Canon EOS 5D
ƒ/6.3
170 mm
1/4,000
400
This rocket is much bigger than me. I’m glad I brought the long lens.
Dirt was flying at DairyAire today. Yesterday was for experimental motors. Sunday is another regular launch day.
13 responses to “Whip it Good”
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It must hurt to see all this expense go down to the ground. It rather looks menacing. I hope no one gets hurt in these situations.
Bigger than this big rocket ? More like this much bigger rocket?
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Oh – the beauty is that after a few breathtaking loops, it shot straight up in the sky. (And nobody has been hurt by a rocket at any event I have been at. I would bet it’s safer than driving)
I don’t know if it’s luck or vector bias, but most of the sky loops I see turn out OK…. well, at least for other people. My multi-stage mistakes tend to go to ground…. =)
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I imagine it would be great to witness all of this. I am starting to take a liking to these rocket photos and I am developing a curiosity and interest about them.
I am sure that your luck will change. Your rockets cannot always fail or go to the ground too soon. One day, you will have more sustained satisfaction from these experiences.
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It’s a bit like watching car races. As long as nobody gets hurt, the crashes are a big part of the attraction, especially if they are not yours. =)
This was Mark’s rocket.
I had some great launches, and recovered everything, but I want to go through the video feeds before posting. I broke Mach1 for the first time with the "big rocket" you linked to above. =) It disappeared completely from sight at 839 MPH and I thought it was a goner… Did the three separate parachute ejection systems all fail? I could only see blue sky… I had nothing, not even a wireless data feed.
Sting’s Set Them Free echoed in my head….
Then, hours later, a guy came up with a big smile and I could hear the electronic heartbeat chips of my onboard computer. Eveything went perfectly according to plan and Rocksim… and the rocket was among the almond trees at some farm out of sight to the South. I gave the guy a big hug!
Key lesson: next time I’ll add RF telemetry. 😉
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Ah, but now I wonder if the almond tree is still protecting your little treasure to be found by some unsuspecting farmer or did you retrieve it.
I see that this hobby of yours gives you constant excitement and acceleration of the heart! No boredom in your weekends.
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That’s great. What is re-usable, I wonder. Is the rocket intact? Are most rockets undamaged and used over and over again or are they used only once? This is unclear to me, perhaps also to some others among the many silent viewers, who like me know very little about the subject.
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no, the fiberglass Firestorm54, a minimum diameter "javelin" approach to speed and altitude….
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Right… I pre-coated the Green V2.0 fins with wood-penetrating epoxy as a preventative measure.
The red rocket with the JB Weld bath was the LOC IV. It worked like a charm, despite professional pessimism:
It was the experimental "Midas brake filings" motor launch in the desert that snapped off a fin on reentry:
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