Trying to pick some more experienced Brains than mine about a problem I wish to avoid in the future. Just recently like yesterday at the 11/15/09 Launch I launched my first dual deploy using a MAWD by Perfectflite. Being my first dual I thought I was being very thorough with preflight checks, here's what happened the flight went very well drogue deployed at apogee and the main was supposed to deploy at 700' but no main deployment happened. The six and half pound rocket descended all the way to the ground on a 20" skyangle causing some moderate but repairable damage. Upon inspection of the main charge still in-place and unfired my first thought was the battery but after I removed the e-match (Quickburst e-match kit) and Ohm-ed it I found the Match was open with no continuity 0 nothing notta, I had Ohm-ed the match's out at around 1.8 and according to Quickburst a 1.2 to 2.5 is good, also the MAWD had indicated good continuity on the pad for both both charges with a continuous 3 beeps. The battery was a 9v Duracell (new never used) but it did have expiration date for march 2010 but during ground tests I used the same type of batt and same expiration date that fired four e-matches from the same batch of Quickburst e-matches I had made with no problem. Well that's about it in a nutshell if anyone has any information as to why or what I may have done wrong it would be very appreciated besides using a redundant system I was trying to keep cost and weight down :).
An answer to my own question. I believe after testing and retesting and going over the events of that day, the only thing I could come up with is it was my error as most problems are operator error. First I strayed from my original plan of loading the ejection canisters with BP as I had did for the ground tests, instead I used the fingers of latex gloves as so many flyer's do and there's nothing wrong with that but my canisters are a little smaller than normal, so I had to squeeze and push the charges into the canisters. Also I remember pushing on the head of the e-match for the main in particular because it was tighter than the other one, so my conclusion was that I weakened the 50ga bridge wire or broke it and it was touching enough to give a false reading to the altimeter. Again I ask you if this sounds plausible please let me know, the only way to solve a problem is with a problem and any comment weather it seems good or bad is a step closer to the solution.
Art Thanks for the reply it's been awhile since I checked the forum, very good recommendation would not take to much modifying to accomplish this. I did however buy some e-matches from Jack at the 2010 Desert Heat launch (J-Tek 7') seem to be well made. Thanks Again Art you have always been helpful.
E-Match Failure
Posted - 11/16/2009 : 11:40:04
