Well, my first flight had a failure of parachute opening. My fault, not enough wadding, chute was melted closed. It was coming down fast.........toward pavement........ I was thinking of those plastic fins......those tapered plastic fins.......sticking waaaaaaaay out the back. Anyway, I was quick enough to get over there and catch it before it impacted, but it was very close.
Video here. I can't edit worth beans, so just jump to 55 seconds.
Rotation on ascent wasn't baaaaaaad, but it wasn't great either. Descent was crazy, but blame at least a part of that on an ejected but melted chute. Also no swivels
Also the lens position puts more rocket in the picture and less scenery.
I have noticed on my Tank Killer rocket, which has box fins kind of like WW2 Bombs, as well as some other rockets I have seen posted here, that box fins seem to be somewhat immune to rotation.
So I slapped together a Box Fin can and rocket body. I added swivels between the chute and the Camera/Cone and between the Camera/Cone and the body. I also put a wad of paper in the bottom of the camera slot so the lens is tilted out a bit. I used electrical tape (yellow, so if the camera fell out with the tape on it I could find it) to hold the camera in place.
Watching the rocket from the ground, the most thrilling and heartstopping moment was between 38 and 40 seconds. Those two seconds my mind must have screamed 100 times, "C6-3, you idjit, not C6-5!"
Again, I can't edit well, so jump to 30 seconds.
Sooo.
Things I learned:
1. C6-3. C6-3. C6-3.
2. I think tilting the camera out really helped provide more viewing area. I really doubt the camera would fall out, and I was able to attach it with electric tape without obscuring the lens and with access both to the single On-Off button AND could still see the light through the little hole/window. I WISH this camera had a loop or something I could attach a lanyard to easily. I can thread a kevlar thread through the USB ports as a stop-gap, so if it came loose it would stay attached to the nose cone.
3. I REALLY am pleased with the stability of the Box Fin Can on Boost. Things got a little crazy there after Apogee with a late deployment. Once it settles out a bit, it got better but still bobbed a bit. Interestingly, from the GROUND the body of the rocket and the fin can seemed relatively stable on descent, much more than it appears looking at the on board video. So I theeeeeenk I should keep the swivel between the chute and the nose cone tip but take OUT the swivel between the Camera/Cone and the body of the rocket. Rationale: if the body of the rocket is falling without rotation, let the body stabilize the camera (no swivel there) but let the chute do what it wants (swivel there.) (BTW, I cut a spill hole in the chute and the chute [the same one that got singed on first flight] was perfect ONCE it opened. So there was no rocking I can blame on the chute. I did get a small zipper on the body tube. Still, not bad for a mock up where the launch lug was glued on 2 hours before the flight.
Anyway, this will definitely fly again, this time on a C6-3.