Perfect ascent, with some minor problems on the recovery. Both the drogue and main came out at apogee, and they became tangled with each other. The result was this ugly cat's-cradle
mess coming down, but with enough chute out that there was no damage on landing.
Post-mortem showed that the altimeters were installed correctly, and all the charges were
wired correctly. The AltAcc data indicated that the charges fired at the correct time
(the PerfectFlite file format data doesn't provide that extra level of detail).
The only thing that was suspicious was that that only two of the three holes for the
nosecone shear pins had the ends of shear pins still in them. The conclusion is that either
one of the nosecone shear pins vibrated loose during the walk to the pad or the ascent
(unlikely since they are a tight fit), or more likely I simply forgot to install one of the
shear pins. Either way, two shear pins weren't enough to hold the nosecone in place
against the shock of the drogue deployment. The maiden flight a couple of months ago had
a perfect recovery, so three shear pins work if I remember to install them.
I had also sanded the nosecone collar a little before the flight because it had swelled or deformed a little so that it was a really tight fit, but even after sanding the fit was pretty tight so I doubt that was a factor.
This was the second flight in two days that had recovery problems due to operator error. The day before I had reversed the drogue and main charges on another flight and popped the main at apogee. Also non-fatal, but embarrassing. Prior to this I had never had a problem attributable to operator error (unless you count a shred attributable to an over-ambitious
choice of motor).
I tend to be pretty slow and methodical in my prep, which is probably a good thing.
Because of that, usually my rule is only one flight per day. This weekend I was consciously trying to speed up my prep in order to try to get in more flights. Hopefully I won't be
making that mistake again. Just because other people may be able to work faster and be
perfectly safe, it doesn't mean I have to speed up. I need to work at my own pace.
To quote David Letterman "It's an exhibition, it's not a competition."
I think for me rocketry is about more than just the flight. It's a whole
mini-space-program. The building, the prep, the flight, and the post-flight are all part of it. For me, rushing the prep just to get to the flight is missing out on one whole aspect of that experience.
Lessons learned: One flight per day. Slow down, be methodical, and enjoy the whole experience. Don't rush the prep just to get to the flight.
