Ye Olde Rocket Forum - View Single Post

Quote:

Originally Posted by ghrocketman

My first Cherokee-D was built and LOST within 2 weeks time in 1978 on a D12-7 and that idiotic 18" chute.
The only D engine that I regularly got them back on with a 12" chute was the D11-9.

My first flight of a Cherokee-D was a D12-5 and 18” chute. I did get it back, after a 45 minute walk. At the old CRASH launch site in Denver, the field is bordered WAY to the east, where a monstrous pile of rock (mini boulders) cover the slope. Fortunately it hit the slope, instead of going past the dam. No climbing allowed, and I probably would not do it anyway. I walked the road to get to the top, then along the dam (d@mn?) road, and carefully climbed down the rock face a bit to reach it.

I switched to a 12” chute after that! The only worse combination was the Astron Drifter on the supplied 24” chute. (Given the choice of 24” or the 12” chute also in the kit, what kid wouldn’t use the 24” chute?)

That was my 2nd rocket as a kid, and it just climbed and climbed after chute deployment, never to be seen again. Heartbreaking!