The Deltie Airshow Maiden Flight Re-Visited

Late last week, at a launch at Dove Valley Park in Centennial, Colorado, I flew my scratch-built Edmonds Aerospace Deltie Airshow model for its maiden run.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with this model, it consists of a core rocket to which not one...not two... but three delta wing gliders are attached. A very high-drag affair, at best.

Grossly over-estimating an A8-3 motor's capability of being able to lift such a model high enough to perform properly, I went forward with prepping the model, placing it on the launcher, attaching the clips, counting down, and pushing the 'GO' button.

What transpired was a flight that can only be described as...well...interesting.

As it turned out, fellow rocketeer, Mike Goss, happened to catch the entire flight on a mobile phone video. Later that evening I was delighted to receive an email from Mike.  He had taken the time to go through the video and extract a number of still frames that clearly show every phase of the flight in detail.

I have posted the entire sequence here:

"3...2...1...Ignition !!"

"...and DOWN !!"

This sequence of pictures fully illustrates - close up - how a boost glider model behaves at ejection.

Happily, none of the model components sustained any damage at all, and the whole affair was later flown again on a B4-2 motor for a perfect and very impressive performance.

Thank you again, Mike, for taking the video and sending this awesome array of images !

Cheers !