Launch Report:
The ROC Launch at Lucerne Dry Lake on July 20th, 2019 was our celebration of the 50th anniversary of the first men to walk on the moon. While this particular rocket wasn't intended to be a tribute, I was nonetheless inspired by the moon landings and the subsequent NASA Shuttle Flights when I was a kid, so I was happy to take part with any kind of rocket, as long as it went up.
The weather was good when we got to the launch site and the wind was calm. I immediately started prep on the LOC Hawk to get it launched before it too hot, but by the time I got everything ready, the wind had picked up quite a bit (despite the weather predictions to the contrary). I had planned to launch the rocket with a 60 inch recon recovery chute, but as I was packing the rocket to go I reweighed it and decided that the 36 lb dry weight of the rocket was going to be too much for the chute designed for a 21 lb rocket, so I used the 10 ft chute originally supplied with the rocket, reasoning that an oversized chute wasn't going to be a big deal for a dual deploy setup.
I had also learned that the large amount of nose weight could defeat the three #2 shear pins used to hold the nose attached to the payload bay when I launched the LOC VII using the same nose weight (RWNS), so I doubled the number of shear pins.
The predicted height with the M1297W Aerotech Motor was about 4800 ft or so. I loaded the 46 lb rocket on to the launcher (after what seemed like a much longer walk to the pad than I remember).
The rocket launched cleanly, but did have a noticeably "waggle" as it took off. It was unclear if that waggle was due to the wind or some other workmanship issue, but the rocket did go in the general direction of "up".
The deployment charge did fire at apogee, but the main also deployed at the same time. This rocket used the same electronics bay as the LOC VII, which also had that issue, but after ground deployment testing didn't show any cross channel deployments, I'm speculating that the large weight in the nose still provided enough inertia to defeat the 6 #2 shear pins, and I really should be using #4 shear pins instead. This wouldn't have been much of an issue, except the wind was just below that 20 mph limit, and the rocket drifted about a mile, landing on the other side of the road from the launch site. Still no big deal, I just had further to drive to pick it up.
As we got close to the road, we noticed the wind continued to drag the rocket at a pretty healthy pace along the lake bed. The wind continued to drag it for another mile or so until the rocket hit a gully and embedded the forward end of the booster into the gully wall. It took a lot of effort to pull in the chute, and frankly, if the rocket hadn't been anchored into the gully wall, I don't think I would have been able to bring it down, never mind be able to catch it.
While I think the damage is reparable, I will have to lengthen the booster section by about 8 inches or so to allow a coupler, tube extension, and enough room for the electronics bay. I am probably just going to replace the payload section. The nose cone has cosmetic damage.
Oddly, both rail buttons were broken. There weren't any other impact signs in the vicinity and the rocket appeared to ride on the fins like sled rails while the parachute pulled the rocket on the ground, so I am curious if the rail buttons could have been damaged during the launch and if that was why the rocket "waggled" on its way up.
All in all, it was a good launch, with a tough, exhausting recovery. I think it will launch again some day once I get around to repairing it.