| Since the QL Bertha
wasn't doing it for me, I cooked up this rocket using LOC parts.
I turned the balsa nosecone, and the fins are lite-ply, but
the rest of it is pretty much LOC tubes and rings.
Adhering to the KISS principle, the idea was to put a single use H or
I motor in it, and get it back intact.
But this was only about 8 months after the fire at Aerotech, and motors
were pretty scarce. I scrounged up a 29mm I motor thinking its slow
burn would make for an exciting flight.
Seems like I stood in line forever. Finally got my rocket loaded
only to have the ignitor fail. The bridge wire went so fast, the
pyrogen couldn't light. Then, after cycling through again, the second
ignitor did the same thing. Dang!
The rocket was stood down and a different type ignitor was obtained,
and this time it worked. Except the rocket only got about 2" up the rod
before the motor let go.
As you can see below, the motor tube was destroyed, and the airframe
ruptured. The forward centering ring is shown with the recovery attach
bolt visible along with a jagged piece of the motor tube and some dog barf wadding.
The thru-the-wall fins came loose when the motor tube popped.
The cracked fillets below are testament to that.
It was now late Saturday afternoon, and I'd spent all day futzing with this rocket. Now it was shot, time was running out, and I still didn't have my L1.
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