12" Modular Booster (2011-11-04)

This is the launch of the 12" Modular Booster at WOOSH Eat Cheese of Fly in Aug 2011. It flew on a Cesaroni L3150, and carried the Vanessa Doofenshmirtz legged lander, my entry in the Kelly Legged Lander Challenge. Her build is detailed on the Rocketry Forum on this thread... http://www.rocketryforum.com/showthread.php?t=16819 (starting with entry 107 on page 4)

12" Modular Booster with Legged Lander (2011-12-07)

This video was shot and edited by friend and fellow WOOSH member Jackson L. (Thank you!) The rocket was my entry into the Legged Lander Challenge at WOOSH ECOF in 2011, the 12" Modular Booster with the Vanessa Doofenshmirtz legged lander and her secret payload. (For those not familiar with the name, Vanessa is a character on the Disney cartoon "Phineas and Ferb". Two gifted boys find some massive project to build each and every day of summer vacation. Ferb has a crush on Vanessa, and if he were to build a legged lander for a contest in Wisconsin, he would name it after her.) The lander is in position, inverted, as the nose cone atop the booster, like a giant Estes Venus Probe. At apogee, the lander is ejected, the leg downlocks release and the legs swing 135° to their landing position. The booster recovers under a 168" Spherachute. The lander was intended to recover under a Giant Leap TAC-3C, but it wasn't fully released by the deployment bag so it had a higher descent rate than desired. To add insult to injury, she landed on the gravel runway - the closest thing to playa we have in Wisconsin. The good news is that the bungees did their job. In addition to pulling the legs down to extend them, the bungees stretch back out on ground contact to allow the legs to absorb some landing shock. The legs did crack on landing, but the capsule remained intact, undamaged, and upright. The secret payload finally revealed to the judge. Yup, Phineas and Ferb made the flight.

Jayhawk flight 1 (aft facing camera) (2011-09-04)

This is the video from the aft facing gearcam on my 10" diameter Jayhawk, which flew 30 Oct 2010 on a Cesaroni N3180. The 120" drogue parachute shredded on opening, which prevented it from pulling out the three 192" main parachutes. The camera was knocked off the rocket body during descent, and it continued taking video during it's tumble to the ground. It was found about 30' from the rocket.

Jayhawk flight 1 (forward facing camera) (2011-12-06)

This is the onboard video from the forward facing gearcam on my 10" Jayhawk, which flew on 30 Oct 2010 on a Cesaroni N3180. The 120" drogue parachute shredded on opening, which prevented it from pulling out the three 192" main parachutes.

Jayhawk parachute test.dv (2011-07-05)

This is a pre-flight ground test of the recovery system to be used in my 10" diameter Jayhawk high powered rocket. The three 192" Spherachute parachutes deploy from Giant Leap kevlar deployment bags.