2016 Launch Reports

NAR Regional / Sport Launch, May 21-22 2016, Walnut Grove MO

Due to crop planting, we didn't get an opportunity to launch at our possible new field in Addieville this spring. So our first high-power launch of the year was in Walnut Grove, at a NAR regional event being held as a trial run for NARAM 58. This was my first visit to the field.

The field does have its challenges. It is an active cattle ranch covering many acres of rolling hills in southwestern Missouri, which means hazards include: tall trees, small ponds, cows (which have been known to pick up rockets and walk off with them), and cow…byproducts. Watch your step.

On the first day, I was assisting some other SLRA members with certification flights (all successful!), so I did not start working on prepping my own first flight until fairly late in the morning.

Ursa Major, J430

My first goal for the weekend was to fly Ursa Major with the parachutes and deployment bag that I'll be using for my level 3 certification flight in November, as a test to make sure they deploy as expected. For this, I decided to use the CTI J430 motor that I had originally bought as a first-flight motor for Black Widow. It would put Ursa Major up to around 1,000 feet, and deploy the entire recovery system at apogee, where we could easily see it, and not drift too far away on the oversized parachutes.

I had a couple of false starts with a bad igniter on the first attempt and a no-fire on the second attempt. Gary Cole, the RSO, handed me a "fat boy" igniter with an inch-long pyrogen slug on the end for my third attempt. Ursa Major ripped off the pad, hit its sim altitude almost exactly, and deployed the new parachutes beautifully. Successful test!

Weather conditions at launch time: Partly cloudy, winds variable @ 5 mph, 70 F, 49% RH

Ursa Major flight #2:

Motor: Cesaroni Pro54 821J430-18 White Thunder

Altitude: 1030 feet AGL

Max velocity: 308 ft/sec (210 mph)

Motor burn time: 1.9 sec

Peak acceleration: 7.01G

Descent rate: 12.19 ft/sec (8.3 mph) under main and pilot parachute Result: Recovery system deployed as expected at 1000 foot apogee. Rocket was launched to the southeast and drifted back to the west under chute, landing less than a quarter mile south of the launch pad. It was retrieved via ATV by Steve Aubuchon. Later review of on-board video showed that there was a collision between the airframe and the nose cone as the parachute was deploying.

Flight data file (viewable with the Featherweight Interface Program)

(TODO: images, videos)

Later in the day, I began preparing Black Widow for its first flight, but made the mistake of not aligning the electronics sled in the coupler correctly, so the arming switch did not align with the access hole and the rocket could not be armed. As it was late in the day, I decided to wait and try again the following day. However, that turned out to be the first of several missteps with Black Widow that resulted in it not flying at all during the weekend - read on…

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The second day's weather was similar to the first's, but slightly warmer and somewhat windier. I started prepping Black Widow, but found that once the rocket had been in the sun for a short time, the fit of the coupler in the lower airframe was very tight, so I spent approximately half an hour sanding it down to the point where it fit properly again. After getting the rocket fully assembled, I discovered that once again I had put the sled in the coupler incorrectly (this time, I had reversed the sled end-to-end), so, once again I had to pull the shear pins out, disassemble and reassemble.

Finally, on the third try, I was confident that it was assembled in the right orientation, and returned to the pad. Once on the pad, I found that I could not reach the arming switch with the screwdriver. After trying this for several minutes, I gave up, pulled the rocket from the pad once again, and brought it back to the prep table.

At this point, I believe that I could have drilled the access hole out to a larger diameter and made it work. However, after two hours of frustration and repeated mistakes, I decided that the best thing was to put the project aside and bring it back to the next launch.

Blue Phenix Jr., G79

After clearing the prep table and my mind at the same time, I flew two of my smaller rockets that I probably wouldn't have gotten out otherwise. My Madcow Nike Smoke got its second flight on an H125 to somewhere in the neighborhood of 3000 feet, landing in the nearby NAR contest range, and my ARR Blue Phenix Jr. got its second flight (more than two and a half years after its first!) on a G79 to 2034 feet. I was glad to have brought those smaller, simpler rockets so my day wasn't a complete loss.

Blue Phenix Jr. flight #2:

Motor: AeroTech G79-10W White Lightning SUL

Altitude: 2034 feet

Max velocity: 258 mph

Motor burn time: 1.7 sec

Peak acceleration: 11.2 G

Average acceleration: 7.1 G

Coast time to apogee: 10.6 sec

Apogee-to-ejection time: -0.8 sec

Ejection altitude: 1978 feet

Average descent velocity: 12 mph

Total flight duration: 117.7 sec

Result: Landed in field west of launch area; minor fraying of shock cord

NARAM 58, July 23-24 2016, Walnut Grove MO

We had a HOT HOT HOT weekend for sport flying at the beginning of NARAM 58 in Walnut Grove. Just as I did at AirFest last year, I made limited plans, got my flights done early, and high-tailed it back into air conditioning in the afternoons.

