Project Home Five members from all three teams and several adults traveled to the Virginia launch site on Saturday, February 16. It was cold (35f) and overcast. The wind was around 5 mph, but picked up a little toward the end of the launch. We used the 7ft launch rail for all the launches. All the rockets were recovered. It has again become apparent that launch rail angle is critically important in reaching a specific altitude consistently. Even one degree can make a noticeable difference. The objective is to launch straight up in varying wind speeds. Our wind speeds are anywhere from 5 mph to 15 mph. We need to angle the rail about one degree with the wind for every 2 mph wind speed for rockets with stability of 1.0. Greater stability gets greater angle, less stability gets less angle. While all teams got a qualifying launch off with no disqualification and good recovery, the TARC scores were disappointing. We have two more weekends in March to try again.

Objectives Each team wanted to do one test launch and one qualifying launch. Lessons Team 13255's red rocket with its low stability flew with the wind when the rail was at 4 degrees and straight when we moved the angle to 2 degrees. While we tried to reduce the weight to correct an under flight with the first launch, by correcting the angle, we over flew on the second launch. We need to get back to a target weight of about 495g.and a straight launch. Teams 13254 and 13256 rockets with their higher stability flew into the wind and could have used a greater launch angle. We had problems with the igniters spitting before they ignited the propellant. This may have caused some altitude issues. We used the igniters that came with the package. On the final lunch we used a copper head igniter and it also did not ignite smoothly. The issue may be a problem with the White Lighting propellant. We might try some plugging or other igniters. The descent times were OK but not great, except for Team 13255's red rocket on it's qualification launch. For some reason, it floated for ever. Most of our descents had the cargo oscillating under the chute which causes air to spill out. In the one floater, there was no oscillation and it just floated. The recommendation to reduce the oscillation is to increase the shroud length, but then to limit the floating we need a small spill hole. We need a way to quantify this before we do another qualification. All rockets were recovered, no eggs were broken, qualifications were valid. When weather conditions or field conditions are poor, we have trouble collecting all the data we need to plan the next launch. On March 5, we went out to the Frederick Maryland launch site and conducted a single launch of Team 1326's orange rocket. We wanted to see if it was stable design and possible for a qualification launch. We also wanted to see if we could reduce descent rate by adding a 1.5in spill hole to the chute and extending the shroud lines with a single line of 18 inches. Here are the results. The rocket flew straight with no wiggle. At 383g it flew 758ft. The wind was under 5mph and the rod was about 2degrees with the wind. See the video. TARC score would have been 24. The igniter again "spit" using the package's First-Fire Jr igniter. The chute oscillated a little, but not as wild as before. The descent rate was significantly lower. Flight duration was 54sec. See the chart of the altimeter data and the raw data. We may want to try a slightly larger spill hole.

Launches

Altimeter Data (Excel format)

Team 13255                                                                            Team 13256