Zeus-cat
10-26-2006, 12:02 AM
The day was looking great in Ohio (sunny and no wind) and I decided to get in a few launches after work as I knew this would be my last chance to do that for months. With daylight savings time coming up my rocket launches will now be only possible on the weekends.
I always launch something small to check the wind, so I sent up my homemade Gyroc on an A8-3. Decent launch, but the little guy corkscrews badly on the way up. I need to adjust te tabs that hold the fins in place to get them to lay properly. Of course, I have said that same thing after the last 3 times I have launched it. Recovery is fine, no damage.
Up next is the first launch of Zeus. I designed it for a D12-7 or higher, but the first flight will be on a C6-5 to be safe. See the photo of Zeus ' engine just firing and beginning to lift off. The flight was very good and recovery was fine.
The third and final flight was my Anubis on an RMS E11 reload. See the sequence of photos showing liftoff (Anubis 1 through 4). Liftoff wasn't fast by any means, but she did OK. Lots of black smoke which allowed us to track her easily. We looked and looked for a parachute, but never saw one. We heard a nasty thump about 15 seconds after liftoff. We headed in the direction of the thump which appeared to come from a farm field that was just beyond a line of small trees. We saw the parachute, but couldn't get to the rocket as a fence was in the way. We found a way through the fence and made our way to the rocket. What we found wasn't pretty. The parachute never deployed and the rocket punched itself several inches into the ground. The nose, payload bay and top of the rocket tube were shattered. The really sad thing was I had my altimeter installed in the payload bayfor this flight. I gathered up the pieces and walked back to the car. See the Anubis Final photo for the damage.
The nose and payload bay are completely trashed. The altimeter circuit card was snapped in two and is a total writeoff. The Anubis itself can be repaired. I will cut off the top of the tube about halfway through the top gold band and install an extension. The nose cone I used for this flight was not the standard Anubis nose cone, so I still have that. My wife said she really liked the looks of the Anubis (and the name), so I think I can talk her into a replacement for Christmas.
For kicks, I kluged the battery assembly onto the remnants of the altimeter and was actually able to recover the flight data, at least up to the point of impact. Apogee was 782 feet and flight time was 14 seconds. I have no idea why the parachute did not deploy. Examining the RMS motor shows that the delay charge burned and that the ejection charge was gone from the top of the motor. The altimeter showed no sign of a disturbance at any time of the flight to indicate the nose seperated from the rocket. Oh well, looks like a new altimeter will be on the old Christmas list too.
The final photo is some idiot wearing a t-shirt he bought on vacation.
I always launch something small to check the wind, so I sent up my homemade Gyroc on an A8-3. Decent launch, but the little guy corkscrews badly on the way up. I need to adjust te tabs that hold the fins in place to get them to lay properly. Of course, I have said that same thing after the last 3 times I have launched it. Recovery is fine, no damage.
Up next is the first launch of Zeus. I designed it for a D12-7 or higher, but the first flight will be on a C6-5 to be safe. See the photo of Zeus ' engine just firing and beginning to lift off. The flight was very good and recovery was fine.
The third and final flight was my Anubis on an RMS E11 reload. See the sequence of photos showing liftoff (Anubis 1 through 4). Liftoff wasn't fast by any means, but she did OK. Lots of black smoke which allowed us to track her easily. We looked and looked for a parachute, but never saw one. We heard a nasty thump about 15 seconds after liftoff. We headed in the direction of the thump which appeared to come from a farm field that was just beyond a line of small trees. We saw the parachute, but couldn't get to the rocket as a fence was in the way. We found a way through the fence and made our way to the rocket. What we found wasn't pretty. The parachute never deployed and the rocket punched itself several inches into the ground. The nose, payload bay and top of the rocket tube were shattered. The really sad thing was I had my altimeter installed in the payload bayfor this flight. I gathered up the pieces and walked back to the car. See the Anubis Final photo for the damage.
The nose and payload bay are completely trashed. The altimeter circuit card was snapped in two and is a total writeoff. The Anubis itself can be repaired. I will cut off the top of the tube about halfway through the top gold band and install an extension. The nose cone I used for this flight was not the standard Anubis nose cone, so I still have that. My wife said she really liked the looks of the Anubis (and the name), so I think I can talk her into a replacement for Christmas.
For kicks, I kluged the battery assembly onto the remnants of the altimeter and was actually able to recover the flight data, at least up to the point of impact. Apogee was 782 feet and flight time was 14 seconds. I have no idea why the parachute did not deploy. Examining the RMS motor shows that the delay charge burned and that the ejection charge was gone from the top of the motor. The altimeter showed no sign of a disturbance at any time of the flight to indicate the nose seperated from the rocket. Oh well, looks like a new altimeter will be on the old Christmas list too.
The final photo is some idiot wearing a t-shirt he bought on vacation.