Black Widow, J449

As a lead-up to still hopefully putting an L1040 in Black Widow at this year's AirFest, I wanted to get a J and a K flight under my belt on the new rocket. I still had the assembled J449 from the May launch, and prepped the rocket for that motor on Saturday morning. With the tweaks to the av-bay design that I'd made since, then, I had no problems putting it together apart from not having the nose cone marked correctly with respect to the rail (which resulted in me putting the first shear pin in with the nose turned the wrong way).

The J449 flight went fine. The rocket rolls more than Home Alone did, and under drogue the forward airframe falls nearly nose-down, which I'm not super happy about. But everything worked.

Weather conditions at launch time: Clear, wind SSW @ 6.9 mph, 89 F, 61% RH

Black Widow flight #1:

Motor: Cesaroni Pro54 1261J449-15A Blue Streak

Altitude: 4212 feet AGL [GPS], 3943 feet AGL [barometric]

Max velocity: 619 ft/sec (422 mph, Mach 0.56) [accelerometer]

Motor burn time: 2.5 sec

Peak acceleration: 9.8G

Descent rate: 78 ft/sec (53 mph) under Spherachutes Apex drogue (small), 26 ft/sec (17.5 mph) under SkyAngle main

Result: Nominal flight. Lower and upper airframes almost collided after apogee deployment (see video). Unusual spinning of upper airframe just before main deployment (see video) but this did not appear to affect deployment. TeleGPS reported data throughout flight; contact was lost upon landing as landing point was out of line-of-sight from launch area but regained upon approaching the rocket. Rocket recovered by use of TeleGPS.

Flight data file (viewable with the Featherweight Interface Program)

GPS track of flight (viewable with Google Earth)

(TODO: images, videos)

Black Widow, K530

Sunday was a little more bearable as we had some early cloudiness which kept it from warming up as quickly. I prepped a four-grain smoky motor, a K530, which would have a very similar flight profile to the J449. And indeed, the flight was very similar to Saturday's - just a little bit higher and a little bit faster.

I decided to try a 100“ streamer instead of the Spherachutes drogue to see if that made the rocket fall flatter. It turned out not to make any difference.

Weather conditions at launch time: Clear, wind W @ 9.2 mph, 88 F, 57% RH

Black Widow flight #2:

Motor: Cesaroni Pro54 1412K530-16A Smoky Sam

Altitude: 4819 feet AGL [GPS], 4491 feet AGL [barometric]

Max velocity: 648 ft/sec (442 mph, Mach 0.58) [accelerometer]

Motor burn time: 2.4 sec

Peak acceleration: 11.6G

Descent rate: 92 ft/sec (63 mph) under drogue streamer, 26 ft/sec (17.5 mph) under SkyAngle main

Result: Nominal flight. Spinning under drogue observed again. Main did not deploy upon firing of primary charge, but did deploy upon firing of backup charge. As before, TeleGPS reported data throughout flight but was blocked by line-of-sight when rocket landed over the hill. Came close to landing in a tree next to a creek. Rocket recovered by use of TeleGPS.

Flight data file (viewable with the Featherweight Interface Program)

GPS track of flight (viewable with Google Earth)

(TODO: images, videos)

Airfest 22, September 2-5 2016, Argonia KS

I made the drive down to Argonia Kansas for the second year in a row to attend AirFest. The weather was MUCH better than last year. It was windy, as always, but heat exhaustion was not an issue.

Buster, L1355

My main goal was to test-fly Buster on an L motor, so I got that done straight away. Spoiler alert: everything worked great.

Weather conditions at launch time: Scattered clouds, wind E @ 10 mph, 76 F, 58% RH

Buster flight #1: Motor: Cesaroni Pro75 4025L1355-P Smoky Sam Altitude: 6686 feet AGL [GPS], 6058 feet AGL [barometric] Max velocity: 653 ft/sec (445 mph, Mach 0.58) [barometric] Motor burn time: 2.6 sec Descent rate: 76 ft/sec under Spherachutes 24” drogue, 18.5 ft/sec under Fruity Chutes 84“ toroidal main, nose @ 17 ft/sec under Fruity Chutes 48” toroidal pilot chute Result: Nominal flight, easy recovery.

Flight data file (viewable with mDACS)

GPS track of flight (viewable with Google Earth)

(TODO: images, videos)

Black Widow, L1040

The next day, I put a Loki L1040 in Black Widow. The only problems with the flight were camera-related: the smoke from Buster's smoky motor had done something unfortunate to my pad camera, causing it to quit working, and I forgot to turn on the on-board camera. Therefore, the only video of this flight is from my camcorder in the spectator area.

