On it's third flight, 'Pato' was destroyed.

This was my second attempt at dual deployment. The flight was on a CTI I285, in moderate winds. The previous flight was less than optimal, and I surmised that it was because the main parachute was in too short a section, and was stuffed in too tight. Additionally, the amount of Black Powder I used as an ejection charge, I believe was insufficient, and did not do what it was supposed to do. That stated, I tried to resolve these issues by 1) providing a larger section for the main chute, 2) changing the main from my 32" 'Anchor' Hemi to a throw-away 24" Nylon chute from Estes, which fit into a much larger space. As well, instead of going without a drogue, or the 12" hand-made drogue that I used on the previous flight (which worked flawlessly, and prevented a complete core sample), I upped the droque to an 18" nylon Estes throw-away, but I foolishly attached it with a split-ring... which split... along with my drogue. Go Figure.

Because the Estes main did not weigh as much as the Anchor, it had a bit of a wobbly boost, which I was displeased with. The stability resolved to about a caliber and a half, which is not optimal, but is still stable. It got lost in the clouds, and no one could see it. I heard a pop, which I presume to be the main charge, but I never saw where it was, where it came from, or where it was going. After a bit of searching, and waiting, I finally saw it being drug across the lake bed by it's chute (seems to be a favorite past-time), and I was able to recover it, though I never found the drogue.

Post-flight inspection revealed that while both charges went off, it is quite possible that nothing deployed. The main body tube was severed just above the motor mount, which is exactly where the ejection charge was placed, and the main section had a bluge out of one side, and there was certainly enough of a hole in that bulge to happily release all of the pressure before pushing the laundry out. Prior to the flight, the nose-cone was in good shape, and it had paint all the way down to it's tip, which it now did not, and there was a severed ring of the upper airframe that was still perched on the nose cone, finally (after sticking the landing?) allowing the main chute some freedom. The drogue was no longer attached to the quick link that it was attached to when I packed it, and the quick link was still intact, as was the rest of the recovery harness. Somewhat strange that the chute just went away, and was never to be seen again.

I intend to essentially re-build the same design, though with Carbon Fiber tubing, instead of phenolic, and I will probably make these tubes using aerosleeves, and one of a couple of different composite techniques that I have been learning. I would also like to replace the G10 fins with a Carbon Fiber and Honeycomb composite, with foam-core leading edges, wire-cut, and pre-shaped. I will detail all of this when I begin to build it.