All --
First of all, many thanks to Bill, Wanda, Jim, Enrique, Bruce and everyone else for the great time at the Oct 21 West Texas Space Vaqueres ( aka WTSV ) "Almost Haloween" Launch at Eggemeyer Field in Wall, TX !
This was "La Pequeña Vulcanita 34" ( aka LVP-34 ) before her maiden flight:
Beautiful stickers by @tsmith1315 -- thanks Tim !
Ugly paint by yours, truly
The Launch Site Altitude, reported by the Blue Raven before launch was 1826 ft ( actual altitude at ( 31.33136901542348, -100.28806800259666 ) is 1926 ft MSL ) but the local Barometric Pressure was high on Saturday.
The Site Temperature at 11:45 was 78 F and the winds were 7-10 mph or so ( note to self: need to find or replace my old anerometer ).
LPV-34 was built with glassed slottedBT-50 BT-55 tubes from Apogee and she has mini-rail buttons and she was launched on a 5-foot 80/20 2020 rail attached to the rail on an original BSR ProPad.
LPV-34's liftoff mass was 326 grams including the Quest E26-7W motor ( Batch 03312023 ) plus adapter and tape weighed 74 grams without any BP in the well.
OR Simed her apogee at about 1,200 feet.
She was set up for dual deployment with a Blue Raven ( dual curled 1-inch ribbon streamer at apogee, 12 inch Top Flite at 700 ft ).
Her Main Chute Charge did not fire so she came in on the streamer.
These are her parts after landing on an asphalt runway access road with a streamer from apogee.
Ouch !
She coned VERY badly, maybe two or three times under thrust, and then straightened out and flew OK while coasting but I lost sight of her before apogee because I focused for a second or so on the corkscrew smoke trail and never found her again in the air.
She landed at ( 31.333344487803583, -100.2857096362551 ), about 1,000 ft away.
When I recovered her, there was no nozzle in the E26 and there were no nozzle remnants on the asphalt but WTSV member Jim said he saw her bounce higher than the cotton plants when she landed so maybe her parts finally came down somewhere different than her initial impact site and I missed the nozzle while gathering her parts.
I didn't bother to weigh the motor + adapter after the flight because of the missing nozzle.
Thanks to Jim for helping me look for her in the cotton patch !
I started a video on my phone before launch but I forgot to sign my flight card and the launch was paused at T-5 while I signed my card ... and then I forgot to get the camera going again ...
Ouch !!
It was odd that her attitude improved after the motor cut off so I am going to fly her fin can again to check my fins after I replace the damaged tubes with the spare glassedBT-50's BT-55's I made when I was building her.
I'll check the ignitor later today after work when the rain is supposed to let up a bit ...
It was also odd that the Blue Raven did not fire the 0.6 gram main ejection charge on a 'good' 1.2 Ohm MJG Firewire Initiator, so I'll ground test that charge later.
The Blue Raven was shut down when I recovered her and then when I powered up back at my prep-table, there were no flight stats and I received an empty file over blue tooth.
I am still analyzing what info I have which isn't much, but I will definitely fly the Blue Raven in LPV-34 next time too so I can see what's what ...
More to come, I hope, I'll definitely be back for more !
-- kjh
EDIT: fixed a little grammar.
EDIT: BT-50 -> BT-55
First of all, many thanks to Bill, Wanda, Jim, Enrique, Bruce and everyone else for the great time at the Oct 21 West Texas Space Vaqueres ( aka WTSV ) "Almost Haloween" Launch at Eggemeyer Field in Wall, TX !
This was "La Pequeña Vulcanita 34" ( aka LVP-34 ) before her maiden flight:
Beautiful stickers by @tsmith1315 -- thanks Tim !
Ugly paint by yours, truly
The Launch Site Altitude, reported by the Blue Raven before launch was 1826 ft ( actual altitude at ( 31.33136901542348, -100.28806800259666 ) is 1926 ft MSL ) but the local Barometric Pressure was high on Saturday.
The Site Temperature at 11:45 was 78 F and the winds were 7-10 mph or so ( note to self: need to find or replace my old anerometer ).
LPV-34 was built with glassed slotted
LPV-34's liftoff mass was 326 grams including the Quest E26-7W motor ( Batch 03312023 ) plus adapter and tape weighed 74 grams without any BP in the well.
OR Simed her apogee at about 1,200 feet.
She was set up for dual deployment with a Blue Raven ( dual curled 1-inch ribbon streamer at apogee, 12 inch Top Flite at 700 ft ).
Her Main Chute Charge did not fire so she came in on the streamer.
These are her parts after landing on an asphalt runway access road with a streamer from apogee.
Ouch !
She coned VERY badly, maybe two or three times under thrust, and then straightened out and flew OK while coasting but I lost sight of her before apogee because I focused for a second or so on the corkscrew smoke trail and never found her again in the air.
She landed at ( 31.333344487803583, -100.2857096362551 ), about 1,000 ft away.
When I recovered her, there was no nozzle in the E26 and there were no nozzle remnants on the asphalt but WTSV member Jim said he saw her bounce higher than the cotton plants when she landed so maybe her parts finally came down somewhere different than her initial impact site and I missed the nozzle while gathering her parts.
I didn't bother to weigh the motor + adapter after the flight because of the missing nozzle.
Thanks to Jim for helping me look for her in the cotton patch !
I started a video on my phone before launch but I forgot to sign my flight card and the launch was paused at T-5 while I signed my card ... and then I forgot to get the camera going again ...
Ouch !!
It was odd that her attitude improved after the motor cut off so I am going to fly her fin can again to check my fins after I replace the damaged tubes with the spare glassed
I'll check the ignitor later today after work when the rain is supposed to let up a bit ...
It was also odd that the Blue Raven did not fire the 0.6 gram main ejection charge on a 'good' 1.2 Ohm MJG Firewire Initiator, so I'll ground test that charge later.
The Blue Raven was shut down when I recovered her and then when I powered up back at my prep-table, there were no flight stats and I received an empty file over blue tooth.
I am still analyzing what info I have which isn't much, but I will definitely fly the Blue Raven in LPV-34 next time too so I can see what's what ...
More to come, I hope, I'll definitely be back for more !
-- kjh
EDIT: fixed a little grammar.
EDIT: BT-50 -> BT-55
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