Midwest Power X
November 2012
/ Princeton, IL
1 flight, 2669 N-sec burned
Midwest Power X was another great QCRS production at the excellent Princeton site. Since I was pretty much out of AP, I only flew one rocket, but still had a great time hanging out at the Days Inn and on the field with the whole midwestern crew.
Flight 1: Little John, Gorilla L695
This Carol Ryan sparky load was the last one I got from Tim's mondo Gorilla sell-off back in November of 2010. I was a little worried about it picking up the LJ, but to no avail; when the Big'un got it going, it punched off the pad with authority, crackling up into the sky at an awesome clip. Apogee was invisible against the clouds, but we caught sight of it on the way down again. Main deployment came and went without a chute, however, and the rocket bounced down, breaking off a fin. Post-mortem indicated that the charges fired but the main got tangled in the drogue lines, thus preventing it from functioning effectively. I immediately walked over to the Wildman trailer and bought parts to rebuild this bird in fiberglass; though the blue tube was nice, it was horribly dimensionally unstable, and I was getting sick of sanding/epoxying/repairing the tube at both the aft and forward ends. So really, the bounce was a blessing in disguise. It will return, soon!
