GPS track
@
Flight:
| Location | Motor | Notes |
| LDRS 25 Amarillo,TX 7/1/2006 | AMW M1900BB to M1900BB |
Peak altitude 32,034' |
Feel free to skip over my incessant ramblings and check out the photos below.
Weather was nice, skys were clear.
I was a bit nervous as there was a two stage flight from early in the day that went horizontal.
The high altitude window was at 2pm.
Getting the booster together was tricky since I only had a 6in parachute
compartment.
The parachute shroud lines had to be z folded then taped around
the eyebolt mounted to the motor so they fit.
The booster was fully assembled around noon.
The sustainer wasn't nearly as hard to assemble as the booster because it had a larger parachute bay.
David Bachelder of Quickburst made me two igniters out of dipped
matches.
I used one in each motor.
I attached one to a 1/8in dowel. This
was trimmed so it would hold it up in the sustainer motor.
I decided to not use a separation charge and just use the motor to blow off
the booster.
This was one reason I didn't want to use a thermite igniter in
the sustainer.
I also added 3 more vent holes into the interstage so the motor
wouldn't over pressurize.
I had it assembled and ready to fly by 2:30, not too bad.
I was going to use 4 ground based telemetry receivers placed a distance from
the pad and my laptop. But I decided for the sake of simplicity to just use one
of the ground based units.
This I took out to the pad with me so I could see
the telemetry packets as they came in by watching the LED of the decoder.
Since it was a complex N they stuck me way out at the away pads with my little 3in rocket.
Loading and arming of the rocket went smooth, after all it's only 3in, right?
The range was running really smooth as we hardly returned to the range head when they started announcing the flight.
Of course this is when your nerves are just shot.
I hear some guy standing
next to me as they announced the M to M flight state, "Somebody must have got
their tax return back", hehe.
They pushed the button and David's igniter lit the motor and it screamed off the pad.
Right at booster burnout the sustainer lit right on cue and seemed to be going pretty strait.
I lost sight of it but had an eye on something, I followed it down to the ground, it was the booster that landed out at the edge of the field. My brother had come out to watch the launch so he set out to retrieve it.
We all get back to the booth and it was almost all torn down.
Turns out
it's Saturday and the range is shutting down early for the banquet.
I am told
I have about an hour to try and locate the sustainer before I have to head back
to the hotel.
I fire up the Pocket PC to view the data and write it down.
I can't
remember how to decode this
thing:
KB1JMQ>APT311:/210608h3446.97N/10137.01WS001/020/A=004783
It looks like this is the part I need: 3446.97N/10137.01W
So I whip out the eTrex and set a way point, but the format doesn't quite
match.
I put it in as best I can.
Looks like it's a couple miles up wind?
Huh, the booster landed down wind...
So I go driving out, radio on so maybe I can hear it if I get close.
My
brother and my buddy's Joel and Keith head out too and we fan out.
Driving
the roads to see if we can get close, these fields are huge out here.
Then
Joel hears something on the radio so we regroup in that area.
There, there it
is I hear it, it's faint but getting stronger.
I cut up a side road and it
was getting even louder.
There it is, 15feet off the road.
Only took us 30minuites to find it.
Looking at the GPS data plotted below.
It didn't
regain lock till it was about 17k up. Or at least that is when it came back
into range.
It drifted 2.5 miles away till it hit the lower level winds
blowing the other direction at about 11k' and blew back a mile.
Looks like
the upper level winds were blowing about 10MPH and my descent rate was about
25'/S.
With that info and calculating back, the rocket could have gone strait
up and drifted the 2.5miles.
For this flight I used 3 x #4 shear pins and the charges used were Drogue= 2.5g and Main= pinch(forteather)
Photos:
GPS track
