Transonic Flight Log

I finally inspected the K185 flight log from the computer in the Firestorm54 rocket. This was a long-burn motor launched in the Black Rock Desert at BALLS.

Red is acceleration and Blue is altitude over time, in seconds, on the x-axis.

The booster burned for 4.9 seconds, providing 10.6 Gs of acceleration, and reaching a top speed of 725 MPH. At this altitude, it was .98 Mach, and continued to climb for 25.3 seconds.

I am impressed with the RockSim rocket simulation software. Before the flight, it predicted a peak airspeed, maximum acceleration, and time to apogee that were 98% of actual measured values.

I have not uploaded the launch photo for this one, but it looks pretty similar to the K550 (but with the nose cone on!) and the J350 launches.