Five of my six rocket launches today, five during the daylight portion of the Syracuse Rocket Club launch and one during the night launch. Clockwise from top left: FlisKits Caution! Rocket Launch in Progress! (my first cardstock rocket); Estes Loadstar II (sustainer stage only); Rocketarium Retro Rebel (my first odd-roc); Loadstar II (sustainer; my first night launch); and Loadstar II (my first 2 stage flight). (I didn’t capture the Edmonds Deltie boost glider flight during the day.) Some parachute problems on the Retro Rebel and final Loadstar II flights but all were recovered undamaged.
Also Kenny launched his new Estes Shuttle Express twice and his Alpha once, and for the night launch sent up his Magician with three finger LEDs. 12″ chute and hardly any wind, and it still came down a long walk away. It’s trying to escape.
From the Rocket Club web site, here’s my Retro Rebel taking off while Kenny’s Shuttle Express waits on the second pad from the right.
http://www.syracuserocketclub.org/launch/2013-08-17_SRC/data/images/img_2486.jpg
I got around to examining the Retro Rebel parachute and found the reason it didn’t open fully was it was slightly melted. The Retro Rebel kit comes with a Nomex heat shield to use in place of wadding. Didn’t work so well for me.