The plan for the year had been to re-certify level one early in the the year then do enough flights to work up the a solid try at level 2 by the end of the year but that wasn’t the way it worked out.  Because of problems with scheduling and weather, it wasn’t until July that I was able to do the level one certification flight.  That didn’t leave me much time to work on getting dual deployment working as well as passing the test.

After putting in the time studying the new test material I arranged with Mitch Guess to take the test at our club meeting in September.  When we arrived for the meeting most of the club members were standing around outside.   The issue was a door lock that didn’t want to take the code.  After over a half an hour working on it we gave up and met over at the local McDonalds.  So that’s where I took the test.  Over a Big Mac and a Diet Coke I worked through the questions.  As I finished my fries, Mitch corrected the test and announced that I’d gotten 100%.  “Chicken Nuggets for everybody!” I declared.

The next step was to do the certification flight.  After missing a couple opportunities I decided to take a shot at Maryland Delaware Rocketry Association’s Red Glare V launch.  I checked the weather which predicted rain on Saturday and wind on Sunday, so it looked like Friday was going to be the safest bet.  Christopher had been suffering from a bad cough which would likely keep him out of school, but not serious enough to miss launching rockets so off we went. ;-)

Upon arriving at the launch site, I was hooked up with Dave Weber of MDRA who checked out my rocket and was very generous with tips for setting up the ejection system including using metal foil tape for capping the charges.  I love this stuff, it’s sturdy, very sticky, but “pops” good and clean when the charge goes off.  It took me most of the rest of the day to finish setting up the rocket and assembling the motor, a J275W.  Once I had everything assembled, I still needed to procure an igniter.  Dave, came to my service again with one of his personally made ignitors.  “This will light dirt” he said.  Beyond that, it was the most beautiful ignitor I have ever seen, more akin to a masterfully tied fishing fly than something made to go up in a blast of fire and smoke.  We racked the rocket then and went back to the launch table.  “How high is it going to go?” Dave asked.  It had sim’d at about 3500’ I said which made him frown and look up.  The clouds were hanging very low.  “We’ll be able to see it” he said.  After a quick count down the rocket blasted off the pad and was quickly out of sight.  The pop of the ejection charge revealed the  small orange drogue through a hole in the clouds.  It descended right over the field, lower and lower until the second charge sent the nose section off.  An “augh” went up from the crowed when the chute did not appear.  The rocket landed with a thud at the edge of the field. An analysis of the rocket by MDRA’s Recovery Specialist Jim Cox (serious he’s their Recovery Specialists, he has a jacket that says so!) revealed the chute to be just at the edge of the forward tube within an inch of pulling out.  “If you’d had a shorter cord here it would have deployed” Jim pointed out. 

At home the next day, a closer inspection of the rocket revealed that although it had fallen from 3557’, the rocket showed only minimal cracking to the exterior fillets of one fin.  A layer of epoxy and another of Bondo, a bit of primer, and the rocket was ready to fly again.  But I was having second thoughts about going with dual deployment again.  If I didn’t get a good certification flight on Sunday, the last chance for the year would be in December and there would be much higher likelihood of bad weather. So I spent the rest of the time Saturday reconfiguring the recovery system to deploy the main at apogee.

As we arrived Sunday the flags were standing out from the poles and it was clear that deploying at apogee with going to give me a walk.  But I’d rather walk than fail so I set to prepping the rocket and motor.  This time I choose a J250FJ.  It would give a little less altitude but with plenty of thrust to weight ratio and a lot of black smoke!  After getting everything ready but the recovery system I went to find Jim Cox to advise me on packing the chute.  He chided me a bit for not going with dual deployment; “You can make it work you know” he said.  “But I can’t afford to keep dropping them” I replied and he went ahead and help me get it set up.  It was soon clear that Jim really was a “Recovery Specialist”.  He went through the correct way to fold the cords, how to lay out the pleats of the chute, tuck the lines then roll  and fold it into an accordion shape.  “This will protect the lines and allow the chute to spring open and catch the air.” he explained.  After a little more adjustment to the placement of the chute on the shock cord, the rocket was ready to go.  Now the only thing I was worried about was the wind.  I was afraid that with apogee deploy the rocket was going to be in the far soybean field to I installed a beeper that would help me find the rocket if it was obscured by the crops.  

This time as the we set up the rocket on the pad the sky was clear so tracking would be no problem.  Dave gave me a few more tips on setting up the ignitor and it was ready to go.  As the LSO gave the count down the wind which had been blowing steady all day died down and the rocket took off with a trail of thick black smoke.  It climbed to just under 3200’ then “POP” the chute was out!   I watched as it drifted down in sight just about 125 yards from the pad.  The beeper really wasn’t needed!

The post flight check out revealed no problems and Dave completed the paperwork.  “Congratulations” he said shaking my hand and it was done!  I can’t tell you how relieved I was.  A year of anticipation had finally come to an end.  Now all I have to worry about is paying for motors.

Special thanks to Dave Weber for spending so much time with me and giving great advice.  Special thanks also to Jim Cox for a master class in prepping recovery systems.  I learned a tremendous amount from both of them!