Indiana Rocketry March 2014

I was planning to fly this back in January when the ceiling was low, so to keep it under the clouds I chose a 1400 slow propellant load. Of course, nobody was there in January since it was snowing so much, and we didn't get a chance to fly again until March. I figured the smaller motor would also let me see everything happen up close and personal on the first flight. Tom McFee couldn't read my handwriting (my fingers were cold!) but despite that, liftoff was timely and graceful, and after burnout, I listened to the altitude readout from the TeleMini on board. When the computer reported apogee, I looked back up, and the two sections were apart free-falling to main deployment altitude. I wish I could fit more shock cord and a drogue in the booster, and my planned rework should rectify that problem. Main deployment was on time and it landed a short walk away after a 3500' flight. Not a bad shakedown!

This motor was the bowl scrapings from the big Alpha that Jacob's dad flew at AIRFest this year. I knew it was going to be pushing it a little hard, since that motor ran at close to 1000 psi and this one had a tighter nozzle. So I loaded it into the cut-down 2550 case from the previous flight of Little Dragon, just in case things got a little bit "sportier" than planned. And since it was the revenge flight for the case, why not make it the revenge flight for the rocket, too? I knew it could handle the high average thrust from the previous UltraViolet flights, but I was still nervous as Tom McFee counted down. (It didn't help that he forgot to arm the pad the first time ;)) The big'un did its thing and then WHAM, it was gone in a blur of white shockwaves, so fast that a few people thought it shredded. But it didn't- it just disappeared into the sky! (I was just glad the motor stayed together.) The Beeline in the nose was sending out happy beeps through apogee and main deployments, and led me to the rocket laying on the ground a couple of fields over, covered completely in wet Ash Grove mud and beeping out over 8700 feet. It's good to have this rocket back.