The End of the Super Weasel

I attempted to launch to 10,000 feet with the Shortened Super Weasel on the Aerotech I59WN-P motor. The weather at URRG's May 5-6 weekend was absolutely perfect: clear skies and light winds from the west, so I was very excited for the chance to fly it.

When it left the launch rail, it immediately began corkscrewing. Rather than stabilize and and head straight up, the corkscrewing got much more violent as the airspeed built. At about 1 second into the flight, the corkscrew intensified to the point where the rocket was tumbling. By 1.5 seconds into the flight, the cardboard tube ripped apart right above the motor casing.

The forward tube with the recovery system and tracker fell and landed in between 2 cars (lucky). The booster section still tumbled violently with the endburning grain providing an entertaining 7 second fall. The booster ended up landing about 6 inches in front of the LCO table where there were about 10 people standing (also very lucky).

All in all, everything but the airframe survived. It turned out that the nozzle on the motor shifted when the motor came up to pressure, causing the unexpected flight pattern. It was a fun flight even though it only reached 1400 feet of the 10,000 I was expecting. It was actually my first in-flight airframe failure.