Yesterday I launched rockets with Ed Mitton (YORF member Blastfromthepast). Ed and I had never met, we had just gotten to know each other via his rocketry blog, and here on YORF.

We flew in the Denver area on a large, grassy field, which I had not done in years. Several friends of Ed’s, and mine, attended.

This was the perfect opportunity to fly one of my B14s. I chose to fly a 2-stage rocket, using a B14-0, manufactured in 1969, staging to a B6-6, from 1993 (I chose to use a relatively new upper stage motor ...)

I did no enhancements, other than using a new Estes starter with a NC lacquer/BP dip. I did not do anything else, like scraping the BP.

The ignition was instantaneous, and the rocket just leapt off the pad. I had not flown any B14s since I was a kid, in the mid-60s. I had forgotten just how dramatic the liftoffs were.

The staging was successful, and the upper stage climbed very fast. I was about 15 feet from the pad, and was lucky to see the entire flight. But things looked bad at apogee — the upper stage appeared to have no ejection, and was coming in ballistic.

(GH, this is about as close to your definition of perfection as you can get!)

The rocket stuck in the ground about 100 yards away. As “my photographer” and I walked toward it, we realized it had landed in a volley ball sand pit. The streamer was out, but was draped over a fin. The nose cone was laying next to the rocket. It looks like the streamer just did not have the drag, once it deployed, to invert the rocket for a typical descent, like a parachute would. The tube was buried about 2”, and removing it, I tapped out the core sample. No tube damage, other than some scuffed paint along the top 1/16” or so.

I should have some pictures today that I’ll add.

__________________
Lee Reep
NAR 55948

Projects: Semroc Saturn 1B, Ken Foss Designs Mini Satellite Interceptor
In the Paint Shop: Nothing! Too cold!
Launch-Ready: Farside-X, Maxi Honest John, Super Scamp