Monday, May 18, 2015

Launch, Schoolyard - May 17, 2015

There's a sign on the wall of the schoolyard - "Construction from May 25 - 29". The field will soon have three soccer fields from the original single field. I hope this doesn't hurt my access to the area.
I'm usually there at 7:00 a.m. before any people or winds.
The sky was overcast, my camera tried to compensate for less light and the pictures are a bit blurry.

MicroMaxx were the first up to test the system.
The FlisKit MACME SHREW got to 60 feet with a streamer at apogee. It did fly a little away from vertical but not bad.
Second up was my new Flis HONEST JOHN, still being built on this blog.
My favorite MMX model had a great first flight to 100 feet. Arrow straight and hard to follow under the white sky. Recovery under a new streamer.



The Eric Truax Carded SCAMP got better altitude than I thought it could with a A10-3t engine. Altitude was probably 225 feet. It's a BT-50 sized model, like the original Estes kit.
The old garbage bag parachute didn't deploy, just the nose cone blew.
When I picked it up I pulled out the chute. It was a little melted and only one shroud line was attached. No damage to the rocket body or fins.




The Estes MINI HONEST JOHN got great height with an A10-3t engine. The Estes website says 325', I would guess mine was closer to 300'.
I had built two of these and had never flown either until today.
The crispy Estes parachute was full at apogee and brought it down with no damage.

Whoo-hoo!
My Odd'l Rockets LITTLE GREEN MAN flew with an Estes B6-4.
A perfect small field rocket with 12" parachute recovery.
Estimated altitude is 300'.







Last up was the Quest TOMAHAWK, best flight of the morning.

This one is a little like a Big Bertha, slower up at launch to an estimated 300'.
Nearing apogee it did show a tight corkscrew, probably from the card stock air scoop near the back.

The replacement Odd'l 12" parachute opened at ejection and brought it down with one loose fin.
Two out of the four fins have already cracked at the root edges.
Six up and six recovered!

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