Finished, painted, and duped the Purple Playa
Eater. August 28th, 1999
At the LeT'R ROC launch out on Lucerne Dry Lake bed, I certed Level 1 with my
much larger Vulcanite on an H128 and followed that up with lighting an I200 in
this rocket. Blasted it clear out of site. Two hours later it was recovered
about 1.5 miles away. Later that day I put a G80 in it and again it jumped off
the pad but was recovered MUCH easier. I seriously need an altimeter in it. I
gotta know what this does on the I200.
After having Jeff Stai confirm my numbers, it is estimated that on the I200,
we got 6,800' and hit Mach 1.2!! I can't believe it held together. I am going
to redo all of the numbers in RocSim this week and double check it again. When
I started to clean it up, I noticed some cracks in the fin fillets. Two fins
were taken off and repaired Oct. 9th, 1999.
Another flight on a G80, great flight. It was carrying an Adept recording
altimeter for recording. Altimeter didn't record any data. I will retry soon.
Nov. 14th, 1999
RocStock X in Lucerne, first flight was on a G64, great flight,
Second flight was on a G38 Econojet to see how they perform. Very nice
flight.
Third flight went up on a G64 carrying a Spaceward FCS Altimeter. Recorded
altitude was 1689 feet. Broke a fin loose on landing.
Dec. 9th, 1999
Several repairs on the fins have left the rocket in an ugly-as-hell state.
Complete makeover was just completed. New colors should make it easier to find
on the lake bed.
Newly fixed and repainted, she is ready to fly this weekend. The plan is to
record altitudes with a G38, G64, and G80 for comparison.
Dec 11th, 1999
First flight of the day was on a G80. Nice and straight. On deployment, the
chute came down a little tangled. When the airframe hit the playa, a chunk of
paint simply fell off.
Second flight on a G35. These new Econojets are pretty decent. Perfect
flight.
So overall, I love this kit, it is easy to build and flies great. Mine does
have a tendency to pop the fins off every few flights. The next time I need to
do a fin repair I am stripping it down and glassing the fins can.
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R.V. (September 1, 2000)