that.

I have since trimmed the LOC motor adapter by about an inch so there should be no more drama with short motors. A longer motor, say an I225FJ, would put more mass forward and eliminate the minor instability. Next time I will try a similar sized motor (H242T) to verify the correction works as intended.

With the nosecone modifications I made to the kit, there is enough room for a 5g motor. :eyepop:

qquake2k · Feb 19, 2013

o1d_dude said:
I have since trimmed the LOC motor adapter by about an inch so there should be no more drama with short motors. A longer motor, say an I225FJ, would put more mass forward and eliminate the minor instability. Next time I will try a similar sized motor (H242T) to verify the correction works as intended.

With the nosecone modifications I made to the kit, there is enough room for a 5g motor. :eyepop:

Don't forget, an H242T is a high(er) thrust/short(er) burn motor, especially compared to the H148R. If everything else is equal, you would probably get better stability with the H242. I would fly it again with an H148, to see if shortening the motor adapter did make a difference.

qquake2k · Feb 19, 2013

robbdm said:
I too had igniting problems on the C rack Saturday... I was out for most launches on the HP B pads but came in to the low/mid racks for one. After three tries... I move the same rocket/motor/igniter onto the B2 pad and had instant ignition.

I know the SARG equipment doesn't provide a lot of current sometimes, but this was one of my homemade ignitors, and I don't usually have a problem with those. However, at Snow Ranch, one of my ignitors burned but didn't ignite this same motor. I'm wondering if the age of the ignitors has anything to do with it. I made them a couple of years ago. I need to test a couple and see how they burn.

qquake2k · Feb 19, 2013

qquake2k said:
I forgot to mention altitudes. I put multiple altimeters in both the Milestone and the Shadow. The Milestone on the I212 simmed at 2700 ft. The Altimeter One gave me 2382, the Adept22 beeped out 2293, and the Adept Altim1 beeped out 2307. The Shadow on the J575 simmed at 1700 ft. The Altimeter One gave me 1748, and the Altim1 beeped out 1815. I don't know why the sim was so far off on the Milestone.

I just remembered, the sim was off by about 300 ft when I flew the Shadow for the first time. I wonder why it was so much closer this time.

qquake2k · Feb 19, 2013

bill2654 said:
Play around in Open Rocket with the "component finish" and see if you can get closer to the actual altitude. I some times forget to select the right finsh for all components and it WILL make a difference in altitude.

I changed the paint to "Unfinished", and overrode the weight by three ounces, to get it to sim at 2351 in Open Rocket. The average of the three altimeters was 2327. I'm going to have to rethink my motor selection for the mile high flight. Now, even a J575 only sims at 5011 ft.

qquake2k · Feb 19, 2013

You know, I was just thinking. I didn't see the events, nor hear the reports from the ejection charges. I left the 14 second delay in the motor for backup. It's possible, albeit unlikely, that the motor ejected too soon.

patelldp · Feb 19, 2013

J570W? Seems like that ought to do it.

qquake2k · Feb 19, 2013

patelldp said:
J570W? Seems like that ought to do it.

A J570W sims at 6290, and a J825R sims at 5683. Both are definite possibilities.

Personal launch report, SARG launch 02/16/13

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