Each flight log entry usually
represents a launch or test day, and describes the
events that took place.
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Day 116 - Casual Flights
Setting up at the launch site.
First launch of the day.
The rocket was pressurised to 120psi.
This is a chicken.
Launch sequence of the second launch of the
day.
Quite a good turn out at the launch.
Passing through apogee.
Frame taken from the video camera.
The tall grass makes the rockets harder to
find.
Axion G3 - reinforced with fiberglass.
The G3 was launched at 190psi.
It landed very close to the trees.
Date:25th February 2012,
8:00am - 12:30pm
Location:Doonside, NSW, Australia
Conditions:5 - 20km/h wind, warm ~29C,
partly cloudy.
Team Members at Event:PK and
GK
Today was just a very casual flying day,
so a quick update for completeness. As we
are still working on the bigger rockets and
the weather was good, we decided to dust off
some of the smaller rockets and go flying at
the NSWRA launch,
The wind was starting to pick up early so
first we launched the small Axion III rocket
at 120 psi. The flight was ideal and the
parachute opened right at apogee and the
rocket landed well.
Next up was the longer Axion II and this
time we fitted the MD80 clone to the rocket
with a downward facing mirror. The rocket
again flew well and landed without a problem
but closer to the rocket eating trees. Today
the wind was blowing directly at them so we
angled the launch rail away from the trees.
The MD80 looks like it dropped quite a few
frames in places. I'm not sure why that is.
At other times it has been fine.
The last launch of the day was a high
pressure rocket Axion G3. This rocket uses a
fiberglass reinforced spliced pair as well
as a spliced quad. After setting it up on
the launch pad I noticed that the servo
timer didn't want to set the servo to the
default position. And was behaving a little
erratically. So we swapped the nosecone for
a spare one. Later the problem was traced to
a poor battery clip connection on the
battery.
G3 was launched at 190psi and we set the
delay to 6 seconds to make sure it opened
later so that it wouldn't drift too far. The
rocket flew well and the parachute opened
when it was supposed to. We watched as the
rocket drifted towards the trees again, and
this time only landed a couple of meters
away. It was way too close for comfort. So
we decided to abandon further launches. It's
always better to bail out early than to lose
a rocket. There were quite a few pyro
rockets going up so it was fun to watch.
Shadow Update
I have updated the
shadow build log with more technical
data as well as tech drawings of the various
components on both the rocket and the
launcher. The update also includes photos of
the payload section with the camera,
altimeter and power supply. We're starting a
second build log page for Shadow II because
the old build log was starting to get a
little long.
Here is a
quick highlights video from the launches on
the day:
