Hi all. The weather finally was good enough for me to get out and launch a few of my recent rocket builds. This time of year it is hard to plan when you can go, so what you do is get up in the morning early, look outside and if the sky is blue and the trees are not being blown about violently by the wind, you get your gear together and go. The forecast was for increasing clouds and rain later in the day so I chanced it and went to the field which is about a 30 minute drive for me. I took 4 rockets and was at the field by 9:15 A.M. I like the mornings since the wind tends to be more calm then. First up was the Quest Astra. This had flown before in February, but an engine malfunctioned on it's second flight when the ejection charge fired right at engine burnout and shredded the chute while the rocket was accelerating off the pad. The Astra needed to be vindicated, so with a replacement Estes chute installed, it was launched twice on a B6-4 and then a C6-7. There was some breeze which caused some weather****ing, and on the B6-4 launch, while the recovery system deployed normally, the chute didn't inflate until the Astra was halfway to the ground. Other than that, both flights were successful and the Astra has earned membership in my fleet. Next was my new Crossfire ISX on it's maiden flight. Again on a B6-4 and then a C6-5. The weather****ing was more severe with the Crossfire probably because of it's large fins, and the chute didn't inflate at all on it's first flight. The wind twirled it around on it's way down dragging the chute, and it hit the ground in a horizontal attitude on soft grass, so it wasn't damaged. I dusted the chute with talc on the 2nd launch and this time the recovery system worked fine. With the weather****ing and the wind causing considerable chute drifting, I had long walks to recover the rockets on almost every launch. I adjusted the launch rod angle several times to compensate for the wind, but it seemed to be changing directions and every launch so far weather****ed in a different direction. I then went to the 2 larger rockets, the first being the Arcon-Hi maiden flight launching 2 stage on B engines. Amazingly, the Arcon didn't weather**** at all in spite of the breeze which was steadily increasing as the morning went on, and went vertical to an impressively high apogee, nearly out of sight. It staged normally, and while the first stage tumbled down fairly close, the sustainer drifted on it's chute a long ways away. It took maybe 15 or twenty minutes to recover that rocket. I had wanted to launch it on C engines but with the increasing wind conditions, I thought it best to save that for another time. I didn't secure the sustainer engine in it's mount and it kicked out but the chute deployed. I noticed that the tip of the MM was burned a little so I will have to do a little doctoring to fix it up for next time. What a cool rocket the Arcon-Hi is. For the last launch I brought along my Magnum Hornet. I had a serious lapse of judgement here and decided to launch it on a D12-5. This was dumb with the wind averaging 8 mph and gusting to 16. The sky was also becoming overcast with bright white clouds making it hard to track flights. I launched it anyway and this thing screamed out of sight against the cloud cover. I'm sure it climbed up well over 1000' straight and true. While I lost sight of it for a few seconds, I spotted it once the ejection charge fired and the chute inflated. but then the wind took it and it drifted way to the south. It went behind a line of trees and I couldn't see where it landed. So then I went on a safari to find it and after a long walk, I found it lying about 15' from the south fence. I tell you that was luck! The Magnum Hornet Rocks; I'll be launching it and the Arcon-Hi a lot this summer. As I was packing up to leave, I was watching several groups of people that were also launching rockets, and I could see that they were also dealing with wind and weather****ing rockets. Them and their kids were running all over the field after them. I did take a few pics of my rockets on the pad before launching. I'm not too proficient with my camera phone so they are not great pics, but better than nothing. The last pic is the Arcon-Hi double coupler and sustainer MM showing how the engine exhaust burned it. It doesn't look serious, but I hope it doesn't get worse with future launches. Anyone else have experience with this?

Douglas

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Nice pictures. Might want to throw in a few paragraph breaks to make the report easier to read.

I got to launch a handful of rockets in the back yard yesterday myself, all on A10-3T's (it's a small yard). Got one hung up in the neighbor's tree, but with my trusty Christmas light pole and stepladder I got it back.

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I would say, based on that last picture, jamming the biggest engine it will hold is not NOT always a good idea!
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A pair of B's? He could'a gone with C's.

It's just ignition/stage separation scorching. What else could it be? Maybe it took a bit to fire the sustainer and/or it hung on for a second.

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Retro-grouch

Getting all 4 rockets back is what I consider a good day!

Nice photos!

Not having a single water landing is what I consider a good day! There was a time when I could have achieved a water landing in the middle of the Sahara!

The worst water landing? An Astrocam 110 with 11 GOOD exposures in it!
Swallowed by an Illinois retention pond.

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4 out of 3 people struggle with math.

Chemically, alcohol IS a solution.

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SAM# 0078

Could it be that your booster fit too tightly? It should be very loose so that it drops away the moment the upper stage lights.

A friend had a Mini Omega completely toast the booster. He had added some tape to the coupler and the booster shell remained attached. The booster's motor mount was completely burned out of there.


Bill

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: countdown begin cr dup . 1- ?dup 0= until cr ." Launch!" cr ;

Give a man a rocket and he will fly for a day; teach him to build and he will spend the rest of his days sanding...

[QUOTE=Bill]Could it be that your booster fit too tightly? It should be very loose so that it drops away the moment the upper stage lights.

Yeah, the inner booster coupler fit very tightly over the sustainer MM. I spent a lot of time sanding the OD of the MM and the ID of the coupler with 400 grit until the fit loosened up and slid off easier, but it was still tighter than I like it. I was afraid of compromising the MM by over sanding it. I'm going to work it some more, and when I'm done I'll love sanding!

Douglas