"Back in BLack" at LDRS-26 - Flight 2 - on-board Low-rez video (2011-06-22)

On-board video via hacked CVS camcorder installed into the altimeter bay of my Hawk Mountain Talon-3 rocket. This is one of two successfully recorded flights. In this case the chute never opened.

"Back in BLack" at LDRS-26 - Flight 3 - on-board Low-rez video (2011-06-22)

On-board video via hacked CVS camcorder installed into the altimeter bay of my Hawk Mountain Talon-3 rocket. This is the third flight, with a successful chute deployment. Lens was dirty (sorry).

"Back in Black" at MDRA Red Glare 8 (VIII) - Onboard HD Video (2011-06-03)

This is my Hawk Mountain Enterprises Talon-3 rocket named "Back in Black", flying on an Animal Motor Works L-1300 engine at MDRA's Red Glare VIII event on April 17th, 2010 at approximately 12:30 PM. The rocket is 7 feet 6 inches long and 3 inches in diameter, weighing ~17 pounds loaded and ready for launch. It is equipped with an R-DAS altimeter and a 720p HD camcorder in the avbay and a BeeLine 433 MHz tracking beacon in the nosecone. This flight was successful despite some setbacks. The first occurred when the rocket was loaded onto the pad. When the altimeter was activated it remained silent - there was no initialization tone. The rocket was returned to the preparation area and disassembled for inspection. The cause was determined to be a bent terminal on the 9V battery. It had not snapped fully into the holder because of this, and was making contact only intermittently. I am SO glad it failed to make contact at that moment (when I switched it on). Had it made contact and I had heard the init beep from the altimeter the launch would have taken place, and I am convinced that the power to the altimeter would have been interrupted during flight - resulting in catastrophic loss of the entire rocket. After repairing the problem, the rocket flew successfully on the second try. The thrust curve says that the L-1300 develops more than 340 pounds of thrust for the first 1.4 seconds or so of the burn. According to the altimeter graph, this accelerated the rocket at more than 20G ...

Back in Black MDRA Red Glare IX - Long (fixed).mpg (2011-06-20)

Here is my modified Hawk Mountain Talon-3 as it flew Saturday Oct 23rd at MDRA's Red Glare IX. It was in the identical configuration as for the previous flight at Red Glare VIII. This longer video includes: RSO table & weigh-in Placing the rocket on the pad The flight itself Retrieval by some kind fellow rocketeers Rocket configuration: Fincan shortened by ~1.5" (due prior mishap) Recovery bay lengthened by 12" 90.5" long, 3" diameter 16.4 pounds on the pad AMW L1300-BB motor R-DAS Tiny Altimeter Streamer deployment at apogee Rocketman R-7 chute (too small, R-9 won't fit) deployed at 600 ft SVP T-100 720p camcorder w/aft view via mirror Piston ejection BeeLine beacon 433.975Mhz in nosecone Flight data: Maximum acceleration ~30G @ ~760 ft. AGL (~965 ft./sec^2) Maximum velocity ~1160fps @ ~3600 ft. AGL (~Mach 1.07) Maximum altitude ~11258 ft. @ ~26 seconds from liftoff Flight duration 192 seconds This video was edited from 2 45-minute raw segments. I used Adobe Premiere Elements 8 to eliminate many of the less interesting periods, then reversed the image to eliminate the mirror's effect.

Back in Black MDRA Red Glare IX - Short (fixed).mpg (2011-06-28)

Here is my modified Hawk Mountain Talon-3 as it flew Saturday Oct 23rd at MDRA's Red Glare IX. It was in the identical configuration as for the previous flight at Red Glare VIII. This shorter video includes: Only the flight itself Rocket configuration: Fincan shortened by ~1.5" (due prior mishap) Recovery bay lengthened by 12" 90.5" long, 3" diameter 16.4 pounds on the pad AMW L1300-BB motor R-DAS Tiny Altimeter Streamer deployment at apogee Rocketman R-7 chute (small, R-9 won't fit) deployed at 600 ft SVP T-100 720p camcorder w/aft view via mirror Piston ejection BeeLine beacon 433.975Mhz in nosecone Flight data: Maximum acceleration ~30G @ ~760 ft. AGL (~965 ft./sec^2) Maximum velocity ~1160fps @ ~3600 ft. AGL (~Mach 1.07) Maximum altitude ~11258 ft. @ ~26 seconds from liftoff Flight duration 192 seconds This video was edited from a single 45-minute raw segment. I used Adobe Premiere Elements 8 to eliminate many of the less interesting periods, then reversed the image to eliminate the mirror's effect.

Back in Black MDRA Red Glare XI Ground (2012-06-29)

This is the from-the-ground view of my flight at MDRA's Red Glare XI on Saturday November 19th. My wife shot this with her Polaroid 1080p camcorder. She wasn't able to keep up with the acceleration, and lost track of the rocket. This is the flight which resulted in loss of the rocket when it landed on the property of someone who would not allow us to retrieve it. We may be able to retrieve it in the future, and if so I will post the 1080p onboard video of this flight.

LDRS-28 MudFest (2011-06-22)

Our vacation to LDRS-28 in Potter, NY met with difficulty on day 1. Getting back out of this horrible mud pit proved to be too much for our Subaru Legacy GT. We got stuck in this muck for a while later in the day.

MDRA Red Glare 12 - Nick DeBrita's Mercury-Redstone (2012-06-29)

Nick DeBrita's 1/6 scale Mercury Redstone at MDRA Red Glare XII.

Saddest rocket video ever - Back in Black MDRA Red Glare XI (2012-06-29)

This will serve as a cautionary tale. Always check the size of the memory card inserted into your rocket's camera when prepping for flight. You might find yourself in the situation where your video contains nothing but staring at the launchpad until the memory is exhausted. Well, maybe if you turn the sound up you will hear YOUR rocket being launched in the background while mine waits for the button to be pressed. :-) The day after I saw this, I bought a 16GB card - which should record more than 2 hours. I won't make the same mistake twice. :-) The flight (not represented in this video) was to 10000 ft. with a max speed of 1080 ft/sec and max acceleration of 32G. The chute was fouled, resulting in some minor cosmetic damage when it hit the trees.

Skidmark drag race LDRS-28 (2011-06-03)

Awesome drag race featuring multiple skidmark motors late Sunday July 5th at LDRS-28. Although this event started out badly, Saturday and Sunday's weather was awesome and many fantastic flights took place.

Wildman N-10000 drag race MDRA Red Glare 8 (VIII) (2011-09-28)

Craziest thing I've seen so far. Four rockets, all stuffed with sledgehammer N motors.