- Joined
- Oct 22, 2011
- Messages
- 267
- Reaction score
- 418
Howdy TRF gang. It took a little while for a free weekend and the weather to line up but there was finally a launch I could attend. This was just a test flight to make sure chutes were properly sized, new altimeters worked, recovery gear was up to snuff, and deployment charges work.
Despite temperatures in the teens and some wind to contend with, this one was fun as I convinced my dad to tag a long. K1050 put her up to about 2140 feet, and my new Eggtimer Proton is officially flight tested.
Anyways long story short I think (4) 4-40 shear pins on the drogue side is a bit excessive and seems a lot of my 6 gram deployment charge vented out the back instead of separating the rocket. Also at the pad my backup altimeter with a 7 gram charge didn't have continuity but I went ahead and sent it figuring the 125 foot per second fail safe would pop the main if the drogue didn't come out.
Guess what happened... be better than me and don't be afraid to take a rocket off the pad to double check electronics. We all hear that advice but until you almost lawn dart a rocket you never really listen to it! Would that backup have separated the drogue at apogee? Maybe, but I'll never know and now I get to repair this sucker:
Pretty wild zipper, can't believe how strong kevlar is. According to the altimeter the fail safe kick in and by the time it the main opened the rocket was going over 300fps. At least I know all my recovery hardware is properly sized and the rocket will break before the hardware! 1/4"-20 hardware throughout on a 40-lb rocket with motors is no problem.
Naturally I made a video of the this misadventure.
Despite temperatures in the teens and some wind to contend with, this one was fun as I convinced my dad to tag a long. K1050 put her up to about 2140 feet, and my new Eggtimer Proton is officially flight tested.
Anyways long story short I think (4) 4-40 shear pins on the drogue side is a bit excessive and seems a lot of my 6 gram deployment charge vented out the back instead of separating the rocket. Also at the pad my backup altimeter with a 7 gram charge didn't have continuity but I went ahead and sent it figuring the 125 foot per second fail safe would pop the main if the drogue didn't come out.
Guess what happened... be better than me and don't be afraid to take a rocket off the pad to double check electronics. We all hear that advice but until you almost lawn dart a rocket you never really listen to it! Would that backup have separated the drogue at apogee? Maybe, but I'll never know and now I get to repair this sucker:
Pretty wild zipper, can't believe how strong kevlar is. According to the altimeter the fail safe kick in and by the time it the main opened the rocket was going over 300fps. At least I know all my recovery hardware is properly sized and the rocket will break before the hardware! 1/4"-20 hardware throughout on a 40-lb rocket with motors is no problem.
Naturally I made a video of the this misadventure.