Flight report CIA Champaign IL

CIA Launch Report 22 October 2011

About 20 CIA members and non-member’s came out to fly rockets at the CIA’s Flatville launch site on sat the 22.

Temp was in the 70s with winds south, south west at around 15mph

My portion of the flight report includes myself making 4 flights on the day.

My corvette on an H238
A spool rocket on a E9
My Aerotech Warthog on a G64-10
And my Astron Sprint MP on an F39-9

The corvette was prepped with both onboard video as well as my P-Nut altimeter. Both devices were taped to the rocket as parasite devices. The motor was prepped the night before.

At the end of the count down the motor instantaneously built pressure and the rocket leaped off the pad faster than it ever had before. The winds were slightly stronger than the predicted 10mph and the rocket took full advantage of the breeze as it cocked upwind at apogee. It was shortly after this that we came to the conclusion the rest of the flight was not going to go to well. The rocket was about to become a kit once again but at an altitude of around 300’ and around 20seconds into the flight the ejection charge lit. The parachute ejected and the rocket pitched sideways. The parachute with shockcord, nosecone and body came raining down in three separate pieces. After reaching the “Crash” zone and inspecting the rocket the body tube was zippered the full length of the tube all the way down to the motor mount. The attachment lug of the nose cone was ripped off the rocket and the parachute drifted away with around 10 dollars worth of Kevlar shock cord attached to it. I’m not sure what caused the delay to go long but what’s done is done.. the rocket is already being rebuilt!

Altitude was recorded on the flight at 1,736’

Here is the on board video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBZ8lkU71Rk


The spool rocket did not go all that well BUT.. GAME ON!.. I will have to design a better mouse trap!

A few of my work partners came out to watch and enjoy the weather and just in time I might add. I had my Aerotech Wart Hog readied with a G64-10. The rocket had been flown before on a F52-8 so I knew the 10 sec delay was going to be very close and man was it ever. This rocket also had on board video and an altimeter. The video shows the rocket just about stop at apogee (watch the tracking smoke in the video). The chute deploys and the rest was just an easy ride down. The rocket reached an altitude of 1,558.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lblMVaoVxBE


My last flight was my scratch build Sprint MP. I setup a F39-9 for the flight. The rocket streaked off the pad to an altitude of 1,753’ Its flown much higher in the past but the parasite altimeter caused to much drag for any real high altitudes. Fun flight never the less.

Stats:
4 flights total using one black powder motor and three composite.
All composite flights used Copper Heads to ignite the propellant
361.9N or 81lbs impulse

I had to pack it up early for a dinner date as the rest of the club kept flying to dark. The nice weather made for a great day of flying!

__________________
Michael "Grimracer" Zaborowski
NAR #57503 Cert 1