The video is pretty low-res, I had my camera accidentally set to 'compact,' a setting I didn't even realize it offered. It's fine if you want to create the impression the video was taken with a cell phone. You can, at the end, hear the cymbal crash sound of eleven ounces of rocket coming to a sudden and complete halt after falling from maybe 500 feet.
It's what's called a lawn dart, and I haven't had one in a very long time. I've had a few core samples, rockets that ejected the nose cone but not the parachute. If the rocket's shape is aerodynamically stable, it will come down pointed straight down and as the term implies, take a core sample of dirt when it hits. Which is generally the end for a rocket.
And I did have Mr. Creosote (the first one) impact before the recovery charge could blow the nose cone. But the last time I had a recovery charge just not fire was a long, long time ago, and a much smaller rocket. Fortunately, it's a fairly rare sort of motor failure.
Hellboy was getting to be about my favorite rocket in the fleet. Huge and light. And he had the fewest imperfections in his paint job of anything I've done lately. So it sucks hard for him to be Parabolaboy like this.
Here's a testament to how safe model rockets are, though. As I say he fell from a good 500 feet, came in ballistically, nose cone in place. And he weighed about eleven ounces with a spent motor. I wouldn't want him to land on me (or anyone else), but he only dug in about three inches into the ground. The paper tubing absorbed the energy of the impact, shredding thoroughly in the process. Meaning that if he'd landed on someone's roof this way, it's not like it'd punch a hole in the roof. It'd make a noise you'd hear in the house, but permanent damage to anything other than the rocket would be unlikely.
The good news is the nose cone and fin can are unharmed. So as spectacular as this damage is, I can repair it by replacing the majority of the airframe tubing. So I guess my next project is Bionic Hellboy.
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