"F" Class Altitude Record

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Who:  William Inman

What:  6,786 feet

When:  Sept. 16, 2001

Where:  Silver Lake (Near Wendover, UT)

Bill e-mailed me his description of his "F" class record flight:

The "F" record was set with a single stage 24mm minimum diameter scratch-built fiberglass rocket I called "F" TROOP at Silver Lake, the alternate to Bonneville Salt Flats, during the 2001 HellFire launch. It used a carved balsa nosecone given to me by Brad Overmoe (thanks Brad!) after an unsuccessful flight and loss of my first nosecone the day before, and my own designed first generation trans-sonic/supersonic fins. Power was from a single Aerotech F32W-15 single use 24mm motor and it was tower launched out of my 10 ft. tower. It used a single Adept ALTIM05-50K altimeter and used motor delay deployment with one parachute for the booster section and tumble recovery for the payload and nosecone.

The F32W motor at 80 newton-seconds is 100% of maximum "F" class total impulse.