Launch Report for February 12th, 1982
(Written on Sunday, August 20th, 2000 based on flight logs from 1982/02/12)

Today's launch was my first launch of 1982 and it was my first winter launch.  It was late afternoon after school if I remember correctly and it was cloudy and cold with the temperature being about 2 degrees Celsius (36 degrees F) with a fairly gusty wind coming in out of the west.  I brought my Estes Big Foot launch pad for this launch.

Flight 22, 1st flight this year
Estes Challenger 1 01 on an Estes 1/2A6-2 for its 5th flight
The launch angle for this flight was quite steep being between 15 to 20 degrees because of the wind.  Challenger 1 01 leapt into the air to an altitude of 40 or 50 feet and about 30 or so feet downrange.  The rocket's tail shook around a little near apogee just before the parachute was deployed.  I made a new parachute for this rocket because the original one was too badly fused from the previous flight.  The new chute was made from clear plastic and I drew a NASA logo on it.  It performed perfectly and the rocket drifted back to within about 20 feet of the pad and it got a little snow in the top of the body tube but no damage was done.  This short flight lasted roughly six seconds.

Questions? Comments? Suggestions? Just to say Hi?

E-mail: kbedard@rocketryonline.com

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