FITS Attempted Level 2 Certification Flight

Video 87 of 262
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Author:nwcafesurfer
Published:2007-05-29 05:49:14

This video starts with a brief interview I had with Rockets Magazine on the launch pad then goes on to my attempted Level 2 Certification flight on a scratch built rocket of my own design. Liftoff was on a J350 dual deployment. Drogue at apogee and main at 500' with motor ejection backup (medium delay). I anticipated just 3500' but because of an airframe failure (likely caused by an insufficient coupler tube) my Perfect Flight altimeter logged an apogee event at 1750' and fired the drogue. At this point my rocket was traveling at 170+ mph, the 18" LOC drogue chute yanked the rocket about and separated the 52" main chute, which promptly tore a 3" zipper in the lower airframe. The damage was quite minimal, I actually could have flown it again the same day but decided it would be best to re-design/re-build the altimeter bay for a more secure connection to the 3" / 4" airframe transition. Looking foreword to posting a video of a successful L2 flight in the near future.

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