It had to happen...sooner or later...

Jul 29, 2005 6 Replies

So, for my daughter's 8th birthday tonight, I thought we'd go to our fave launch site and put up the customized Stormcaster that we built a while back. Conditions are perfect...not even a breath of wind, warm, but not hot, it was beautiful.



We had 5 successful rocket flights....(the D12-5 is absolutely perfect for this rocket...chute deploys about a 1/2 second after apogee) then near disaster. The rocket goes up....the chute deploys.....but not attached to the rocket....the braided fishing line that I used to attach the chute to the nose cone let go....down came the rocket....like a lawn dart.



Fortunately, it landed in some soft mud in the (empty) horse pens in the center of the field. (It's a good thing we got that rain!!!) One of the fins broke off, and the nose was kind of crumpled...but it is fixable. It will not look perfect anymore, but I can get it pretty close again with some touching up....



It had to happen sooner or later.....I'm just glad it landed somewhere soft....



Oh well....live and learn I guess. I am still not sure if the knot let go or the line was singed by the ejection charge. This was about the 30th overall launch of this rocket.



Cheers!



Randy Melbourne, Ontario.


So, for my daughter's 8th birthday tonight, I thought we'd go to our fave launch site and put up the customized Stormcaster that we built a while back. Conditions are perfect...not even a breath of wind, warm, but not hot, it was beautiful.

We had 5 successful rocket flights....(the D12-5 is absolutely perfect for this rocket...chute deploys about a 1/2 second after apogee) then near disaster. The rocket goes up....the chute deploys.....but not attached to the rocket....the braided fishing line that I used to attach the chute to the nose cone let go....down came the rocket....like a lawn dart.

Fortunately, it landed in some soft mud in the (empty) horse pens in the center of the field. (It's a good thing we got that rain!!!) One of the fins broke off, and the nose was kind of crumpled...but it is fixable. It will not look perfect anymore, but I can get it pretty close again with some touching up....

It had to happen sooner or later.....I'm just glad it landed somewhere soft....

Oh well....live and learn I guess. I am still not sure if the knot let go or the line was singed by the ejection charge. This was about the 30th overall launch of this rocket.

Cheers!

Randy Melbourne, Ontario.

launch site and put up the customized Stormcaster that we built a while back. Conditions are perfect...not even a breath of wind, warm, but not hot, it was beautiful.

rocket...chute deploys about a 1/2 second after apogee) then near disaster. The rocket goes up....the chute deploys.....but not attached to the rocket....the braided fishing line that I used to attach the chute to the nose cone let go....down came the rocket....like a lawn dart.

of the field. (It's a good thing we got that rain!!!) One of the fins broke off, and the nose was kind of crumpled...but it is fixable. It will not look perfect anymore, but I can get it pretty close again with some touching up....

the line was singed by the ejection charge. This was about the 30th overall launch of this rocket.

30th launch?!? Wow, that's cool. I've done about 230 total flights in the past year, and I think the most flown bird I have only has about 10 or 11 flights.

Eldred - 'jonesing' for another flight now...

If this had really happened, Bush and Co would have had "The Big One", and locked down the whole country. If you looked at the authors byline you may have noticed that she has written a book about how America Still Gives The Bad Guys Free One and Doesn't Do Enough to Trace Everybody And Everthing They Do. I think it's a book promotion, sales must be slow.

Ed

My Grandfather used to tell me, "the only dumbass mistakes are the one's that dumbasses don't learn from". Even though grandpa did drink alot, some of his "codgerisms" do still ring truthful today. :)

Don't know how this got into this thread. I was replying to the thread about the"strange men with rocket launchers" in Ok.

Ed

Hehe...I was trying to figure that one out myself... :-)

Eldred

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