Positive Ascent Hits 2 Miles in Altitude

The weather broke up enough to finally launch Positive Ascent on the M1540. The recorded altitudes by the Co-PilotV2.0 altimeter and the Perfectflite HA45K respectively were 10557 feet and 10560 feet (exactly 2 miles above ground level). This is the highest I've ever flown a rocket by nearly half a mile. Thanks to all who helped prepare, recover, and document the launch.

BOOST VIDEO HERE
PAD VIDEO HERE

The rocket accelerated hard for the duration of the 4.4 second burn reaching a top speed of 730 mph. A few seconds after motor burnout it disappeared into clouds for the rest of the flight. It wasn't until 3 minutes later when we heard the main chute pop at 1000 feet that we saw it descending perfectly under the main parachute way towards the east edge of the field. We watched nervously as the rocket disappeared from site either in the woods or in a field behind a woods.

It was very fortunate that I had a tracker in it for this flight. The tracking transmitter on board the rocket just sends a pulsing signal that the hand-held unit receives. The louder the pulse, the more directly you're pointing at the lost rocket. After getting permission from the farmer to go onto his land to look for the rocket, it took an hour of trekking through woods and fields before I narrowed down the landing spot to a narrow corn field. The tracker led me straight to the rocket, even in the 9 foot corn. The picture below shows where it landed.