L2 Post-Flight Analyses

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Cardinal II

Date of Flight	Feb. 6, 2016
L2 Certification Attempt?	Yes
Launcher	Ian Gomez
Recovery Status	Recovered

JARVIS I

Flight Summary

Date of Flight	Feb. 20, 2016
Launch Location	Tripoli Central California
L2 Certification Attempt?	Yes
Launcher	Rebecca Wong
Recovery Status	Recovered, minimal damage to airframe

Rocket Specs

Manufacturer	Giant Leap Rocketry Firestorm 54
Length	69"
Weight	5.1 lbs
Motor	Aerotech J425
On-Board Avionics	Featherweight Raven 3
Payload	18" drogue, 36" main parachutes

Analysis

JARVIS I marked the 2nd attempted rocket flight with on-board electronics for the 2015-2016 year. Flight takeoff was nominal, however, at apogee, the drogue parachute did not deploy, nor did the main chute deploy at any lower altitude. Upon recovery, it was determined that the nose cone was ejected, which helped to increase drag substantially so the rocket did not lawn dart but fell laterally instead. The Raven was operational even after recovery, and the data retrieved from the altimeter concurred with the physical evidence that all ejection chargers successfully fired. The most reasonable hypothesis for the parachute ejection failure was that the size of the ejection charges was simply undersized.