Angelfire construction details can be seen here.

Angelfire Flight #13

October 27, 2007

The lucky 13^th flight of Angelfire took place at the Tripoli Idaho Swan Falls launch site.  It was another great day with winds less than 5 mph, 60 degree temperatures and clear skies.

What a great way to spend a nice fall afternoon! 

It was a beautiful liftoff!  Angelfire roared into the sky on an Aerotech M1939 and made an awesome climb to 15,136 feet. The drogue chute was deployed right at the top and Angelfire began dropping back to the ground.  At 1500 feet to go, Angelfire deployed the main chute and came in for a nice soft landing 0.52 miles from the launch site.  It landed right next to a dirt road so we were able to drive right to it for recovery.

View 3-D GPS flight trajectory

View altimeter data from this flight.

Angelfire Flight #12

September 15, 2007

Once again Angelfire flew on an Aerotech M1939 motor at the XPRS launch held at Black Rock desert.  It reached 15,846 feet and was recovered with no damage.  More photos of this launch along with a neat Google Earth GPS flight trajectory can be found  at this link:

Angelfire Flight #11

July 12, 2007

Angelfire on an Aerotech M1419 motor at the LDRS launch held at Jean Dry lake near Las Vegas.  It reached 10,288 feet and was recovered with no damage.  The onboard GPS system captured another nice flight trajectory.  It can be seen at the link below along with lots more photos from this flight.

Angelfire Flight #10

June 16, 2007

 OregonRocketry "Summer Skies" launch.

 2.5 miles southwest of Brothers Oregon.

Click here to see more details about this launch.

Angelfire launched on an Aerotech M1419 motor to 10,740 feet.  It was an awesome boost and perfectly straight!  It landed 0.97 miles away.

Angelfire Flight #9

October 28, 2006

The ninth flight of Angelfire was on an Aerotech M1419 motor at the Tripoli Idaho Swan Falls launch site.  This photo shows me (Vern) on the left and two good friends Scott Carter and Nadine Burgemeister on the right. They both helped me prep Angelfire for flight and recover it afterwards.

The drogue chute was deployed at an apogee of 10,539 feet. The main chute was deployed at 1000 feet to go (as planned) but unfortunately the shroud lines became knotted and the canopy never unfolded and never inflated.  Angelfire hit the ground hard and bent a fin tip by fracturing an external fin fillet.  It also fractured a section of body tube.  

Flight #9 Trajectory

GPS data was transmitted from Angelfire during flight #9. It was then overlaid on a Google Earth image to show the actual flight trajectory. Angelfire landed 0.68 miles from the launch pad.

As seen here, the Swan Falls launch site is situated about two miles from the Snake River canyon.  This view is looking due south.

The Big Picture!

This view is also looking due south but it shows the yellow flight trajectory from a vantage point that also includes Boise Idaho and some of the surrounding communities. You can see where the launch site is with respect to everything else in the area. 

This is a short 14 second video that shows a 360 degree "fly around" of the Angelfire flight trajectory. The peak altitude was 10,539 feet above the ground.

View video in MPEG2 format    (4.9 MB)

View video in QuickTime format   (4.8 MB)

View video in Windows Media Player format   (1.6 MB)

You can also view this trajectory by downloading the data file at the link below and loading it into Google Earth.  You can then use all the normal  pan, tilt and zoom controls in Google Earth to see it from any angle.  Just right click on the link below, save the file to a convenient place and then open the file from inside the Google Earth program.

Angelfire Flight #8

September 23, 2006

XPRS Launch

Black Rock Desert, Nevada

Angelfire was launched on an M1939 motor and reached 15,576 feet.

Many more photos, videos and flight data for this flight can be found here.

This is an animated set of still images taken by a digital camera close to the launch pad.  Each image was captured at 1/8000 sec and the time between successive images is 200ms. Click on the animation to see the full set of 15 images and in a larger size.

Angelfire Flight #7

August 19, 2006

The seventh flight of Angelfire was at the Tripoli Idaho Fairfield launch site on August 2006 on an Aerotech L952W motor.

Angelfire reached 5,141 feet with a pretty nice flight.  The only anomaly was that it left the pad at a bit of an angle toward the west.  This angle can be seen in the GPS trajectory shown below.  There was no wind during the launch so the tip-off from the pad had to be something mechanical.  The dual deployment system deployed the drogue right at apogee and the main parachute was deployed at 1000 feet above the ground.  Since there was no wind, Angelfire came straight down under chute and touched down 0.6 miles away from the launch pad.

View Pad Cam video in MPEG2 format    (6.8 MB)

View Pad Cam video in QuickTime format    (7.3 MB )

View Pad Cam video in Widows Media Player   (1.2 MB)

Angelfire Flight Trajectory

Here GPS information that was transmitted from Angelfire is overlaid on a Google Earth image to show the actual flight trajectory at the Fairfield Idaho launch site.

This is a short 20 second video that shows a 360 degree "fly around" of the Angelfire flight trajectory. The peak altitude reached by Angelfire was 5,141 feet above the ground.

