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Hallowell Farm on June 1st, 2014. It's 11 AM and the weather is beautiful. We're launching with the Philadelphia Area Rocketry Association.
Present, along with the PARA crew, were Matt, Chrissy, Joe, Andrea and yours truly.
 

In the green shirt is Ken, then Chris, Joe, Matt and Andrea.
Preparing for our first launch.
   

Joe weighs in his Quest Courier...

while Barry preps his "scratch-built".
 
The Silverfish takes off on an E20-7.
The Courier blasts off on a C6-3.
   
The Courier was never seen again.
Search party. We think the Courier was...
swallowed by waist high grass and wild flowers.
     
Silverfish descending.
Something almost miraculous has happened... read more below.
   
   

 
The Silverfish was launched with Orville, a plastic parachute man, as a passenger. Orville had a camera strapped to his back.

The parachute for the Silverfish came from a parachute man, so the rocket and Orville have the same style parachute. I found a green parachute lying on the ground about 100 feet from the Silverfish. Where was Orville?

I began searching for Orville to no avail. Then I found him at the end of the rocket's shock cord.
Incredibly, the rocket's parachute had detached, and at the same time Orville's right ankle became twisted in the shock cord. The parachute I found on the ground belonged to the rocket!

The rocket had safely descended on Orville's parachute!!


This movie frame shows the rocket's parachute falling.
 

Below is the video from the three cameras on the rocket.
Play it full screen and you'll be dizzy at the end!

 
 
 

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