Each flight log entry usually
represents a launch or test day, and describes the
events that took place.
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Day 111 - HD Cam flights
Setting up for the first flight.
Pressurised to 120psi.
Axion IIb uses a 9mm nozzle.
Downloading video from in between flights.
Back on the pad for the next flight.
Panorama from
flight #3. Launch site is right at the bottom of
the image.
Assembling next rocket.
Sliding the rocket onto the launch rail.
And locking it into position.
David help us launch the rocket.
Watch the birdie.
They grow up so fast...
... which is particularly useful when
looking for rockets in tall grass.
Flying with 1.3L of water and foam.
Flight #5
Panorama from flight #6.
Gentle grass landing.
Recovery crew in action.
Date:24th
September 2011, 8:30am - 11:30am
Location:Doonside, NSW, Australia
Conditions:Calm, mild and overcast,
~20C
Team Members at Event:PK, Paul K, John K and
GK
Today was mostly a casual flying day as
we are still working on the larger rockets. Since we
weren't able to attend the NSWRA launch a
month ago and the last launch was cancelled
due to poor weather we took this opportunity
to get the kids out of the house and fly
some of the older rockets. We also wanted to
fly the HD camera again. We had to buy a new
one, after the last one was destroyed during
a big pyro rocket crash in Williams earlier
this year. We also wanted to continue
getting more flights done with the Servo
Timer II to get more data on how it
performs.
There was virtually no wind, but the sky
was completely overcast. The main problem
with flying in cloudy conditions are the poor
video results you get from both the ground and from
the air. What didn't help was forgetting to
set the white balance correctly on the hand
held cam.
By 10:30am we had flown 6 flights all
together with 3 of them using water and 3
using foam. On the first flight the small
parachute tangled a little, but still opened
up well above ground. The rocket hit the
ground nose first though and buckled the aero-shell
but the rest of the mechanism was fine. We
popped the aeroshell back out and set the rocket up
again, but replaced the parachute with a
larger one.
The other water only flights went well
with the parachute deployment right at
apogee, and good video was also captured.
The first foam flight was quite slow, but
had no problems in getting up to full
altitude. We reduced the amount of water in
the rocket from 1.6L to 1.3L on subsequent
flights to give it a little more
acceleration on launch. The other two foam
flights also flew well with good
deployments. You could see that the
deployment mechanism was ejecting the
parachute well away from the rocket which
was good.
All in all it was a good flight day with
Paul also getting in a flight of his little
pyro rocket. That now makes it 32 flights
with the STII to date with only one unknown
failure during early testing. The highlights video below
contains only some of the flights as they
were all so similar.
When we got back home we did a
pressure test
on the Shadow's pressure chamber too. We
are pretty happy with the results because
both the end caps and the tube held up to
this pressure.
Good flight, with
good deploy, but parachute tangled
for a part of the flight before
opening. The rocket hit nose first
into the ground. The aeroshell was
buckled but the deployment mechanism
was fine.