Weather conditions at launch time: Mostly cloudy, wind SSE @ 10 mph, 80 F, 56% RH

Black Widow flight #3:

Motor: Loki Research L1040 Loki Red

Altitude: 13570 feet AGL [GPS], 12747 feet AGL [barometric]

Max velocity: 1325 ft/sec (903 mph, Mach 1.18) [accelerometer]

Motor burn time: 3.5 sec

Peak acceleration: 17 G

Descent rate: 79 ft/sec under Spherachutes Apex drogue (small), 21 ft/sec under 60“ circular main

Result: Nominal flight, recovered not terribly far from the road east of the launch area. No on-board video due to user error. Flight data implies that the primary main ejection charge did not get the parachute out - main didn't fully open until about 350 feet AGL.

Flight data file (viewable with the Featherweight Interface Program)

GPS track of flight (viewable with Google Earth)

(TODO: images, videos)

Midwest Power 14, November 4-6 2016, Princeton IL

Buster, M1401

Finally…the day had come to launch my level 3 certification flight, after almost a year's planning and many months of work. I am pleased to say that launch day went off without a hitch. I had a nervous moment when Buster came VERY close to the power lines south of the launch pads on its way back down, but at least that meant I had a short recovery walk! As you can see in the video below, the rocket crossed directly over the power lines about two and a half seconds before touching down. The descent rate was about 20 feet per second, so it was only about fifty feet up at that point.

Weather conditions at launch time: Clear, wind calm, 51 F, 95% RH

Buster flight #2: Motor: Cesaroni Pro75 6268M1401-P White Altitude: 10127 feet AGL [GPS], 10554 feet AGL [barometric] Max velocity: 989 ft/sec (674 mph, Mach 0.88) [barometric] Motor burn time: 3.95 sec Descent rate: 76 ft/sec under Spherachutes 24” drogue, 17 ft/sec under Fruity Chutes 84“ toroidal main, nose @ 12 ft/sec under Fruity Chutes 48” toroidal pilot chute Result: Nominal flight, easy recovery. While descending under drogue, at one point the shock cord wrapped itself several times around the lower airframe (see video), but it came unwound before main deployment. Rocket landed very close to power lines but did not appear to hit them on the way down.

Flight data file (viewable with mDACS)

GPS track of flight (viewable with Google Earth)

(TODO: images, videos)

Black Widow, K830

The next day, I launched Black Widow for its fourth flight on the Loki K830 Spitfire motor that had been sitting on my shelf for over a year.

Weather conditions at launch time: Clear, wind WSW @ 8mph, 67 F, 50% RH

Black Widow flight #4: Motor: Loki Research K830 Spitfire Altitude: 7806 feet AGL [barometric] Max velocity: 994 ft/sec (678 mph, Mach 0.88) [accelerometer] Motor burn time: 2.6 sec Peak acceleration: 19 G Descent rate: 77 ft/sec under Spherachutes Apex drogue (small), 24 ft/sec under 60“ circular main Result: Nominal flight, recovered after a lengthy walk from the road.

Flight data file (viewable with the Featherweight Interface Program)

GPS track of flight (viewable with Google Earth)

(TODO: images, videos)

SLRA Fall Launch, November 12 2016, Addieville IL

St. Louis Rocketry Association has had trouble scheduling high-power launches since our host field in Elsberry was so weather-sensitive. However, we have located a new host in Addieville, Illinois who has welcomed us with open arms, and we had our first launch there in November 2016.

We flew several rockets of all sizes, including three high-power certification flights. I launched Black Widow on a CTI K650 smoky motor for its fifth flight.

Black Widow, K650

Weather conditions at launch time: Clear, wind ENE @ 3.5 mph, 54 F, 40% RH

Black Widow flight #5:

Motor: Cesaroni Pro54 1750K650-16A Smoky Sam

Altitude: 5710 feet AGL [GPS], 5857 feet AGL [barometric]

Max velocity: 759 ft/sec (517 mph, Mach 0.67) [accelerometer]

Motor burn time: 2.67 sec

Peak acceleration: 11.7 G

Descent rate: 83 ft/sec under Spherachutes Apex drogue (small), 20 ft/sec under 60” circular main

Result: Nominal flight, easy recovery. I've decided to stop using the Spherachutes drogue with this rocket because of the way it pulls the upper airframe back into close proximity of the lower airframe after apogee separation.

Flight data file (viewable with the Featherweight Interface Program)

GPS track of flight (viewable with Google Earth)

(TODO: images, videos)