Looks like the rocketry forum is pretty slow here at RCGroups! Here's a little something for the folks who do post here.

As some of you may remember, we had an Estes Phoenix (the AIM-54 version) which we were having some fun with a few springtimes ago. She was damaged quite a bit in those misadventures, and she's sat on a shelf since, in limbo as we focused on boating projects.

Recently, we decided to give the shortened, much-abused Phoenix a proper sendoff: a final flight into a watery grave, with cameras aboard, but no recovery system. Incredibly, though, she surprised us all by not just surviving the impact with the water, but taking it in stride! We recovered Phoenix, and she's now dry, intact as ever, awaiting her next flight!

Video is below, with more details in the video description on the page itself. We were slack-jawed at the incredibly long horizontal glide she took. We fired her with a D12-7, since the recovery system was removed, nosecone solidly affixed, and the charge delay didn't matter.

Happy for any and all comments or questions! Also ... like most of our rocketry videos, this isn't exactly squeaky-clean and doesn't adhere to the model rocketry code, but we were as safe as possible. Hope it doesn't offend.

Model Rocket w/Camera Crashes At Sea (1 min 51 sec)

ROFLOL

Good one.
The slowmo effects were very nice. What did you do/use for that?
Estes Phoenix were known for going cruse missile on occasion anyway so shortening the body tube and removing the recovery system [illegal in some areas so watch your back ] aggravated that. Add some weight to the nose to correct the CG to it's proper location if you want a [more likely] straight up flight.

Yeah, it gets pretty dead around here in the Winter time and the dedicated rocketry forums send their minions around occasionally to purloin members. Many regulars here are there also. I see this forum as a resource for RC guys who would not otherwise know where to look.

Thanks for posting

Richard

Whoa! Long-overdue response here - apparently the email subscription module works intermittently for us.

Thanks for the reply, and the suggestions for modifying Phoenix for better flights! Maybe if we'd seen your post before last weekend, we'd have had a more successful flight. Alas, though, Phoenix will never fly again. She "cruise missile"d and ended up powering into the dirt after her last water-launch.

The video is a pretty good one, though, so here it is.

Final Flight of the Phoenix (1 min 40 sec)

You need to use a longer launch rod, 4-6 feet long.

Very creative!

Loved it - very nice job gentlemen - on a lot of levels, congrats!

Great video! Loved it...

P.S. - Showed it to my wife, she got a chuckle out of it as well.