Pyromania Flight #1
November 14, 2022
While 2022 was a slow year for me with only 3 flights, I still managed to burn more impulse than any other year thanks to one big launch this past weekend. I flew the 5″ Blue Iguana kit that I assembled throughout the year on an M1419W, and it was an awesome way to round out the year.
I documented the build process for this rocket on the Pyromania page, and it was nice to not worry much about painting or the finish, since the blue/black fiberglass looked good enough as it was. I tested out my new RunCam 4K on-board camera in October, and I used it for this flight as well. Distant Thunder at the Kloudbusters’ Rocket Pasture was chilly but with clear skies and light winds. My old Oklahoma State rocketry team launched an O-M multistage to 20,000ft that was awesome to witness. I flew a couple hours later from the away cell without a hitch. Weighing in at 42lb, it look off fairly slowly with 7Gs, then coasted up to 12,075ft with great video along the way. It landed gently in a muddy part of the nearby fields, and it was just plain awesome. I’d love to get to fly it more, but motors have gotten really expensive, so maybe again in a few years.
That will do it for me in 2022 as far as rocketry goes. I’m not sure what I’ll work on in 2023, but it’ll either be a cluster project or the beginnings of a high-altitude multistage. Thank you for following along, and I’ll probably post a 2022 summary at the end of December.