Flight Log - 2012-06-30 - Rich DeAngelis's Renegade

The Renegade: It is a very old model built in the 1970s by my brother. The Renegade is a classic '70s kit. Not at all like the modern Renegade; this is your father's Renegade. This is a large, tall, D-powered model, finished in the original catalog paint scheme. Build credits for this kit actually go to my brother. I modified it by adding my usual altimeter payload bay ("Iris"). This adds 4-1/2 inches to the rocket's length and 17 grams of nose-weight. I also replaced the Estes plastic parachute with a better nylon cloth parachute, and use a Nomex cloth instead of wadding. After an Iris test flight with a D12-5, I’m going to load this baby up with a Aerotech E20-7W engine and push the boundaries of rocket power (for me, anyways). This model reaches about 500' on a D12-5, but on an E20, I would expect at least 1000'. (Iris is named after the Greek god of the rainbow. She is a messenger of the gods, linking the gods with humanity.) This rocket has flown higher than William Penn on top of the Philadelphia City Hall building, NASA's VAB building at Cape Kennedy, or the Cologne Cathedral in Germany.

Flight Date: 2012-06-30
Rocket Name: Renegade
Kit Name: Estes - Renegade {Kit} (1271) [1975-1980]
Flyer's Name: Rich DeAngelis
Motors: D12-5
Expected Altitude: 480 Feet
Wind Speed: 7.00 mph
Launch Site: Fort Indiantown Gap, PA
Actual Altitude: 551 Feet

Finally the winds died down a bit, so I brought out the big Renegade with its D12 motor. That D12 burned for 1.8 seconds, accelerating the Rene’ to 10 Gs, and averaging 1.8 for the burn. This brought the model to its highest recorded speed of 111 mph and it flew like it was on a rail to a new record of 551 feet! It coasted for 4.7 seconds slowing down nearly perfectly to a standstill, with ejection only 1/10 seconds later. It then descended under a good parachute at 8mph to a soft landing for a flight time of 24.9 seconds. It landed about 250 feet away. Perfect flight!

StageMotor(s)
1Estes D12-5

 

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