Disaster Strikes

I can't get over my absent-mindedness of yesterday. I'm embarrassed to even mention it, but I never even armed the timer before counting down and launching all my hard work up into the sky... It was especially embarrasing since we had some friends over to witness the flight.

One thing I have proven: fiberglass cloth really minimizes destruction to rockets caused by lawn darts. My rocket took a death-dive from over a thousand feet, and landed on the railroad tracks near the field. The nose cone was completely done-in, but there was remarkably little damage to the rest of the rocket. In fact, the fins were completely intact, all of the centering rings and internal structures were intact, and most of the body tube except for the very forward end. My construction techniques must have improved dramatically if my rocket can survive a fall from a thousand feet and land nose first on crushed rock.


So in conclusion: I have resolved to never fly a rocket again without a checklist. When people are watching me prep, waiting for the launch, my absent-mindedness gets magnified and I forget steps (very important steps!), make mistakes, and generally make a big fool of myself. So I got a good, healthy dose of humility yesterday.

Well, at least the first stage worked great!