gdiscenza
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Jul 2, 2010
- Messages
- 1,613
- Reaction score
- 42
I stand here today as a testament to the Wildman Oath (at least the part that says I will stuff the biggest motor I can find up the pipe)
I found a CTI 4-grain 29mm H170BS in the onsite vendors stash, and I thought, "hmmmm 24oz unloaded rocket plus H170BS equals either cool or really cool!"
I checked with my handy-dandy sim app, and it would stay under the standing 4,000-foot waiver, so I bought it, and stuffed it into my Drago.
What never occurred to me was, "will this rocket come *back* from 3000+ feet within the bounds of Great Meadow?"
Simple answer:
No.
It was truly a beautiful flight, straight up from the rail, 1.3 seconds of pretty blue flame, 11 seconds of coasting to apogee and perfect ejection timing. Then things started to go very wrong.
The parachute opened perfectly, no twisting of shock cord or shroud line, and looked like a little pink speck in the bright Virginia sky. I knew it would take a while to descend to tracking height, so I lay down on my back to watch the drift and prevent a kink in my neck. Once the 'chute was about the size of a quarter at arms length, it stopped getting bigger. Oh crap, a thermal. If I were flying competition b motor parachute duration events, I couldn't catch a thermal with all the sensors at NASAs disposal, but on my "lets watch my Drago go high!" flight, I caught the mother of all thermals.
The last I saw of my beautiful Drago, it was drifting NNW about 50 feet above the treeline where Great Meadow meets the road. I searched the yards of the nice people across the street, but to no avail.
The Drago is gone.
On the bright side, I will fill this new void with another rocket, though I will not own another Drago until Wildman releases the Dra-Glo.
Oh, and if anyone finds a black and green Drago in the Virginia countryside, and wants to return it to me, great, and if they don't, keep it under 2500 feet if they want it back.
G.D.
I found a CTI 4-grain 29mm H170BS in the onsite vendors stash, and I thought, "hmmmm 24oz unloaded rocket plus H170BS equals either cool or really cool!"
I checked with my handy-dandy sim app, and it would stay under the standing 4,000-foot waiver, so I bought it, and stuffed it into my Drago.
What never occurred to me was, "will this rocket come *back* from 3000+ feet within the bounds of Great Meadow?"
Simple answer:
No.
It was truly a beautiful flight, straight up from the rail, 1.3 seconds of pretty blue flame, 11 seconds of coasting to apogee and perfect ejection timing. Then things started to go very wrong.
The parachute opened perfectly, no twisting of shock cord or shroud line, and looked like a little pink speck in the bright Virginia sky. I knew it would take a while to descend to tracking height, so I lay down on my back to watch the drift and prevent a kink in my neck. Once the 'chute was about the size of a quarter at arms length, it stopped getting bigger. Oh crap, a thermal. If I were flying competition b motor parachute duration events, I couldn't catch a thermal with all the sensors at NASAs disposal, but on my "lets watch my Drago go high!" flight, I caught the mother of all thermals.
The last I saw of my beautiful Drago, it was drifting NNW about 50 feet above the treeline where Great Meadow meets the road. I searched the yards of the nice people across the street, but to no avail.
The Drago is gone.
On the bright side, I will fill this new void with another rocket, though I will not own another Drago until Wildman releases the Dra-Glo.
Oh, and if anyone finds a black and green Drago in the Virginia countryside, and wants to return it to me, great, and if they don't, keep it under 2500 feet if they want it back.
G.D.
