Solo launch 8/31/10

Back to the schoolyard for some small, but still fun stuff.

First up was the MMX Cloud Hopper. All was great until apogee when the ejection charge blew his head off. I found the body easily and after a little walking I saw two teeth (on the nose cone head) sticking up out of the grass.

The MMX Downscale Break-Away flew great. All four segments separated and fell close by.



Now for the interesting launches - 35 year old MPC Minijets.
I'd flown old Estes and Centuri engines, but never the old MPCs. I tried them last time using the old MPC igniters with no luck. This time both MPC engines had Estes igniters in them.

The Carded A-20 Demon had a great first flight. The 1/2 A3-3m engine (MPC used the "m" designation, Estes uses the "t"). I didn't put in engine blocks so I could use these longer 2 1/4" Minijets.

Everything worked just as it should. Those old engines really put out a nice smoke trail, newer engines seem to puff out a little smoke right before ejection.

The model tail slid a little after apogee and popped the streamer. This would be a perfect rocket for the Estes 1/2 A3-2T, a second less delay than the old MPC.


Last up was the Cherokee T carded downscale with another MPC 1/2 A3-3m. Great altitude and a walk even with streamer recovery.

As I was walking back to the launcher, the automatic sprinklers turned on!
Luckily they were just outside the reach of my open range box and launcher.