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The Maiden Flight of The Rocket Formerly Known As Black
Click [HERE!] to view video of this AWESOME flight!
ç flew for the first time at the December 2002 club launch sponsored by the Superstition Spacemodeling Society at the Rainbow Valley site. It was a beautiful Arizona day -- sunny skies, light breezes, and temperatures peaking around 70°F. A great day for launching rockets!
Below are a few photographs from the prep and launch of ç. Most of the preparations -- the recovery systems, etc. -- were made the day before, so all I really had to do was push the motor in the tail and walk it out to the pad. Cory McCormick (aka Cory McRocket, aka cory McVatsaas) provided the motor casing -- and luck would have it, a K670 Green Gorilla from Animal Motor Works was already loaded in the casing when he bought it!
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One last pose with the rocket before lofting it a half-mile up. This is always a good idea, because you never know what a rocket will look like after the flight....
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Loading the 54-1750 casing into the business end of the rocket. This is about two-thirds of the fuselage length, so it doesn't leave a lot of room for parachutes. I had to develop a new chute design that packs into a smaller space just to bring the this baby back safely!
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ç ready on the pad. I had some problems with my launch control system, which force several countdowns - but the problem was easily traced and remedied. The third time was the charm.
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ZOOM! ç leaps off the pad and flies on a line so straight that I couldn't have drawn it better with a ruler. The photograph really doesn't do justice to the greenish hue of the actual flame. According to the G-Wiz LC, the altitude at apogee was 2,872 feet. Not bad for a rocket shaped like an eggplant.
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An enlargement of the previous photo.
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Because the the mass of the nose cone balancing weight (it weighed five pounds, total) I opted to bring the nose and body down on separate chutes. I sewed a special 10-foot cupped-elliptical chute for the body and a matching eight-foot version for the nose. They opened simultaneously and both performed beautifully.
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The nose and airframe landed about 500 yards apart, ready to fly again. What a rush.
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The walk back to the prep area is always more enjoyable when the flight goes as smoothly as this one. The boy with the bed head is my son, Stefan, and the girl on the right is my middle daughter, Danielle. My oldest daughter, Britta, is taking the photograph.
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A little scuffed up from the landing on the desert hardpan, but intact nonetheless. And the rocket looks pretty good, too! Extreme Rocketry magazine ran a full-page photo in their August 2002 issue of me holding my Napkin Rocket, and standing with a young child (who was a total stranger). My kids thought this was unforgivable, so I leapt at the chance to pose with children who actually belong to me. Danielle is on the left, and Britta stands to my right with Stefan.
Click [HERE!] to view video of this AWESOME flight!
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