July Fun Fly in Argonia, KS.

The first launch of the summer is in the books. It took place this past Saturday, July 20^th, 2019 to coincide with the 50^th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing. While an exciting occasion, the wind throughout the day kept many rockets grounded. I made a full weekend out of the trip to Kansas, checking out a university vehicle Friday morning to load up gear and camp out the night before. Because of the payload we were scheduled to fly for Honeywell, I wanted to give ourselves as much time as possible to confirm the vehicle was healthy in the hours leading up to launch. By camping out Friday night, not only did I get to stargaze, but I also set up our gear and workspace on the field and checked battery levels and continuity on our altimeters. It was good peace of mind, and I enjoyed having everything ready to go before the sun even rose on launch day.

Our rocket which we named TestArticle_FlightConfig_RevIR ended up weighing 95 pounds (43kg) and reached 11 feet (3.3m) tall and 8 inches (20.3cm) in diameter. We launched nice and early at 10:00 on a CTI M3400 White Thunder motor. It went without a hitch; the only issue was that main deployed shortly after apogee, so we had a while to walk for recovery. With a successful flight, there is little else to describe, so here are some photos and a video. It pulled 9Gs on the way to 6400 feet (1950m). 

At 95 pounds it was a challenge to load onto the pad.

Listening for continuity on the altimeters.

Austin, myself, and Andrew

Launch under the CTI M3400, image courtesy Cory Brennan.

Burning 10 pounds (4.5kg) of propellant in 3 seconds, image courtesy Jamey Jacob

After that, I launched my Level 1 and Level 2 certification rocket, Mach Wave I, on our first-ever research motor. The H166 was a KNSB (potassium-nitrate, sorbitol) propellant that I cast myself and ended up taking a couple igniters to get going. The ignition issue is a problem to improve before the next launch. It took off to reach a humble 950 feet (290m), a little over half the altitude to which it was simulated. Nonetheless, my first flight of a research motor was a success! And although KNSB propellant has such poor performance, it only cost $4.71 in propellant and casting tubes which sure beats paying $30 for a commercial motor of equivalent impulse. I could see myself flying KNSB motors often in the future for that reason alone. Plus they’re easy to manufacture, and I’ve gotten a solid amount of practice casting the grains recently. 

Image courtesy Cory Brennan.

Earlier that morning I had also prepared my old Level 3 project, Odyssey II, for flight on a K805G which I’d purchased specifically for the Apollo 11 anniversary. As I retrieved the previous rocket after the research motor flight, I decided that big two successes were good enough for one day, especially given how hot and windy the conditions were. I held off on launching the K, and so now I can save it for a future launch or even as a booster motor for my multistage.

Other small victories for the weekend included not getting sunburned and staying very hydrated thanks to a new wide-brimmed hat and Camelbak, respectively. I see this as good practice for LDRS when I’ll be outside for almost a week straight. I went on to stay the night in Wichita with Sam. I visited her office at Textron where she is interning this summer, and we visited the Kansas Aviation Museum.

It made for a great weekend, and the next launch is now less than two weeks away on Sunday, August 4^th. We’ll be doing an identical launch of the M3400 as well as an upgraded version of the rocket on an N5800 that day. While that’s exciting, there is a whole lot of work to do to build a completely independent launcher in a matter of days.