Maiden Flight was anything but normal. As soon as I pushed the launch button things went wrong. The launch rod was not secured properly in the Mantis Pad and the rocket appeared to hang slightly pulling the rod far enough up to allow the rod to tip over as rocket was leaving pad. This caused the rocket to arch and go horizontal about 20 feet of the ground. At this point it looked like a real jet going across the field. As soon as boost died it dropped to the ground shortly before ejection charge went off. This turned out to be not so bad as in my hast to launch, I forgot to put in chute wadding so chute was melted together on recovery. No other damage was found.