5-21-06 TQC Walcott, Ia
Our first launch of the season over in Walcott went off nicely.
We basically had one flight on the schedule and that was it, but it was an important flight for us.
Believing in the forecast for the winds to lessen mid morning we made the trip over to Walcott, after arriving and finding them anything but less we were getting a little disappointed.
Eventually though around 11 am they began to die down and we started prepping our flight.
For today we were launching S.L.R, a memorial rocket built on a Performance Rocketry Competitor 4. See the SLR webpage for complete details on the build and this first flight.
On the pad and ready to go, loaded with a CTI K510 75mm motor and dual Missile Works RRC2 altimeters for control of the recovery systems.
Unfortunately we had problems with the K510 early, the ignitor was installed as per the directions using the "standoff" provided to keep it at the top of the motor, it was taped on well. However the ignitor lit and then the motor just fizzled loudly for over 2 seconds on the pad and I thought it was going to burn up right there. It seemed like the bottom of the motor lit??
Photo Tom Farrand
Finally it did come up to full pressure and started up the rail.
Photo Tom Farrand
Lifting off, and on it's way up . At the top the RRC2's did their job and fired the apogee charge and the rocket separated fine.
At 1,000' they again performed flawlessly and fired the main charge, deploying the SkyAngle Classic 60 chute, the backup charge visibly fired at 800' as planned for a nice flight overall.
Altitude recorded was 7,611' a bit shy of the 8,500' that rocksim estimated but I believe it probably burned off a bit of propellant when it was sitting there fizzling on the pad for several seconds.
In the video you can see the fizzling of the motor I'm talking about.
That was the only flight we had planned for the day and we stuck around and watched for a while afterward and caught these pictures.
Unknown rocket lifting off.
Justin's Competitor 4 lifting off on an old AT L1120, known today as an M1297, up for a beautiful flight to over 13,000'.
Sean's level 1 flight coming up to pressure on the pad.
Lifting off....
And finally on it's way for a successful Level 1 flight, Congrats Sean..
But oh that wasn't enough, following this flight Sean stuck a J350 in the bird for his Level 2 attempt.
It moved out a little faster on the J350 and this was all I was able to capture, on it's way up for a successful Level 2 flight. Congrats Sean, two levels in the same day.
The flight we stuck around for. This is Gus's Level 3 bird being prepped on the pad for a flight on an AMW M2200 Skidmark.
Unfortunately I forgot to hit the burst button on the camera and this was the only liftoff shot that I caught.
Predicted altitude was in the 17 or 18k' range on this 4" bird with the M2200. The up part was awesome, unfortunately deployment never occurred and she turned over and came back in ballistic, it was heard but not seen and at this point no one has been able to find it.