With family visiting from overseas we took them to a launch although today we didn't quite get to do a lot of flying due to the high wind conditions, but we are including the launch report here for completeness. The first launch was the regular Axion II rocket. We didn't put an altimeter or camera on it as there was a chance we would not see them again. The launcher guide rail was angled into the wind and the rocket was pressurised to the normal 120psi. The launch went well but with the parachute opening right at apogee it meant the rocket drifted a long way down range. That helped convince some of the other rocket fliers on the day to only fly low power rockets. The rocket was safely recovered a couple hundred meters down range.

After waiting about an hour to see if the winds would die down but without much luck we set up a smaller rocket with a full bore nozzle and only pressurised the rocket to 90psi. We also set the deploy delay about 1 second past apogee to open the parachute later to also reduce drift. The flight went well and rocket was recovered safely. With that we called it a day as the wind was predicted to get even stronger later in the day. We were happy to watch others fly their LPR model rockets.

Most photos courtesy: Rod C.

There is no video this week as there really wasn't anything worth editing - just rockets drifting off into the distance.

Polaron G2

Although we haven't done many updates lately, we are continuing with the development of the G2 rocket. We are building a smaller reinforced rocket with reinforced boosters that will test the launcher at the G2 pressures, but if something goes wrong the smaller rocket will be easier to repair.

Much of our time, however, has been spent on "another project" :) for the big Thunda Down Under 2015 event in March next year. This event will be awesome. Most of the rocket guys from Australia will be there as well as many fliers from the US, NZ and Europe. With clearance to 60,000 feet there will be some spectacular flights. As an example of one of the projects being flown is by the guys in Victoria who are building a full 1:1 scale V2 rocket. This alone will be worth the trip to see.

Flight Details