The Death of Queen Izen

It was too obscenely nice a day not to launch rockets. Very little wind, 70º, and with the forecast being nasty, it would have been absolutely and in all other ways ridunculous to not launch.



We got off some maiden voyages, more rockets built from the massive box of tubes and cones and I don't know what all. The lid says it has stuff for up to eight rockets, but I'm far from out of material to work with and I've built The Great Pumpkin, Marty Graw, Queen Izen, Dudley, He Who Must Not Be Named, Spangle, Stinger, and I have a rocket in progress in the garage. I'm out of some things like motor mounts, and almost out of noses, but I've got quite a bit of tubing left.



We launched Spangle, who landed in a guy's driveway breaking a fin. I wondered if he was too havy for streamer recovery. Apparently so unless I can make sure he lands in the grass.

I wasn't 100% sure of my desgin on Marty Graw. After I glued the motor mount into 24 inches of large-ish tube, I found out that the larger kits use an interior tub to ensure nose seperation when the recovery charge blows. If the tub is too big, the gas can expand all it wants without deploying the recovery parachute or streamer. Meaning the rocket goes, for want of a better term, ballistic.



Speaking of going ballistic...

Queen Izen was a cute little rocket. Kind of a fat tube, but short. And with four fins, which means more drag. Still, I was playing it conservative, trying to launch with the smallest engine that applies. I put an A-8 engine in her, and a curious thing happened. She went up, flew very straight and I don't think even exhibited any roll. Then she started to finish the parabola, and I'm thinking, okay, blow the recovery charge. Any time now. Whenver the muse strikes.

Whack!

She hit the pavement nose first, the fuse for the recovery load still smoking. Then POP! and her nose cone (bent) came out. Evidently, I should have used at least a B engine to get her enough altitude for the recovery timer to run out while she was still in the air. I think it was a combination of relative weight and relatively high drag. The large diameter, the four fins. She split open pretty good and her nose cone is less conical now.



Probably the star of the show was Stinger, a tiny rocket I built for mini engines. That A10-3T engine doesn't look like much, but Stinger got up and boogied.



We got another launch of the Great Pumpkin in too. And for the second time, is parachute inexplicably failed to open properly. This time I can't even explain it. It came out, it was unimpeded except by fouling its own shrowd lines as it tumbled. The upper half burrowed into the ground when it landed, fortunately on grass or it would, like Queen Izen, be an ex rocket.