Drag Racing, AstroCam Style!...

[Rob Campbell]

This is amazing! Thanks for sharing.

 

[DarenSavage]

I managed to capture Dan's AstroCam in one of my flight videos. The first is the tracking smoke trail.



Now you can see the AstroCam's fins just above the horizon.



A little better shot of the AstroCam's fins and body.



I'll add the links to the videos once I've uploaded them.

 

[DanSavage]

Wow! Just wow! That's pretty kewl! LOL!

 

[DarenSavage]

Here's the two images your AstroCam caught of my AlphaCam in flight. The parachute is just deploying.



Now the parachute is more open.

 

[DanSavage]

I flipped your last two pics upside down.

Your parachute was already deploying and mine was still furled.

 

[brockrwood]

Model rocket drag races yesterday at Harris Ranch with on-board video...

My Estes AstroCam is on the left, my brother Daren's Estes Alpha III with Universal AstroCam is on the right. So far, we're neck and neck.

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I got the hole shot and I'm ahead for now...

Note the shadows of both rockets on the ground on the right side of the photo.

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Daren's catching up...

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He's almost caught me...

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Dang! He's passing me!

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At the moment of parachute ejection. Puff of smoke is from the ejection charge. Shock cord is lazily paying out. Scorched ejection wadding has been popped out of the rocket body tube.

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Ready for landing. I almost caught it.

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That. Is. Awesome!!

 

[DanSavage]

That. Is. Awesome!!

Thanks! We're having a blast! (no pun intended)

 

[DarenSavage]

This is our first drag race between my AlphaCam and Dan's AstroCam at the Chili Blaster XI, hosted by the So. Colo. Rocketeers on 7/23/22.




This is the video I caught of our second drag race at the Chili Blaster XI.

 

[DanSavage]

Noice!

 

[DarenSavage]

Chili Blaster AstroCam Drag Race Slideshow!

I created this slideshow using the screen grabs from Dan's AstroCam during our first AstroCam vs. AlphaCam drag race at the '22 Chili Blaster. It's not the complete flight, just highlights. Will the AstoCam land in the trash can?

 

[DanSavage]

That was cool.

As I was watching the descent I kept asking myself if the parachute was ever going open.

 

[DarenSavage]

It sure seemed like it would never open, especially at 1 frame/second.

I looked at some of my frame grabs. It looks like one of the shroud lines became fouled during ejection which delayed the parachute's deployment.

 

[DarenSavage]

I just looked and your parachute hadn't deployed for at least another 3 seconds after the last frame shown above.

 

[DanSavage]

It sure seemed like it would never open, especially at 1 frame/second.

I looked at some of my frame grabs. It looks like one of the shroud lines became fouled during ejection which delayed the parachute's deployment.

In the future I'll have to be more careful about how I pack my chute.

 

[DarenSavage]

I don't think it was how the chute was packed. It looked like one of the shrouds got pulled while deploying. All of your launches opened the chute; I had one "tumble-recovery" that didn't open the chute.

 

[DanSavage]

I don't think it was how the chute was packed. It looked like one of the shrouds got pulled while deploying. All of your launches opened the chute; I had one "tumble-recovery" that didn't open the chute.

The shroud lines didn't end up very even with each other once I finished winding them around the parachute. It was probably one of the 'loose' ones that got entangled.

Or, I need to use powder on the outside as well as the inside of the chute so the plastic doesn't stick to itself.

Or, both.

 

[DarenSavage]

Also, we were reloading the rockets pretty quickly, so that played a part, I'm sure.