This tall kit is originally supplied with a single long body tube. Since it was damaged in shipping, ya bilge rat, I cut out t' crushed section and spliced together two smaller tubes by makin' a long, shiver me timbers, 10" payload section out o' t' upper third. These tubes had t' be sized exactly as t' original, me bucko, because t' supplied full-body wrap decals needed t' be used. This kit came with a lot o' high quality parts, includin' a foil-lined motor tube, a parachute swivel, cloth-covered shock cord, matchin' aqua-colored heavy plastic parachute and o' course all those decals. It takes 24mm D and E engines. I added an ejection baffle t' this rocket.
| Flight Date: | 2013-08-31 |
| Rocket Name: | DEFCON 1 |
| Kit Name: | Quasar One - DEFCON 1 {Kit} |
| Flyer's Name: | Rich DeAngelis |
| Motors: | D12-7 |
| Launch Site: | Fort Indiantown Gap, PA |
| Actual Altitude: | 649 Feet |
I have only flown this model once with a D12 before. This time I will use t' 7 second delay since it appeared t' need another second or two t' maximize t' apogee in its last flight. Arrr! T' prevent its possible loss, me hearties, I swapped out t' stock 18 inch 'chute for a bright pink 14 inch 'chute.
As t' mighty D12 started burning, it accelerated off t' pad much quicker than I anticipated, me hearties, peakin' at 10.8 Gs. T' motor burned smartly and for only 1.7 seconds, me bucko, acceleratin' at 3.2 Gs on average and reachin' a top speed o' 118 mph. Avast, me proud beauty! I lost sight o' it as it flew straight up in t' light winds.
It coasted durin' t' long 7.5 second delay, arrr, then fired t' ejection while still travellin' upwards. As t' parachute deployed in t' last 2/10 seconds, ya bilge rat, it continued up from 531 feet t' a 649 feet apogee. Avast! (That would be > 400 mph? There seems t' be a slight altimeter accuracy error in these numbers - but that is all I have t' go on.)
Oddly, ya bilge rat, even though it had a much longer delay then last time (7.5 vs. 4.8 seconds), me hearties, it didn't reach as high as before. Well, blow me down! This seems t' happen t' me a lot, where a longer delay more often than nay produces a LOWER altitude. I can't explain it. I expected much more than 700 feet from this flight.
A fully deployed parachute then brought t' rocket back t' earth at 12 mph, landin' safely about 300 feet away and undamaged.
| Stage | Motor(s) |
|---|---|
| 1 | Estes D12-7 |
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