This flight was to be my first launch of my new digital camera. The rocket used 3.25" diameter PVC for the body and the T-2 motor. I made a new parachute for this rocket, a 6' wide cross type of chute. It was a large chute and untested in flight. So I decided to wait with adding the camera payload until after the rocket had been flow at least once.
The lift off and boost were as planned, unfortunately, there was no deployment and the rocket was destroyed on
impact. The motor and nose cone were recovered intact, and the parachute is mendable, a few bulkheads and other
hardware items will be reused also. Initially I thought the deployment charge had gone off, it looked like there
were powder burns on the parachute, but after closer examination, I'm not so sure. The deployment charge may have
never gone off.
I don't know what went wrong. I was a bit hurried in getting the rocket ready for flight. It's possible I didn't hook up a wire somewhere, or perhaps I used the wrong deployment charge. I had made up a few charges with Pyrodex for testing, and they don't work very well. The nose cone was off the rocket at impact, and I can only believe the nose cone would come off if the deployment charge fired. I do have an electronics bay with dual timers, and I had planned on using dual deployment for my larger rockets. I guess I should have used it here. At any rate, I'm glad the camera wasn't in the rocket! It was my first failed deployment in a long time, it would have been unfortunate had the camera fallen victim to failed deployment.
I made of a new batch of deployment charges, and threw out any old ones I still had. I also made sure to date and label the new ones.