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. |
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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. |
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The Courier was never seen again. |
Search party. We think the Courier
was...
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swallowed by waist high grass and wild
flowers. |
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Silverfish descending.
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Something almost miraculous has happened...
read more below. |
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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!!
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This movie frame shows the
rocket's parachute falling.
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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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