View video in MPEG2 format    (7.3 MB)

View video in QuickTime format   (7.6 MB)

View video in Windows Media Player format   (2.3 MB)

You can also view this trajectory by downloading the data file at the link below and loading it into Google Earth.  You can then use all the normal  pan, tilt and zoom controls in Google Earth to see it from any angle.  Just right click on the link below, save the file to a convenient place and then open the file from inside the Google Earth program.

Angelfire Flight #6

June 18, 2006

OROC Summer Skies Launch

Brothers, Oregon

Angelfire successfully flew on an Aerotech L952 motor to 5,367 feet.  My GPS radio downlink electronics and an ARTS recording altimeter were both on-board for this flight.  The data from them along with some photos of the flight can be found here.

More info on this flight is here!

Angelfire Flight #5

May 28, 2006

FITS 2006 Launch

Mansfield, Washington

Wildfire was launched on an Aerotech M1419 to 10,622 feet.  The flight was perfect!

More info on this flight is here!

Angelfire Flight #4

October 15, 2005

The fourth flight of Angelfire was at the Tripoli Idaho launch site in October 2005.  It weighed 44.7 pounds with an Aerotech M1315 motor installed.

Angelfire Flight #3    (XPRS)

I'm standing next to Angelfire just prior to launch on a 98mm AeroTech M1939 full M motor at XPRS 2005.  The XPRS launch is held every September at the Black Rock dry lake bed in Nevada.  Other photos from that launch can be seen here.

Angelfire weighed 52 lbs with the motor installed.   It reached 15,329 feet in a picture perfect flight.  The dual deployment system deployed the main parachute at about 1000 feet and Angelfire touched down less than half a mile away.

Six pages of analysis of the data from the ARTS recording altimeter is presented below.  You can click on each page individually to see an image of it, or you can get all six pages at once in a higher resolution PDF document.

Some interesting things can be seen in this flight data.  The two MissileWorks altimeters reported the peak altitude to be 15,198 and 15,461 feet.  The ARTS altimeter reported the peak altitude as 15,351 feet based on the accelerometer and 14,830 feet based on the pressure sensor.  These readings are all very close.  The largest difference is only 4.3%.   The MissileWorks altimeters were responsible for firing the ejection charges.  It appears that the apogee charge was possibly fired a little early.  A glitch in the ARTS acceleration data indicates the apogee change was fired at about 14,589 feet.  Slightly before the ARTS detected apogee on either the barometric or inertial data. However, it is not possible to know for sure if the MissileWorks fired early or if the ARTS detected apogee late.  Perhaps after the GPS data is analyzed, we will be able to tell.  Check back later for those results.

The acceleration data shows a small event at about 5.7 seconds into the motor burn.  Interestingly enough, the published thrust curve for the M1939 also shows a hint of this same event.  Apparently something happens as the motor nears burnout.  This can be seen in page 5 of the flight data.  Motor burnout occurred at 3,400 feet.

Maximum acceleration was 6.9 G's.  Peak velocity was 985 ft/sec (672 mph).  Angelfire reached apogee in 32 seconds.  After that, it descended on the drogue chute for 2.1 minutes and then deployed the main at about 1000 feet.  It descended on the main chute for 40 seconds.  Total flight time was 3.3 minutes.

The drogue chute descent rate was 114 ft/sec.  The main chute ejection charge fired at 1000 feet so Angelfire was within 8.8 seconds of hitting the ground if the main had not been deployed.  The main was not fully inflated until Angelfire reached about 840 feet.  The main chute descent rate was 21.5 ft/sec and Angelfire only spent 40 seconds on the main until it touched down. 

Angelfire Flight #2

Angelfire was launched on an AMW L1060 "Green Gorilla" motor on July 30, 2005 at the OregonRocketry "Desert Heat" launch near Brothers Oregon.   It weighed 40.7 pounds with the motor included.  It reached 3737 feet in a slow but very pretty flight.  The drogue chute was deployed at apogee and the main chute was deployed just under 1000 feet.  Everything worked perfectly so there is still no solid conclusion as to why the main parachute came out at apogee on the previous flight at LDRS.

Angelfire Flight #1    (LDRS)

The first flight of Angelfire was on July 14, 2005 at the LDRS-24 launch in Alberta Canada on an M1450 motor from Cesaroni Technologies.

The M1450 provided a nice smooth boost on a seven foot flame and Angelfire reached 16,146 feet.  For reasons not totally understood,  the main parachute was deployed at apogee.  (Perhaps the shear pins were not up to the task?)  Consequently, it touched down 3.5 miles from the launch site and was recovered the next day using the Walston radio finder.   Many thanks go to Scott Carter for hiking out to help recover this rocket! 

Vern poses with Angelfire just prior to the first flight.  This flight was made just minutes before the wavier closed at 9:00pm so the light was fading very fast as the sun was setting.

This photo also gives a very small glimpse of the rangeland  grass at the beautiful Roc Lake launch site in Alberta Canada where LDRS-24 was held.  Definitely one of the nicest launch sites anywhere!