Perchlorathon January 2003
January 2003
/ Lucerne Dry Lake
2 flights, 2105 N-sec burned
After a winter of heavy rain, finally the skies cleared and allowed us to put up some flights. Chuck Cerice flew several large rockets on big motors, including a SPECTACULAR cluster-airstart flight of his Ultimate Endeavour on a K1400F airstarting three J280S. I put up the reliable Arcas and my new(ish) Phobos for two solid dual deploy flights. It was a beautiful day on the playa.
Flight 1: Arcas, KBA K700
For the fifth flight of this bird, I had fixed some of the issues we were having with it - smaller nylon and new threaded inserts for the payload bay, along with shear pins to keep that main chute where it belonged. When the countdown was complete, WHAM, the motor came up to pressure, and the Arcas jumped off the pad on a beautiful Kosdon Fast Propellant flame. After a long coast to apogee, we were greeted with the orange R3 drogue, and at 1000 feet, the RRC2 again fired the main charge, for a textbook recovery. Yet another great flight. I love this rocket!
Altitude: 5,345 ft
Flight 2: Phobos, Kosdon J280
Well, the Arcas flight went so well I decided to put up the Phobos again, except on a really hot motor. I wanted to see if my building techniques could handle the thrust of a Kosdon motor, so I stuck a J280 in it. Once again, I set up the RRC2 for dual deploy. After about 2 hours of prep, I took the Phobos out to the pad. Everything was peachy, so checked for aircraft, 5...4...3...2...1...launch. The motor came up to pressure in about a second and the rocket MOVED off the pad. Sims put it in the transonic range. Then it coasted up... and up... and up... and up... until it could barely be seen at apogee of about 7000 feet. The streamer deployed there, and it came back down to 1000 feet and popped the main. YESSS. The Phobos flies again.
