Battle Park Launch January 3, 2004
This was an on off on again launch with the 3 day launch held as a single day launch.I had brought Periwinkle and my BullPuppy. Periwinkle had a rebuilt upper section and a repaired lower section - these after a disasterous November MDRA launch at Higgs Dairy Farm where I had a great hybrid boost (J-140) but a coresample recovery. But that is another launch report.
I met up with Doug and Ivan Pratt. They had a Propulsion Polymers K-350 PentaMax motor to demo. But it was a fatefull day for the GSEs and the PentaMax was not to fly. We put Periwinkle up next on Doug's rail and discovered the problem launching the PentaMax - dying batteries in the old prototype M-RTLS. We hooked up my GSE and tank and again the voodoo struck us with both solenoids engaging - or not. We disconnected the dump, filled Periwinkle, and launched her. .
It was a great flight. The video can be viewed here. She weather cocked quite a bit in the 15 mph winds but had a smooth boost and coast to 3318 ft by the RRC2X. I think we might have hit 4,000ft if not for the weathercocking. Dual Deployment, well, didn't, but I did have a good chute at apogee with a resulting long walk to recover her. I did have my RDF Equipment loaded up (also rebuilt post core-sample flight), so finding her was quite easy.
With so much voodoo on the GSEs Doug and Ivan declined to launch the PentaMax on my GSE and with it later in the day, and one good flight, I declined to launch my hybrid bashed Bullpuppy 2.1.
It was during the drive back, while eating fries at a Hooters, that I realized my problem. My GSE features a Solenoid Saver. I was clever and wired it with 3 wire cable and put the Solenoid Saver in the ground leg, serving both solenoids. But these split to two bananna connectors two wires each. I had them oriented incorrectly (reversed in rotation) so I effectively had the ground in the hot leg of both (shorting the solenoid hot leads together) and causing both to actuate when either was from the controller. Perhaps without the operator voodoo we would have launched the PentaMax and my Bullpuppy 2.1.
Still, a good launch day, with a rebuilt Periwinkle proven again, and another, the BullPuppy, ready to launch. I'll launch both this upcoming Whitakers weekend in January, 2004.
The motor this time was the Propulsion Polymers I-160 motor with a flight to 3318 feet.
The artwork is Blues Clues theme per my son. Artwork is color laser printed waterslide decals from Beldecal Text artwork courtesy of Dr Zox
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