cussler08
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Jan 26, 2009
- Messages
- 123
- Reaction score
- 3
Great day for flying
beautiful sunny day, clear blue skies with small wispy clouds, and light winds (most of the time). My son and I headed out to our favorite field to launch rockets on his birthday. Upon arriving, we saw that we couldnt launch
lacrosse games taking place. So off we went to our second closest place, a field behind the middle school, essentially two soccer fields side by side, bordered by trees. Lots of space, or so we thought.
The winds started picking up, so we tilted our launch rod about 10degrees from vertical and sent up a test vehicle.
As it was my sons b-day, most of our flights were his rockets A Fat Boy went up on C-6-3 and after we saw how it drifted in the higher level winds C-6-5s. His Intruder few well, once again on B-6-4s, although on one flight it developed that mysterious (and not seen before) barrel roll in the top third of the boost.
Then it was time for his Sizzler the older one with the rear ejection. Perfect launch. Beautiful flight perfect apogee no chute .lower no chute .finally a pop and I caught a glimpse of the pod pop out as it crashed into the trees on the upwind side of the field. One could hear the snapping of branches, and my son was heartsick. Into the woods we went. After looking and looking, he headed out and then I saw it lawn darted in the undergrowth, nose cone stuck 2-1/2 inches into the floor of the woods. Amazingly, the rocket stayed together, with only paint from the nosecone scratched and one fin scraped. The pod was bent in half, but the structural integrity of the body and fins remained sound.
My sone was upset about the flight, but I was ecstatic in the fact that 1) we found the rocket, and 2) it was in one piece. It will live to fly another day, but Im puzzled as to why the pop didnt deploy. In preflight checks, it slid well in the body tube, so I suppose well try again at some point and see what happens.
We finished the day by flying my 32 year old Centuri Hercules on a C-6-5, my 30+ year old MPC Nike Smoke on a C-6-3, and my new (and modified) Quest Nike-K on a C-6-3. Barely missed the trees on recovery, on the Nike-K, as we held our breath.
Great flights, all, and a great father-son bonding day!
The winds started picking up, so we tilted our launch rod about 10degrees from vertical and sent up a test vehicle.
As it was my sons b-day, most of our flights were his rockets A Fat Boy went up on C-6-3 and after we saw how it drifted in the higher level winds C-6-5s. His Intruder few well, once again on B-6-4s, although on one flight it developed that mysterious (and not seen before) barrel roll in the top third of the boost.
Then it was time for his Sizzler the older one with the rear ejection. Perfect launch. Beautiful flight perfect apogee no chute .lower no chute .finally a pop and I caught a glimpse of the pod pop out as it crashed into the trees on the upwind side of the field. One could hear the snapping of branches, and my son was heartsick. Into the woods we went. After looking and looking, he headed out and then I saw it lawn darted in the undergrowth, nose cone stuck 2-1/2 inches into the floor of the woods. Amazingly, the rocket stayed together, with only paint from the nosecone scratched and one fin scraped. The pod was bent in half, but the structural integrity of the body and fins remained sound.
My sone was upset about the flight, but I was ecstatic in the fact that 1) we found the rocket, and 2) it was in one piece. It will live to fly another day, but Im puzzled as to why the pop didnt deploy. In preflight checks, it slid well in the body tube, so I suppose well try again at some point and see what happens.
We finished the day by flying my 32 year old Centuri Hercules on a C-6-5, my 30+ year old MPC Nike Smoke on a C-6-3, and my new (and modified) Quest Nike-K on a C-6-3. Barely missed the trees on recovery, on the Nike-K, as we held our breath.
Great flights, all, and a great father-son bonding day!
