Launch Report: March 16, 2002
| Location | |
Tewksbury, MA |
| Temperature | |
mid 40s |
| Wind | |
10mph, NNW |
| Flight | |
Rocket | |
Motor | |
Comments |
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| 1 | |
Estes Wizard | |
A8-3 | |
Maiden Flight. Broke fin; repaired. |
| 2 | |
Estes Omloid | |
C6-3 | |
Egg payload survived. Perfect flight. |
| 3 | |
Quest Pip Squeak | |
B6-4 | |
Severe fin crack, internal zipper at hook. |
After two cancelled Frontier launches in a row, Mikkel and I decided to
hold our own launch at the Tewksbury field. Granted, there would be no
L-class hybrid to watch and I couldn't launch the Nerd Magnet, but it was
something. We packed up the mantis and some of our smaller rockets and
off we went...
...without the proper launch rod. We got all the way to Tewksbury and had
the pad all set up before Mikkel noticed that I was setting up for a 1/4"
rod and all we had were 1/8" lug rockets. We had to hunt around Tewksbury
for a hardware store that would sell us 1/8" steel rod stock before we
could launch. Luckily, this proved easier that I thought.
With the correct hardware in hand, we started launching. Mikkel launched
his Viking on an A8-3 which I painted the other day, and it promptly
snapped a fin off on landing.
I rigged up my Estes Wizard for its maiden flight with an A8-3. It
accelerated much quicker than Mikkel's Viking on the same motor, must be
a lighter rocket.
The flight looked great, except that I also broke a
fin on landing. It wasn't a snap-off at the glue joint like Mikkel's, as
my fillets seemed to hold the balsa together. But just above the fillets
it snapped clear across the grain.
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As Mikkel rigged up a mounting rig for his Micro-Maxx ignitors, I readied
my Estes Omloid for its first flight with an actual egg on board.
The flight looked good and landed about ten meters from the launchpad.
The egg survived intact. See photo, left.
This would prove to be my only fully successful flight of the day.
By taping the Micro Maxx ignitor to a small piece of phenolic tube and
placing that around the launch rod on the Mantis, then taping a 18g wire
nearby for a launch rod, Mikel was able to get his Quest Space Shuttle
rocket to work on the first try.
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This in contrast to his last attempt to launch it with the ignitor sitting
in the grass, which took three tries and two motors. Mikkel's next
flight, the Sizzler, went really really high and we both lost it during
descent. It looked like it was going to be well into the forest anyway.
For my last flight, I put my veteran Quest Pip Squeak on the pad with a
B6-6. The flight went nice and high and looked great, though the ejection
looked a bit overpowerful. The landing cracked one of the fins pretty
badly. I can't figure out what prevented it from coming off. Also, the
motor was sticking about 1cm farther out the back of the body tube than it
was when i launched it, despite the continued presence of the motor
retention hook.
Turns out the nosecone had been a little tight and had overpressured the
body tube. By the time the nose came off, the motor had pulled the motor
retention hook a full centimeter through the motor mount tube, giving it
an internal zipper. Technically the rocket is still operational, though
the hook now slides up and down a centimeter. It's only a matter of time
before another rough ejection kicks the motor and the hook out at apogee.
Mikkel's last launch was his spring-recovery Snitch, which I love, on a
C6-0. Perfect flight.
However, afterwards, I gave it a spin and a light toss down onto the
ground and broke one of the legs off. So I'm an idiot.
The cold weather was really getting to our fingers so we called it a day
and headed to some greasy pizza joint in "downtown" Tewksbury for some
dinner.
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Additional photos from this launch:
