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Vulcan 2 Launch - South African amateur altitude record!

PostPosted: Fri Feb 28, 2014 2:26 pm
by DaviddeBruyn
Below is an account of the successful launch of Vulcan 2 to break the current South African altitude record. The launch took place in September 2013.

23 September 2013 in a quiet and wide-open place somewhere in the Northern Cape preparations were being made to make history in South African Rocketry. Once the team leader - Sergio Adinolfi gave the thumbs-up and all the team members were in position it was time to begin the count down!

Vulcan.jpg
Vulcan 2 rocket
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Tail.jpg
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Pad.jpg
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The launch was truly spectacular! We were quite a far distance from the pad and the sound of the launch only reached us a few seconds after takeoff.

Launch.jpg
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Launch_2.jpg
Going for gold!
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After the launch is was recovery time! We received good telemetry from the onboard AIM XTRA and tracked the rocket right to its final location over 14 km away! We achieved this with the stock standard antenna and no special Yagis etc.

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Easy and painless recovery
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Flight.jpg
GPS track
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After the recovery it was time to look at the data in more detail.

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Post flight analysis
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Thanks to everyone who took part - it was a remarkable weekend!

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The team
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