LAUNCH! Schoolyard May 31. 2011

I left the house at 7:30 a.m.
It seems as soon as it warms up, the winds start. The winds were already blowing.
I figured I'd start with nose-blow recovery and move up to parachute.

I couldn't get the STAR SNOOP to ignite. I know, MicroMaxx are temperamental.
I took it off the tripod launcher and set up the FlisKits HONEST JOHN.
It's reliable and a true flyer. I would guess it reached 125 feet. The streamer ejected early, and landed without damage.

I pulled the bad igniter in the Star Snoop and re-used the one that just launched the Honest John.
This time - Success! Good flight with nose blow recovery.

The Hot Rod Rockets BELL BOTTOM flew to an estimated 300 feet with an A3-4t engine. It's easy to see the red prism streamer on recovery.

This next model had me concerned - with good reason.

It's a new build from an OOP company called Stellar Dimensions.The square bodied XANADUNE.
I'd read of ejection failures on RocketReviews.com.
With an Estes A8-3, it spun on the way up, the fins are canted.
At ejection, only the nose cone blew, the tightly packed parachute didn't eject. In that narrow midsection there is little room for a parachute.

Take a look at the casing pulled after the flight.
Most of the ejection charge blew out the back, down the open corners of the square bodied engine mount.
I'll be doing a build thread on this blog after the Saturn V is finished.

And lastly, the Semroc ASTRON was launched using a Quest A6-4.
In the picture you can see one of the last Tiger Tail igniters I have. They take a little longer to ignite, but still work well.

I'm not a fan of the Quest Chinese A6-4 engines anymore.
This one veered off vertical like half of the others did.
They are loud during boost though!
A reefed parachute brought it down 100 yards away.