Back in Black At MDRA Red Glare 13
This is the penultimate flight of "Back in Black". She flew on Friday morning to 9232 ft on an L1400 Loki reload in an AMW casing. The flight was picture perfect, recovering safely on a Rocketman R-9 chute. Update - As it turned out, this was the last flight "Back in Black" would ever fly. On Saturday, she flew on a CTI L640 to perhaps 10,000 ft - but something went wrong with the recovery system. Despite redundant charges and a fully charged battery (4V indicated on the pad by the Raven Altimeter) no separation occurred at apogee. She came in ballistic and buried her 6 foot airframe into the ground. Only the last 6" was still visible above ground. The rest of the airframe had compacted itself into a twisted mass of wreckage only 1.5 feet long underground. We dug it out, the two trackers and video cam were utterly destroyed. The camera memory has not been found, though some parts of the airframe have yet to be disentangled. RIP Back in Black. She was a fine flyer and has provided some great footage.

 Rocketry Product: Featherweight Altimeters - Raven {Component}

 Rocketry Club: Maryland Delaware Rocketry Association

Author James Moran
Duration 131 seconds

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