Man, what a nice flight. Everything worked absolutely perfectly.
The original plan was to fly my certification flight on an M1419,
but as it turned out there weren't any available. Karl Baumann of
Mojave Desert High Power did have some M2400Ts (Blue Thunder),
so that's what I went with.
Really cool motor. I wish I'd caught a picture further
into the flight. In full flight, the blue flame is almost
as long as the rocket. More impressive even than White
Lightning. And loud, especially when you're close up
taking pictures.
The boost was dead straight, then it canted into the wind
just a little at a thousand feet or two, just enough
to make it look more like a scale flight. 9,500 feet
apogee. Had it in sight almost the whole time. Heard
the pop for the drogue, then picked it up almost right
after and never lost it. After what seemed like forever,
the main deployed right on schedule at 700 feet. Saw the whole thing up
close. The nosecone popped off and the deployment bag popped right out,
the pilot chute inflated and pulled off the deployment bag, and the
main inflated. Perfect!
Landed 0.4 miles from the LCO table, almost directly
behind the far pads. Had it in sight from the flight
line, didn't even have to hunt.
I'll fly it again at XPRS in full paint on the same
motor, and hopefully next time I'll be able to catch it further into the
flight.
