A Good Day to Fly a Rocket (but, not so good for recovery.)

I puzzled over how to name this post for quite some time. I'll tell the tale and then you'll see why.

We had a late start on our day at the range due to Sam having a school event in the morning, so it was afternoon before we got to the launch site. As I unloaded the car I realized that I hadn't charged my AltimeterTwo since I last flew it more than a year ago. That meant it was almost certainly "flat" inside my rocket. I cracked open the payload bay and sure enough, there was no charge at all. I fortunately had come prepared to charge USB powered devices and got the altimeter plugged in and charging while I worked on the rest of the rocket.

I began loading up the 232H123-14A motor I purchased last and pulled out my Android with OpenRocket on it to determine what delay I should use, only to discover that I hadn't gotten the motors loaded into the rocket configuration file and therefor couldn't run a simulation. I was left to guess as to expected altitude and what delay I needed to use. Based on past experience I guessed I would fly 2000'-2500' and opted to not make any adjustment to the delay grain, as they have always been just right, or on the short side for Flying Colors, and loaded the motor.

I then waited around while the altimeter was charging. I set up my cameras at the pad and test recorded a flight of another Vulcanite. With the number of rockets headed to the pads slowing to a trickle I decided it was time to get Flying Colors assembled and flown. Final assembly was quickly completed and soon Flying Colors was on its way, atop a column of black smoke and sparks. I lost sight of it for a short time, but spotted the smoke trail as it was descending and saw the recovery system deploy. Since it had headed up wind it landed reasonably close to the launch site. Samantha and I quickly reached it. Everything looked fine at first, but then Sam spotted the "zipper." Thanks to the fiberglass reinforcement I did during the build it isn't bad and should be reparable, but it could keep me from flying next month. I need a number of supplies in order to do the repair right. It has been suggested that I cut off the damaged portion, but if I do that the payload bay coupler is going to hit the recovery system mount point inside the airframe.

Of course this damage could have been avoided if I had made appropriate decisions. When I discovered I couldn't simulate the flight I should have aborted the launch. If I had simulated the flight I would have seen that I needed to adjust the delay grain by 3 seconds. Since I didn't make this adjustment Flying Colors descended some 400' before ejecting the recovery system which allowed it to build up a head of steam which resulted in the "zipper" when the recovery system did deploy. I'm lucky to have gotten off with as little damage as I did and will definitely take this lesson to heart. Don't guess, simulate. If you can't simulate, don't fly.

So, back to naming this post. With the damage that occurred to the rocket during the flight I considered several names for the post, along the lines of "Rocket vonZipper!", but decided most folks wouldn't get the reference. Also I'm not happy about the outcome of the flight, so I'm not really in the mood to joke about it.

Photo Album: 2012-11-03, AARG Launch, Hutto, TX

Video: AARG, 2011-11-03

ID Rocketeer in Texas

The last post was actually posted long after the event, as I forgot to take care of it right away. Lots of screwy stuff was going on at work which culminated in permanent layoff in December. I'm hoping to get back to flying soon and discovered the launch was missing from the blog.

When we do get back to flying it will be at a new location. I landed a new job in Texas and expect to be flying with the AARG (Austin Area Rocketry Group).