Gap Staging, Up Close and Personal
 

My son and I have been doing some tweaking on his scratch built gap staged Aerobee Hi. We went out today to see how the changes affected the staging and I took a few pictures to let everyone see just what goes on with an open air gap stage flight. Conditions weren't good, as it was overcast and drizzling rain, but we managed to get some decent photos. In order to see what was going on better, we used an A8-0 booster to get a low altitude stage.

Ignition


Liftoff


Second Stage Ignition


Separation

WOW!! GREAT sequence!! Nice work!

S.

I agree 100%; those pictures belong to a "how to" book showing what it looks like when
a model rocket stages. How did you get such excellent sequence of pics?

Couldn't have said it better. Great modeling skills as well!
Well done, all around.

Thanks everyone.

That was the Aerobee's third flight over the course of just a few days so I was used to it's flight profile. Everybody always wants to launch with the biggest motors available, but we purposely went with the smallest so that it would stage low and fairly slow. That helped us keep it in the field and gave me a chance to shoot the staging fairly close with the dark tree background.

My son has already started working on a second Aerobee model. He hopes to make it look a little better and I've come up with a little design to hopefully help protect the booster a little better from the sustainer's thrust than the removable cardstock cap we are using now.

I've figured it out. It is the same way Peter Parker can get such good pics of Spiderman. He is a super hero with super hero powers. Obviously tbzep has the ability to fly, and he just keeps right up with the rockets as they are in flight. There is no other reasonable explanation for the incredible shots he can take. :D

I agree! And to think he got 3 shots in before the 2nd stage ignition! How'd he do that?
AWESOME photography!

GREAT looking rocket too! :D

Wow!

That's a truly amazing sequence.

Best staging pictures I've ever seen.

What was the approximate altitude at staging?

Again, just an amazing sequence.

I couldn't say for sure because I had my head buried behind the camera, but I'd guess that it was around 25 feet. :D

Awesome pictures! How badly was the booster scorched/burned? Pics? Thanks for sharing.

- RPR