Flight Log - 2011-10-08 - Rich DeAngelis's Gamma Ray

The Gamma-Ray: My first Quest kit. It features a translucent red payload tube, three swept fins, and plastic nose cone and transition section. The fin stock is pretty thick and sturdy, and I like the Kevlar shock cord supplied with the kit.  I painted it high-gloss metallic red with silver (stick-on) decals. I also added extra silver foil stickers to really make this model shine. I had to add a lot of nose-weight to balance this model on a string stability test, but now it flies very well - very straight.  The nose-weight was glued in to the tip of the plastic nosecone, so I still have full use of the payload bay.  The payload tube has vent holes added for a barometric altimeter. It can get pretty far up there with B and C motors. I bought this kit cheap as part of a package deal on eBay, didn't give it much respect. But it consistently flies well and it is growing on me. I would recommend this model, but defiantly string-stability test it with a C motor and add nose-weight as necessary, or you'll probably be very sorry you didn't. Its light enough to fly very high, but the supplied 14-inch parachute is too large unless you really pack the ounces into the payload.  Even with a 18 gram payload and a 1-1/2 inch spill hole cut into the chute, it still descends at only 5 mph, allowing the wind to take it pretty far. The material Quest uses for parachutes also seems very light but too stiff, and often it will not unfurl even when plummeting down at about 30 mph.  I now use a 12” Estes parachute.  The other advantage of a smaller chute (aside from getting lost) is that it's easy to pack into that small, 13mm body tube.  I can easily get beyond  800 feet with a C6-7 in this. This rocket has flown higher than the Rennaissance Tower in Dallas, TX and the Charlotte Bank of America Corporate Center. It could easily look down at the Trump World Tower in NY.

Flight Date: 2011-10-08
Rocket Name: Gamma Ray
Kit Name: Quest - Gamma Ray {Kit} (2004) [1994-]
Flyer's Name: Rich DeAngelis
Motors: B6-4
Launch Site: Penn Manor School Lancaster PA
Actual Altitude: 360.00 Feet

The Gamma-Ray never gave me any trouble - until this day. The sky was clear and calm. I cut a spill hole in the parachute to see if I could get it to drift a little less this time. It certianly didn't drift! (Read on) The motor burned for 1.2 seconds and propelled the craft to 72 mph.  Peak acceleration was 7.7Gs with an average of 2.7Gs. You would think with that kind of speed and acceleration this model went up a few hundred feet at least, but the altimeter read 6 feet. Six. I could have thrown it higher than that! Obviously an altimeter error, althought the static vents were inspected and not blocked. Looked like about 300-400 feet, so I called it 360 based on an average of four previous flights with this motor. All the other numbers from this flight were either absent or outrageous. After ejection, the rocket came down fast under a plastic wad. For some reason the crinkly-plastic chute didn't open. I was careful packing it - I even packed it a second time because it just didn't seem right the first time.  As it was falling I expected that this wasn't going to end well for the Gamma, but at least I'll get an interesting descent speed if the altimeter survives. But I got nothing, the data was blank. The rocket, with it's thick fins landed in the grass intact, but I'll call this test flight a total failure.

StageMotor(s)
1Estes B6-4

 

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