Fail. Again.

I was able to get off work for this Saturday for this month's Tripoli MN high-power rocket launch. The plan was to try and certify level 2 again, since I failed my first attempt last month.

I'll cut right to the chase and tell you I failed once again.

I swore that my system was fool-proof. It was super simple: a large 10-lb rocket on a large sparky J-motor that would go to 2000' in altitude and land gently on the field under a 72-inch parachute. No dual deploy, no electronics, no rocket hunters, nothing fancy. Just the basics. What could possibly go wrong?

The parachute got stuck inside the rocket, that's what. It came out just fifty feet above the ground, giving us false hopes that the rocket would survive, and we thought it did. But a tent in front of my view blocked the fact that the rocket separated, and the rocket was rather damaged.

I'm not as disappointed as I could be, however. Because I can still continue to fly level-2, and with a 15% discount for certification attempts!

Here's the video: