Chris Gonnerman's PageAKA: Solomoriah Location: La Belle, MO, USA Favorite Quote: "What does this button do?"
Personal Home Page: http://rocketry.gonnerman.org RocketReviews.com Pages:
2025-05-183D  Flight It flew... badly, to be honest, spinning and flying downrange to the north. It was recovered with no visible damage but will not be flown again. - A10-3 - Fairfax Society of Rocketry Site [More]
Semroc Point  Flight This one is challenging to set up for launch due to how far up into the conical body the engine goes; it's hard to get the clips on it. But I managed it, and it turned in a catalog-perfect, straight vertical flight. It's not a pretty rocket on recovery though, and between that and the difficulty ... [More]
Estes Phoenix Bird  Flight It was a very nice if unremarkable flight and recovery. I packed it with one of the chutes that had failed in the previous rack, and this time it opened fine. - C6-5 - Fairfax Society of Rocketry Site [More]
Dawn Star II  Flight It flew well, drifting to the south across the road and landing in the tall grass in the ditch. I found it mainly due to the parachute laying on top of the grass. It was a bit dirty from the ejection but will be cleaned up and flown again. - B6-4 - Fairfax Society of Rocketry Site [More]
Centuri Stellar Hercules  Flight It was a good flight with a long drift (on the other one of thos chutes that had failed me earlier) and was recovered undamaged in the field across the road to the south. Despite the long drift, I believe this experience has taught me that this rocket should only be flown on C6-5 engines. - C6-5 - ... [More]
SCRAM 140  Flight It turned in a nearly perfect vertical flight before suffering a shock cord failure on deployment. The nose cone and streamer were not found, but the body did a perfect lawn dart maneuver, suffering minor damage. A new nose cone and some minor repair will have this one flying again. - A8-3 - ... [More]
Mo' Skeeter  Flight It was a good flight, weathercocking somewhat, with an excellent deployment; the rocket drifted back over the launch area and landed in the grassy parking area with no evident damage. This is the 21st flight for this rocket, still wearing the same paint job (but with some small battle scars to ... [More]
Big Daddy 4x18  Flight Rather than putting in a single large parachute I rigged it with both of the chutes I had that problem with on the second rack. using a bunch of crepe paper wadding. I used the old pyrogen Estes igniters, installing them with plugs before removing the paper and twisting them together with my range ... [More]
Estes Baby Bertha  Flight The rod whipped when it launched, causing some tail-wagging, but the flight was still good... until it deployed, and the chute failed to open. Twice in a row, as this rocket followed the Double Barrel Baby Bertha that did the same thing. This lighter rocket came down with only minor cosmetic ... [More]
Double Barrel Baby Bertha  Flight The ignition was good, the flight high and straight, and the deployment was good... but the chute didn't open. Pulled by that heavy nose cone, the rocket plummeted to the ground, landing near the launch stand with substantial damage including a nasty ding in the upper body tube and one fin broken ... [More]
2015-09-23Skylark OpenRocket Design [More]
2014-01-08Quest Evader Cruise Missile (Kit)  Review
Single stage missile-like rocket with an unusual compound nose cone.
I picked this one up while passing through St. Louis; I had never seen one like it. Not surprising, I later learned, as I was able to find it in the early Quest catalogs on Ninfinger's site, but not on the current ... [More]
2010-12-24Mo' Skeeter (Upscale)  Review
This is my Mo' Skeeter, a 320% upscale of the classic Estes Mosquito . It's a rear-ejection model, which avoids the visible nose cone line that most Mosquito upscales suffer from.
Components
This rocket consists of a Baby Bertha cone , 6" of BT-60, 6" of BT-20, two 20-60 ... [More]
2008-09-25Scratch New Centurion (Scratch)  Review
This is my upgrade/semi-clone of the classic Centuri Centurion. It incorporates an offset-tube baffle, breaks at the midline (at the baffle) and features three interchangeable engine mounts: 1x18mm, 2x18mm, and 1x24mm D/E.
Cygnus 1x24mm E Engine Mount Kit
Cygnus 2x18mm Engine ... [More]
2007-09-24Estes X-Prize Lucky Seven (Kit)  Review
This is a semi-scale model of the Acceleration Engineering "Lucky Seven" rocket, one of the contestants for the Ansari X-Prize.
This is a largely plastic rocket. The package includes a three-piece plastic nose cone (two side halves and a bulkhead), a plastic body tube with integral bulkhead, ... [More]
2007-08-16Custom Rockets Galileo Probe (Kit)  Review
Brief:
The Custom Galileo is a cute little helicopter recovery rocket. Mine was an Father's Day gift from my wife. This is a
skill level 2 rocket.
Construction:
The kit contains standard BT-20 tube and ogive balsa cone, three small balsa fins, dowels, paper centering ring ... [More]
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