A10 Mongoose & C12 Astrocam
 

Managed to get a couple of quick flights in yesterday despite losing the best part of the day to a meeting. Headed out to East Fork Park for a couple quick launches. first launch was the Estes Mongoose on a A10-0 & A8-5 using a homemade 3D printed adapter for the A10. The motors staged well, but not sure if I would trust the combination in a small field with houses nearby. The rocket boosted to about 20 to 25 feet, tilted a bit into the wind (slowing as it did so) and then the second stage kicked in with the rocket flying at maybe 25 degree to 30 degree angle into the wind. It would have been scary if houses had been nearby but from this field it just gave a very interesting flight profile. You could see the rocket slow down during the sustainer phase and then accelerate after the A8 ignited. (Winds were around 6 mph).

The next launch was the Estes Digital Astrocam using a Tigres as the launch vehicle and a Quest C12-6 motor. Lost sight of the rocket as it was descending and spent an hour looking for the thing....nearly gave up but after packing I gave it one more go, even though the light was beginning to fade and the field was now in shadow. I stood where I last saw it and made a mental note of a tree that was inline with the direction it was falling and then marched (at times slogged through puddles...I wasn't going to deviate from that line). After heading to about the distance I thought it had travelled I looked around and saw nothing. Discouraged, I turned and was getting ready to head up to the road so I could have a dry walk back and....THERE IT WAS! It was lying on the ground not 5 feet from where I was standing! The day was saved :) I would have hated losing it as not only was it carrying the camera, it also had an Estes altimeter. The altimeter recorded an altitude of 839 feet.

(The parachute got hung up in the body tube at ejection and was just poking its nose out, so there was no canopy which would have made tracking descent easier...all I had to follow was the glint of the sun off the body and a faint speck of orange....it was quite a ways down the field when it landed....approximately 1000 ~ 1300 feet where it was launched).

Here's a link to the launch video:
https://www.amazon.com/photos/share...4NztfcJU1xHXh7K

Glad you found the Astrocam. That altitude sounds reasonable for the combination you described.

An A10 at the bottom of a stack as heavy as a Mongoose seems a little scary to me. The initial thrust spike would get you off the pad, but the low thrust tail (only ~1 Newton) for the rest of the burn would hardly keep it going (https://www.nar.org/SandT/pdf/Estes/A10-0T.pdf). Heck, my little Estes Checkmate visibly slows down after that initial spike and it is MUCH lighter and is only BT-20. Maybe just try A8-0 instead?

Added: interesting idea sharing video via Amazon. It looks like it works nicely. Nice editing with the still frame captures as well. I like it.

way cool!

Yes, I suspected the low sustaining thrust might result in a less than vertical flight, that's why I flew it at that particular field...if it did prang or go horizontal there was nothing to hit (except maybe some tree or rocks). The flight was interesting enough that I'll likely try it again only that time with a video camera watching!

I don't have any A8-0 in my stash, but plan on getting some to try. Another possible park combo (that I'll test at the same field first) is a B6-0 booster to a 1/2A3 sustainer.

You can try the Astrocam on the Mongoose also, I got some nice videos on mine.

Oh, that B6-0 to 1/2A3-4T sounds interesting....if you can get the sustainer to light via that tiny nozzle. At least the model uses direct staging, so I’m assuming you’re using one of the little Estes 13mm to 18mm red plastic adapters in the stack. At least if I were trying to do this, that’s what I would use.

Do as 5x7 suggests and you could do B6-0 to A8-5 probably.

I'm not using an Estes adapter, bu am using the equivalent....designed my own and printed it in PETG on the 3D printer. My first launch of the Mongoose was a B6 to A8 combo....lost sight of it on the way up (didn't help the sky was bright overcast....) and nearly lost it as I never saw it come down (turns out it landed about 30 feet behind the direction I was looking....fortunately next to where I was parked).

I do plan on flying it with the Astrocam one of these days....would like to take it to a large field club launch (so there are extra eyes) and then load it for max altitude....probably C6 / C6).

Very cool having free photo and video archiving on Amazon Prime.

We have been Prime member for about a year, and I had not heard of this service.