Flight Log - Ocotillo Private Launch

Over most of the sleep deficit. Another beautiful day, and the first shot was GREAT! The second flight was somewhat less than perfect, as can be seen by the results of flight #2, below.

Flight #1 - SPRS #1 (F50-6T)

Had to ignite using truck battery. Flew great and straight.

Parachute deployed. I seemed to have some control of it for a moment, was close to trimming it in, but never seemed to get it and the rest of the recovery phase of the flight was mostly a gentle spiral downwards (the rocket body coming down nicely on the good old red parachute). Recovered about 900 feet downwind, everything intact, although the batteries had popped out of their holder. I taped them in for the next flight.

Flight #2 - SPRS #2 (F20-4W Econojet)

There was severe motor sputter when the rocket was ignited. It stayed on the launch pad for two or three seconds, spitting and hissing, then shot upwards to a low level of about 500 feet. Because it was going slowly, and because I had adjusted the angle of launch slighly, it's flight described a parabola with an arc of about 300 feet. The motor was apparently old.

It is more difficult dealing with the complex parachute in the field, then at home. Apparently it wasn't packed correctly because although the nose cone separated and the body came down correctly, the capsule chute never deployed and crashed to the ground about 500 feet upwind, which unfortunately happened to correspond with a street. There were many bits of plastic around the impact site, where the parachute lay entagled in it's own wrappings. The pully mechanism and nosecone shell are wasted but a quick test of the radio/receiver/servo indicates they are still working correcty. SPRS will fly again, he says!