For my first flight I intended to fly the Ganymede with a light load of N2O, but when the fill process was started N2O was venting through the combustion chamber, several attempts to adjust the valve didn't help and the Ganymede launch was postponed. Once the Ganymede was back home and inspected, it looked like I may have just had the valve mis-aligned from the start. I decided not to try to launch again the next day as I wanted more time to inspect and test the valve mechanism.
Over the course of the 2 days I flew the A2MD, the Cosmo 2 twice and the Mighty Mouse 3 times. The last flight of the Mighty Mouse resulted in a failed deployment. After inspecting the remains of the Mighty Mouse, I still couldn't find any reason for the failed deployment, of course there wasn't a lot left of the rocket to inspect... My best guess is that the battery simply didn't have enough power left, I was using x-mas tree bulbs in the deploy charge and they usually fire even if a battery is about dead. I wasn't using backup electronics, just a single timer, and it was an old timer at that, one of my early point to point wired jobs. So it is possible a solder joint broke loose from the previous flight as well.
All said, I was pretty happy with the performance of all the rockets I flew. The A2MD had a great flight to over 10,000' on a load of 7 pounds of KNSU, recovery was one of my new homemade Atom altimeters.
The Cosmo 2 flew to over 4,900' and 5,100' on about 2.1 pounds of KNSU propellant. I used my other homemade altimeter with perfect deployment on both flights.
Here's a link to a video with footage from my flights as well as some other flights during the event.
My homemade altimeters were used again less than a week later when the Cosmo 2 and A2MD flew again at a demonstration launch for a kids rocket camp. So I was very pleased with the performance of the altimeters. I'm starting work now on using a new chip for the altimeters, the new chip has more ADC channels, is slightly faster, has a built in resonator and is less than half the cost of the old chips. I'll be going together with a few other people to get some professional PC boards made up, by pooling our resources we'll be able to make up a bunch of low cost altimeters. It'll be nice to just grab an altimeter from a stack and put it in whatever rocket is at hand. The low altitude altimeters should cost me about $50 each, with the 100,000' altimeter slightly more at about $70.
Another thing worthy of mention is that I made (2) 38 mm APCP motors for Craig, a 3 grain and a 7 grain. I also made a number of reloads for those motors. Craig flew the 7 grain once and unfortunately lost the rocket. He flew the 3 grain 3 times. The motors performed well, I may have to make myself an APCP motor or two. While sugar is cheap, it is nice to see the flame and hear the roar of an APCP motor from time to time...
Here's a box full of 29 mm and 38 mm grains I made.
Flight 1:Steve Mason flew a model V2 on a an F24 to about 600', good recovery.
Flight 2: Reed Mueller flew the Mighty Mouse on my T-2 KNSU I class motor. Apogee was expected to be around 4,300'.
Good deployment and recovery from a single main chute fired by a timer.
Flight 3: Steve Mason flew a Delta III model with a cluster of 12 C and D BP motors. All motors lit and perfect
recovery. A real crowd pleaser and all 12 motors burned!
Flight 4: Ben Holmes flew his Genesis rocket on a KNSU PVC motor. The motor cato'd shortly into the flight much
to the delight of the spectators... Ben's loss is heartfelt but spectacular.
Flight 5: Ben Holmes flew his model rocket "Launch" on a BP motor with perfect recovery.
Flight 6: Craig Shore flew his Little Dog to 1,500' on 3 grain EX APCP motor with perfect recovery.
Flight 7: I flew the A2MD on a light load of 7 pounds of KNSU. It was quite the head snapper as the rocket flew
fast, straight and true to 11,793'. Good drogue deploy at apogee but the main chute got burned and didn't release.
The rocket landed just fine under the drogue with no damage.
Flight 8: Steve Mason flew his "I" class KNER rocket to 2,850'. A perfect straight boost and flawless
recovery.
Flight 9: Steve Mason flew his V2 a second time on an F24 to about 600', again perfect flight and recovery.
Flight 10: Reed re-loaded the Mighty Mouse for second flight to about 4,300' with perfect deployment and recovery.
Flight 11: John Heithus flew my Cosmo 2 rocket with the MB-2 motor on 2.1 pounds of KNSU to 5,130' with perfect
recovery.
Flight 12: Craig Shore flew his Little Dog a second time on an EX "J" class APCP load. Nice impressive
boost, but deployment failed and the rocket came in ballistic, we haven't been able to locate the rocket.
Flight 13: John Heithus flew my Cosmo 2 a second time with the same motor, good recovery again after a flight to
4,994'.
Flight 14: Ben Holmes flew his "Launch" rocket a second time to about 1,000' with perfect recovery.
Flight 15: I flew the Mighty Mouse a third time, good boost but no deployment. With the help of the tracking transmitter
we found the rocket in the "shovel and trash bag" condition. Actually it wasn't that bad, the nose cone
and motor are fine, the fin can is salvageable, the parachute is fine and the transmitter is fine, so it's really
just the body tube and electronics bay that took the main hit. I'll probably repair the rocket. The charge hadn't
gone off, not sure why, perhaps the battery was too low...
Flight 16: Craig Shore flew his Ariel rocket on a 3 grain APCP load to 1,300' with perfect recovery via a timer.
Flight 17:Ben Holmes flew his "Launch" rocket a third time, again nice flight and good recovery.
Flight 18: Craig Shore flew the Ariel a second time on the same APCP load with perfect boost and recovery.
A big thanks goes out to all that helped with this launch.
A special thanks to the Paullina Fire Department for serving as additional range safety officers and road spotters.
Steve Mason did a great job announcing launches and may have found a permanent job in the launch control trailer.
Thanks to Ben Holmes for again serving as ALCO and all the help setting up and breaking down.
John Heithus worked as RSO and also helped launch the Cosmo 2 rocket, but his greatest contribution perhaps was supplying the porta potty on site, thanks John!
Reed Mueller helped launch the Mighty Mouse rocket, but was most appreciated for his tireless work in recovering rockets. Reed by far put in the most miles of any of us, all on foot!
Thanks Michele Gilespie for serving as spectator safety officer, always appreciate your help.
Bill Adams did a great job of recovering the long drift rockets as recovery officer in charge of radio direction finding, thanks Bill!
A big thanks to John and Marie (and myself) for supplying lunch and drinks both days.
For some reason this launch was devoid of shutter bugs, so there isn't much more media available. We need a launch
photographer, any volunteers?