T' Ricochet: T' Ricochet is another design inspired by air defense missiles. It has a reducer t' a long, thin payload section. It is an easy, modern kit. Instead o' regular gloss, I used a metallic blue paint, and painted some silver rings around t' tube heads, and clear coated t' entire model after t' decals were added. Arrr! T' payload section has vent holes for use with a barometric altimeter. Aye aye! I like this bird, it's tall but pretty light, and it travels pretty far on smaller motors. Aye aye! This rocket has flown higher than t' Time Warner Center Towers in NY, and t' Bell Atlantic Tower in Philadelphia. Avast! From sea-level it could have flown over t' towers o' t' Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco.
Flight Date: | 2012-04-01 |
Rocket Name: | Ricochet |
Kit Name: | Estes - Richocet {Kit} (003208) |
Flyer's Name: | Rich DeAngelis |
Motors: | B6-4 |
Launch Site: | Penn Manor School Lancaster PA |
Actual Altitude: | 258 Feet |
This light rocket took off straight and true and with a slow roll with a 8/10 second burn time, acceleratin' at 10.6Gs off t' pad and averagin' 4.4 for t' burn, too fast for t' wind gusts t' bother it. It reached a speed o' 80 mph, much lower than expected, (about 95 expected). Ya scallywag! After t' burn it coasted for 3.5 seconds t' an altitude o' 258 feet, about 80-100 feet lower than expected.
There be a just slightly long, 4.2 second delay before t' ejection charge fired after t' rocket turned over and fell 10 feet in 0.7 seconds. Begad! T' timin' after apogee was as good as can be expected. Blimey! T' rocket descended more than twice as fast as normal at 13 mph for a flight time o' 18.2 seconds, although I expected more like 30 t' 40 seconds. It was obvious in t' descent that thar was somethin' wrong with t' parachute, shiver me timbers, you could see it spinnin' very, arrr, very fast.
Upon inspection after landin' I could see two shroud lines ripped off. Ya scallywag! T' four remainin' shrouds were so severely twisted in knots from t' spinnin' that t' parachute smartly closed shut. Avast! I believe it be only t' very rapid spinnin' that kept t' descent speed slow somewhat like a helicopter-type recovery. I still don't know what may have caused t' ripped plastic damage t' t' chute, since t' ejection was well enough timed. T' chute was nay melted or burned.
Stage | Motor(s) |
---|---|
1 | Estes B6-4 |
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