"Thing One" second flight on a Cesaroni I195 Red Lightning motor (3 grain) (2011-07-05)

Second flight of a scratch-built 4" rocket, weighing just under 7 lbs and standing a hair over 7 feet tall. Dual-deploy electronics (Featherweight Altimeters Raven2) were onboard, and triggered the apogee drogue /and/ the main chute (which was supposed to come out at 900 feet) at apogee plus 1 second. The BP charges were still a bit too stout, so things got to the ends of the shock cords (40 feet worth) and bounced back together, tangling a bit. Luckily, the 45" main chute opened fine and slowly dropped Thing One about 3/4 mile away.

38mm Art Applewhite "Delta" Saucer on a Cesaroni G78 Blue Streak motor (2011-12-31)

Fiberglass/epoxy-reinforced paper/fiberboard saucer on a Cesaroni 38mm 1-grain G78 "Blue Streak" motor. Blue Streak really jumps off the pad! Wheeeeee!! Art sells an assortment of great saucer kits and interesting rocketry items, both low (and high-power, and his customer service exceeds all expectations. Check out www.artapplewhite.com and see for yourself.

7-foot "Thing One" on a 4-grain 38mm Cesaroni I303 "Blue Streak" motor (2011-12-31)

Raven2 altimeter says it hit 294mph in 1.908 seconds and rocket (7.5 lbs) reached 2402 feet AGL. Perfect flight on a cold, windy day. Look for the glint of the iridescent fins toward the center right of the screen at ~47 seconds. The next flight... was not anywhere nearly as successful. :(

7-foot "Thing One" on a 5-grain 38mm Cesaroni I303 "Blue Streak" motor (2011-12-31)

A beautiful flight on a Cesaroni 38mm I216 Classic White "Longburn" motor with a 3-second burn time. 314mph on the way up, and probably 65mph+ into the ground. [Insert sad face.] It was immediately apparent what the cause of the failure was: One of the three shear pins holding the nose cone to the top body tube failed to shear -- it was sticking out of the nose cone shoulder and bent 45° down by the body tube separation. This significantly reduced the force of the nose cone separation (2.5G of BP), which in turn failed to pull the main parachute all the way out. The parachute was hanging halfway out of the top of the tube still neatly folded and taunting me when I retrieved the rocket. Top section is 100% reusable. Bottom section took heavy damage: one fin had its epoxy fillet separate from the fin (but not from the cardboard body tube, which is very surprising) when it hit the ground, and equivalent body tube damage on the opposite side where it pushed over. Electronics bay was completely destroyed, along with some of the contents inside (arming switch mount, altimeter sled separated from the metal tubes it slides down on, and both 9V battery holders broke off), but the Raven2 altimeter ($160 by itself) made it through unscathed and provided telemetry from the flight. I should have added a second back-up charge just in case.... this was the first time I /didn't/ do that with a Raven2 flight. Someone kick me.

Aerotech Mirage First Flight on AT F40W (2011-06-26)

First flight of a stock built Aerotech Mirage kit (29mm motor mount, 7' 3" tall, 2lb 6.5oz without motor). Running out of daylight due to the many launches that day and also a prior failure to ignite (igniter only chuffed the motor). This attempt took a particularly long time to build up motor pressure, resulting in a gloriously slow liftoff with plenty of smoke. Although the ejection charge went, it was too weak to fully separate the body section from the fin section, and it landed hard. The fin section embedded one fin halfway into the ground and cracked the fin a bit, while the upper body took a bit of scrape-ification due to the hard landing. However, once the fin is repaired, it'll fly again -- next time with another 12" in length with the addition of an altimeter/payload bay.

Aerotech Mirage Level 1 Certification Flight (successful) (2011-07-05)

This was second flight of the day... after first test flight on a G motor failed to open the chute, and broke a fin. A little bit of 5-minute epoxy, and the Mirage was flight-ready again, for a successful TRA Level1 certification on a Cesaroni H54 White Long-Burn motor.

Aerotech Mirage on a 29mm Aerotech G53FJ "Black Max" motor (2011-05-31)

After 3 failed attempts to ignite an Aerotech G76G "Green Mojave" motor ($6 down the tubes just for igniters) on this rocket, I switched to a different motor: a G53 Fast Jack "Black Max" smokey motor. This was the first *successful* launch and recovery of this 7-foot 3-inch rocket. Next attempt will include a 12" payload bay with an altimeter, making it 8 feet 3 inches tall !! Stay tuned!

Mid-power rocketry (2011-07-05)

First flight of an Art Applewhite 10" saucer on an Aerotech F40W

PML AMRAAM2 1:7 scale AIM-120 missile (2011-06-24)

First launch on a Cessaroni F39 "Smoky Sam" motor with 6s delay. Motor was underpowered for this rocket, not quite comparable to the Aerotech F40W, so the delay was quite late. PML kits are sturdy, so not a lick of damage and launched again a little while later.

PML AMRAAM2 on a Cessaroni G88 "Smokey Sam" motor (2011-06-28)

PML 1:7 Scale AIM-120 AMRAAM missile on a Cessaroni G88 "Smokey Sam" motor

Stretched 8-foot 3-inch Aerotech Mirage on Cessaroni G80/G88 motors (2011-05-31)

Successful launches of the stretched Mirage (8' 3" with payload bay). Still shots are from the second launch on a Cessaroni G88 "Skidmark" sparky motor, and the video portion is from the first launch on a Cessaroni G80 "Smokey Sam" motor. Because this rocket is so tall, I had to hold it on the pad until the wind died down a bit, then run back giving the "Go!" signal. Both launches were picture-perfect. First launch (Smokey) was 483 feet according to the altimeter, and the second (Skidmark) was 537 feet. Next attempt could be my Level 1 Certification flight if I wanted to.....

Tom Binford's Long-Burn Saucer Launch at SciPower 2 (2011) (2014-01-17)

"Sweeeeet!"