My son pulled off the tricky cluster ignition for his custom-designed “Epic” rocket during a glorious dusk launch in the Black Rock Desert. (More photos below)
Here is the Ground Video.
I love the sound of the crowd. I think they were rooting for this complex project to succeed, after a string of other rocket mishaps earlier in the day.
And here is the video from the on-board videocam.
At the beginning, you can hear the beeping of the HCX flight computer, then the central Cesaroni Skidmark J360 motor lights, and the igniter wire harness for the fin-tip motors comes along for the ride. One fin motor finally lights, then another. Each of them is the new Aerotech Metalstorm G75 motor. So it’s sparks galore.
One of the nozzles blows (off the left fin motor) but this has the benefit of creating a long soft shower of sparks, lasting through parachute deployment at apogee, which was controlled by the flight computer. The second backup chute was deployed by motor ejection with a long chemical delay charge.
Overall a perfect flight. The rocket even landed softly enough for the tail to remain vertical. She flew again the next day on a blue Cesaroni J449 motor, also a perfect flight. Woot!
All of my son’s four flights were a success. My night flights were beautiful, but my day launch was an epic failure.
Cooler heads prevail at dusk. =)
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