The Ricochet: The Ricochet is another design inspired by air defense missiles. It has a reducer to a long, thin payload section. It is an easy, modern kit. Instead of regular gloss, I used a metallic blue paint, and painted some silver rings around the tube heads, and clear coated the entire model after the decals were added. The payload section has vent holes for use with a barometric altimeter. I like this bird, it's tall but pretty light, and it travels pretty far on smaller motors. This rocket has flown higher than the Time Warner Center Towers in NY, and the Bell Atlantic Tower in Philadelphia. From sea-level it could have flown over the towers of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco.
| Flight Date: | 2012-05-06 |
| Rocket Name: | Ricochet |
| Kit Name: | Estes - Richocet {Kit} (003208) |
| Flyer's Name: | Rich DeAngelis |
| Motors: | B6-6 |
| Expected Altitude: | 370.00 Feet |
| Wind Speed: | 3.00 mph |
| Launch Site: | Penn Manor School Lancaster PA |
| Actual Altitude: | 263.00 Feet |
A previous flight with a B6-4 ejected a bit early at 350 feet, so I wanted to try a B6-6 this time hoping to break 400 feet. The flight started off well, accelerating at a peak of 11.1 Gs, a few Gs less than the B6-4 flight but quite acceptable. It averaged 4.1 Gs for the 9/10 second burn and reached a top speed of 81 mph. It then coasted for 3.5 seconds more to an apogee of 263 feet, not even close to its record on a B6.
While the delay time was correct on this particular motor, it was too much for this model and it arched over and descended for another 2.7 seconds to 169 feet. The newly built parachute with 2x longer shrouds than supplied by Estes, a 1.5" spill hole and a swivel clip performed well. It allowed the model to descend at 8 mph, fast enough for me to feel comfortable with a flight to 800 feet on a C6 motor. It landed easily within 100 feet of the launch pad. The flight lasted for 18.2 seconds.
| Stage | Motor(s) |
|---|---|
| 1 | B6-6 |
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