Greg Deputy

Description

5/29/2010 Yes, I'm still here and i'm still flying rockets! Fire In The Sky is the premier rocket launch in Washington, and I was happy to make a showing this year. I was accompanied by my entire family, as well as my Mother and Father. Special thanks to Washington Aerospace , the city of Mansfield, and all those who work as hard as they do to make this launch happen. First up was a new 54mm minimum diameter project which I didnt have a name for yet. So it went by the monicker "no name" for the day. I had a few last minute tweaks, drilling holes for shear pins, etc. The booster is actually something I put together years ago with the intention of being a sustainer in a 2 stage project. Never got around to finishing that, so I decided to just fly this as a discrete rocket. Its all filament wound fiberglass, G10 fins, vacuum bagged fin can, etc. Very stout. On the top half I used my now standard dual deployment technique that puts both drogue and main chute out the same end, but doesnt rely on a release device. I acheieve this by 'stacking' the recovery components and ejection charges. Starting from the top of the rocket is the electronics bay, then a bulkhead with the terminals for the deployment charges. In this particular rocket, a coupler serves as a 'sled' where the altmeter is mounted, the bulkhead goes on the end of that, and the entire assembly is slid down the top of the airframe and held in place by 2 screws that go through the outside of the airframe into threaded inserts in the bulkhead. After the electronics sled and bulkhead is the main deployment charge, then the main chute (with a harness independant of the drogue), then the drogue chute and harness (which attaches to the booster) and finally the drogue deployment charge. When the rocket reaches apogee, the drogue charge fires and separates the rocket into two pieces, pulling out the drogue harness. The main chute is still in the tube and remains there due to its being a snug fit. At 800 feet, the main charge fires and pushes out the main chute. I've been using this approach in rockets from 54mm up to 6 inch diameter with great success. I find it simpler than using a release device. For the first flight today I loaded "No Name" with a Pro38 I540 5 grain reload. Altimeter was an ARTS 2, and I also had GPSFlight telemetry on board. The Telemetry reports GPS location including altitude as well as barometric altitude every second. I lost Stratosphreak II last year because i didnt have any tracking on board. I wasnt going to repeat that mistake this year. It always seems like when I have tracking on board the rocket lands in sight and it wasnt needed. But as soon as I try to be lazy and fly without it, the rocket ends up miles away and is never recovered.

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