MikeyDSlagle
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Dec 16, 2013
- Messages
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Here at TRA-LA we fly in a cornfield so when the corn is up, we don't fly. Our first launch was this past Saturday, September 15. I have worked on my Viper IV getting ready for a maiden flight boosting on two motors and starting two more. I ended up not flying it but more on that later. When our secretary starting announcing flying conditions with almost zero wind, I decided to drag out the Tyrannosaur, my L2 bird that hasn't flown since my cert flight.
I'll get right to the flight report so as not to bore those who don't want to read the ramblings:
It was HOT. 104 is what the RRC3 said upon startup. Whew. The winds were light. I put my Tyrannosaur up on a K600 to 6245' as recorded by the RRC3. The RRC2 said 6237'. The RRC3 said it reached 1444 ft/s, since mach 1 is a tad over 1100, I find the speeds unlikely. Descent speed also was nearly double what it should be. I find that hard to believe as well. Got some onboard video of a cloud between my rocket and the ground. Awesome. I need a better camera. Even with dual deploy it landed quite a ways away. Of course the wind picked up when it was go time. The retrieval was taxing for sure but the post flight ops that came later along with preflight frustrations lead me to shelve the other flights I had planned.
So I got my rocket over a mile and over a cloud. I almost giggled when I saw the cloud on the video. Never lost sight of the rocket either, which was my primary concern. Well I lost it in the sun on the way down but picked it up quickly afterwards.
A few grabs. The first image: That black spot is a clump of trees. To the (camera) left is the flight line and you can see the smoke from launch just above the trees, with the smoke's shadow streaking over the flight line.
I'll get right to the flight report so as not to bore those who don't want to read the ramblings:
It was HOT. 104 is what the RRC3 said upon startup. Whew. The winds were light. I put my Tyrannosaur up on a K600 to 6245' as recorded by the RRC3. The RRC2 said 6237'. The RRC3 said it reached 1444 ft/s, since mach 1 is a tad over 1100, I find the speeds unlikely. Descent speed also was nearly double what it should be. I find that hard to believe as well. Got some onboard video of a cloud between my rocket and the ground. Awesome. I need a better camera. Even with dual deploy it landed quite a ways away. Of course the wind picked up when it was go time. The retrieval was taxing for sure but the post flight ops that came later along with preflight frustrations lead me to shelve the other flights I had planned.
So I got my rocket over a mile and over a cloud. I almost giggled when I saw the cloud on the video. Never lost sight of the rocket either, which was my primary concern. Well I lost it in the sun on the way down but picked it up quickly afterwards.
A few grabs. The first image: That black spot is a clump of trees. To the (camera) left is the flight line and you can see the smoke from launch just above the trees, with the smoke's shadow streaking over the flight line.
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