It's been 15 months since my last launch... but that pandemic pause ended today.
I drove out to Holtville and experienced a rather extreme temperature gradient in moving from coast to the eastern CA desert: 63˚F to 103˚F (108˚F on the way back!). Wow. I was only able to fly one rocket but that felt good indeed. Luckily I've been hitting the gym on alternate days in recent years (except for closures driven by pathogen precautions) and felt quite solid walking in the heat today.
I flew the CTI 1750K650 Pink (Pro54/5G) motor in my Polecat Aerospace [White :) ] Raven. The motor was awesome but I'll need to microadjust focus on my new camera:
[The focus dot was clearly on the rocket before liftoff but the focal plane's roughly 15 feet behind the rocket in the photo. All prior test photos with this camera have been tack sharp with all lenses so it must be this particular lens.]
But back to rawkitz... The ascent was both loud and immediate. I'd trimmed the default 21 second delay down to ~16.5s but I think it was still roughly 1-2 seconds too long. Upon ejection the Jolly Logic Chute Release failed to retain the parachute so I experienced full inflation at ~10,000ft; the rubber bands must have been too loose around the 'chute as I've experienced nothing but success with this product before. The rocket seemed to hang roughly centered over the launch area for about the first 2,000ft of descent but then began drifting north. I could clearly see the fluorescent yellow 'chute for the entire descent and my Com-Spec beacon continuously beeped away as well.
I was clearly out of practice as I'd forgotten the cardinal rule: always take water! Luckily Andy B. kindly drove out to me and handed a cold bottle of hydrogen hydroxide to me. He also waited for me as I crossed the airport's north boundary and walked perhaps another 100 yards and right up to my rocket. It was intact except for a roughly 3" zipper due to 'chute poppage. Paul Snow shared some nifty repair advice so perhaps I'll give that a try rather than shortening the airframe.
Two quick notes:
- I had packed my pair of Rockontrollers but forgot to charge them. Despite remaining uncharged for 2+ years these units still served to launch my rocket wirelessly. Nice work, Frank! And thanks for pushing those buttons, Paul! And thanks, Daniel, for setting up the 200ft pad!
- My new camera shoots at 16fps. I only captured three frames of the liftoff during its rapid ascent but it might prove interesting to estimate acceleration rates with these [back focused] photos. More soon.
