LTR February
February 2000
/ Lucerne Dry Lake
3 flights, 1216 N-sec burned
Pressed for time to finish my seventh grade science project, we headed out to Lucerne on the LTR launch weekend to put a few flights in the air. Steve Cello joined us at the playa on a beautiful, calm, windless day.
Flight 1: Small Arcas, AT I435
For my project, I wanted to compare altitudes reached with a light rocket and a heavy rocket, aiming to prove that such a thing as "optimal mass" existed. Unfortunately, I didn't have much knowledge of carbon fiber at the time, and the only rocket that was around that was light enough to prove this was the all-paper 2.6" Arcas. So we put an I435T in it with an ALTS2 for data recording, and hoped for the best. It was the most awesome shred I've ever had; the rocket looked like a big white flower blooming in the sky. And so ended Arcas v2!
others: avionics prep
Flight 2: Lil Nuke, AT F40
For the second flight of the day, I put up the Lil Nuke on an F40. At one, the Copperhead popped and the motor started belching smoke. The rocket flew off the pad and arced slightly to the east. F motors are awesome from 30 feet away! Ejection was nominal at apogee and I had a nice jog to recover the rocket.
Flight 3: LaserLOC 2.1, AT I435
Well, now I had a pile of I435Ts and no Arcas to fly them in, so we put one in the Laser/LOC for fun. The motor lit right up and the Laser/LOC shrieked into the sky like a bullet, quickly receding from sight. The motor shut down, and in the ensuing silence, the blast deflector could be heard ringing from the liftoff! The rocket arced over at apogee and deployed its chute way up there, and I chased it down with ease. Awesome flight!
