After a brief 22-year hiatus, I rehabbed the ol' HV Arcas and got her ready to fly. The Southern Oregon Rocketry chapter of NAR holds monthly launches up at the Rogue Eagles RC Club’s Agate Skyways site near Eagle Point. The weather wasn’t perfect, but it wasn’t bad. The smoke that we’ve endured most of the summer was mostly absent, and it wasn’t too hot. Winds were mild. Not many people were there…only 4 vehicles. So…the Plaster Blaster it wasn’t, but getting out and burning some old AP motors is always fun, and the Arcas gets up quick and hauls ass. SOR has a G-motor limit, so I was the big dog here today, while I never bothered launching at the Plaster Blasters because there, Gs were insignificant. This video was the second flight. The first flight was textbook, mostly. She took off, went straight up, and popped the chute right on schedule. The altimeter apogee ejection gadget didn’t fire the electric match, but she was flying on a Aerotech G80-7 Blue Thunder motor, and my homemade Pyrodex ejection charge has always worked perfectly. Again unfortunately, it came down very close to home, but that meant it landed on hardpan and cracked one of the fins. I glued it, but I could tell it was a little tweaked. I’m not sure how I’m going to straighten it out, but I figured it was close enough for now. It was close enough, but no proverbial cigar, as you can see. The second flight had a little tail waggle…kind of sexy, but no bueno for recording. I got a cool little mini camera/DVR off eBay from some dude in China for $38 bucks. The rocketry suppliers here sell them for $100. For this flight, I just used painters’ masking tape to tape it to the side and played it safe for now, taping it high enough to not mess with the center of gravity. The camcorder actually worked flawlessly, although the hard landing knocked it loose. On this flight, I substituted the e-match with an old 50-year old A1 Flashbulb, which I’d used successfully before a couple times. The ALTS2 ejector didn’t fire it either, so I suspect I’ve got a bad connection somewhere. May be that the dunk in the Gulf of California back in 1996 corrosion finally caught up with the interstage connectors. Anyway, I’ve got some more experimenting to do. I think I’ve only got 3 or 4 more delay charge motors left, and after that, it’s all plugged ones that won’t fire charges, so having an apogee ejection system is a necessity. Anyway, enjoy the shot. The onboard vid, although the spinning rocket sucks, it’s still kind of cool, especially when it clunks down and bounces on the RC club’s runway.