To help prepare him, I had given him a Mad Cow DX3 last Christmas. It’s a 2.6 in. cardboard and plywood kit that’s easy to build and looks cool. More importantly, they make an upscale 4 in. model, the Super DX3, that would be virtually identical to build and would be perfect for a level one attempt. So, for his birthday at the end of last month, I gave him the Super DX3. It is large and impressive and he was totally stoked to build it. In fact, he did most of the construction in one day, although it took him several weeks to get around to painting it (he hates sanding and painting).

When the day of the launch came, there was some threat of weather moving in and the launch was starting late because they were extending it into a night launch as well. There was also some question of whether there would be a vendor at the launch so we could get a good motor for the try, but, with all the uncertainties, the weather was OK and there was a vendor there when we arrived.

Once we set up, Christopher started prepping the rocket, and I went over to get him a motor. After going through all the motors the vendor had, the best one seemed to be an Aerotech H148R with a total impulse of 206Ns. While it was a fairly hot motor with a burn time of only 1.5 sec., it simm’d out at about 1800 ft. which would be perfect for the field and conditions.

I watched as he build the motor, and aside from the usual confusion about which O-ring was 1/8” and 3/16”, it went together smoothly. Once the motor was loaded and the recovery system setup, we went to find the High-Power Coordinator for our club, Mitch Guess. He knows Christopher well having watching him fly over the past five years and was happy to help us get the paper work done and his rocket on the pad. As a coincidence, the rocket that launched before his was the same kit, and as we watched it fly it confirmed our motor selection and expectations for the flight.

As the count down approached, Christopher seemed confident and his mother and I set up at different angles to capture the flight. The LSO announced that this was a Junior Level 1 certification flight, and after a delay for a low flying plane, gave the count down and pressed the button. Nothing seemed to happen. Slowly we started to see smoke, then more smoke, finally a bright red flame shot out and the rocket jumped skyward. Within a millisecond however,  the ejection charge blew separating the rocket and as it tumbled over onto the grass, propellant flame could be seen coming out of the top of the booster. “Disqualified flight” the LSO announced.

It must have been a forward closure failure we all thought as we walked out to the rocket. “You probably won’t find that closure” Mitch said pointing to the fact of the propellant flame. When we examined the rocket however, the closure was still there and showed no signs of pressure leak. Furthermore, the rocket, other than having a good amount of residue on the inside of the booster, was undamaged.

What exactly went wrong, we may never know. From my observations, he did everything right, but a CATO is a CATO. “That just the way it goes sometimes,” I told him, “We were just lucky there wasn’t more damage.” “Are you disappointed” I asked. “Yeah, kind of,” he replied, and I’m sure he was. He’d been looking forward to this for years and his confidence in his skill had led him to believe it would be just another routine flight. But his years of experience had also taught him that in rocketry things go wrong, at times catastrophically, and you just have to pick up the pieces and move on (sometimes literally). He’s already planning where and when he’ll try again, and I’m sure, soon enough, he will succeed.