What started this project was a simple goal: build a competition rocket for Teknofest as a high school team, and fly it on a serious motor. The maker handled the electronics side, designing the PCB and writing the software for the flight controller.
The airframe came out at 2310mm long and 129mm across, pushed by a Cesaroni L1050. A shock cord handled recovery duty. On launch day a countdown in Turkish ran at an outdoor site, and the rocket sat on a vertical rail before a big cloud of white smoke rolled out at ignition.
Then things went wrong fast. Thrust faded almost right after ignition, the rocket tumbled end over end, and debris scattered into the air as it climbed before falling back toward the pad through the thinning smoke. The shock cord snapped at apogee as well, and that cost the team a full score. Teknofest changed the engine class for coming years, and plenty of other teams ran into the same trouble.
The ending is still a good one: 6th of 32 high school teams in 2024, after a first place win in 2022. The team plans to enter again, though every member will change, and the maker has moved on to university and no longer has the high school team. One thing stays open: distance and resolution leave the internal parts, motor and flight computer boards hard to make out.