Photo by S. Vernon I have built the largest (known to me) flying model of the rocket called "The Big One" from the movie Toy Story.  General Data:  Height: 62"  Diameter: 12.25"  Fins: 3  Weight: 39 lbs. (loaded) Motor mount: 75 mm  First flight: L-850  Airframe: 12.25" Quik-Tube  Fins: 3  1/4" 5 ply birch + glass Nose: Scratch built  Parachute: 12' main by Rocke Rage Launched at ROC Stock XI, Lucerne Valley Califorina, June 10, 2000, 1:30 p.m.     Late August 1999 My buddie John and the pieces we started with.  A section of Quik Tube and some 1/4" 5 ply.     Add centering rings, and a mailing tube for a motor tube.  Assemble the hardware and fin can elements. Two layers of 6 oz. glass on the motor tube (left).  Then make the parts that go inside the nose cone (right).  Man that nose cone is ugly. Three point harnesses were made for the nose cone and the airframe by Rocket Rage. Progress just before Christmas 1999. Two layers of 6 oz. on the inside of the airframe and then assemble the fin can.  All joints inside got 2 laters of 6 oz. glass strips applied for strength.   The wood (oak) piece at 2 o'clock is a backing for the launch guide to screw into. Sanding, filling, sanding, filling, sanding, filling, sanding, filling, sanding, filling, sanding, filling.  Then a layer of 6 oz. glass on each side of the fins. Hey, what is that crazy tube hanging out the bottom of the nose cone?   Well, the nose cone launches off of the motor tube instead of pushing off the whole airframe.  A pneumatic cylinder! I decided to build the electronics bays in the bottom of the nose cone. Testing to discover the optimal ejection charge quantity to move the 11 lb nose cone away from the airframe. Hours and hours of painting and stencil making. Sims and more sims.  I had to add 3 pounds to the nose cone to get .63 calibur of stability. Projected altitude is 2400 ft. Photo by Brian Sutton Almost too small for two to carry, but a real challenge for one.  Who was it that decided to put that rail out 1000'. Photo by Brian Sutton Range technicians of Team Rage,  Tom Dittman and Jim McMullen, accompany me to the launch pad. Photo by John Van Norman One last hug before I turn her over to the sky. Photo by John Van Norman Lets raise the stardard and let her fly. Photo by Brian Sutton Standing there trying to figure out what went wrong.  A malfunctioning timer fired when I tried to arm it.  You can see the nose cone still on the rocket.  This is because I had a screwdriver through the airframe then the charge fired.  Ripped a 3" slot in the top of the airframe as the nose tried to get away.  A trip back to the prep area and reparis were made.  The faulty timer was replaced by the manufacurer who happened to be on site. Photo by Brian Sutton No chuff here.  Just ignition. (IgniterMan)  What happened to that trailer that the rail is mounted to? Photo by John Van Noman Go baby.  Go! Photo by Brian Sutton Straight up like an elevator.  No roll and no wiggle.  Very stable.  Arcing over....Uhhhhh.... Photo by John Van Norman Something is wrong with this picture.  (Hollering...)  Hey, has anybody seen my nose cone? See the video now!  Check out this flight at at this site ftp://archion.com/pub/ and click on the TBO.mpg or TBO2.mpg So what happened? For those who are here to participate in the University of Advanced High Power Rocketry, read on. I'm going to present as much detail as possible, without creating too much text.  This means that the English language may take a hit here.  Much of this will come out as outline form. I installed a G-Whiz accelerometer and a Black Sky Timer N2 in the nose cone of TBO for this launch.  The sequence of events listed below describe what occurred after I arrived at ROC Stock XI. On Thursday I built two FFFFg BP charges with Davyfire igniters. Ohms tested both. One read 1.76 and the other 1.8 I got two ProCell batteries from John Van Norman. Tested both. One read 9.35 volts and the other also over 9 volts, but don't remember exactly. Each ejection charge of 3.25 grams.  The charge consisted of a 3.25" long piece of 3/8" water line and the igniters.  Ends sealed by heat or 5 min. epoxy. Thursday evening I got out the instructions for both sets of electronics and tested both to whatever degree that could be done. I have used the G-Whiz unit before. Igniter for apogee deploy goes into +- on pyro channel 2  Unit is armed by   turning the power on.  I put a normally closed switch on the red wire of the battery lead.  A drill  bit in the switch was used to keep the unit off until arming for flight.  A blinking light on the LED for that channel means the unit is armed.  No difficulty was experienced in testing. I have not used the BS Timer 2N before.  It had never been used in a flight before.  It was new. I ran through the programming and test firing procedures at least twice.  I had a few questions about a few things in the instructions and was able to get them answered and felt confident that the advice was correct.  The dip switches could be left in the on position after the unit had been programmed.  Mr. Bartell explained the  unit saves a little energy if the dips are returned to the off position.  Since the unit was built onto a board that did not allow easy access, I decided to leave them in the on position. The units were assembled and loaded into the bays on Saturday morning.  Everything was normal. We headed out to the pad about 10:30. Loaded rocket on rail. Slid nose cone up and pulled the drill bit from the arming switch on the G-Whiz unit.  A flashing led let us know the unit was armed properly.  We placed the nose cone onto the rocket and lined up the markers to allow access to the arming screw on the BS Timer.  I put the screw driver into the arming hole and turned down the arming screw.  When the screw made contact it immediately fired the ejection charge. The result was a bunch of freaked out guys and a 3" rip in the airframe from where the screwdriver was through the airframe. We disarmed the G-Wiz, removed the rocket from the pad, and took the Timer to Scott for testing.  The unit tested BAD.  Stuck in fire mode. He gave me a new one and I asked him to set it for 12 seconds and test it for me.  The test was successful.  We returned to base camp and did a quick repair of the airframe, built two new charges of 4.5 grams with new igniters that all tested out good.  I placed the unit back in the rocket nose cone and was prepared to assemble the nose cone back onto the rocket.  At that point, I remembered that I had to power down the BS Timer before it could be used again.  It was still in the post flight mode after the test.  So I pulled the timer out and powered it off and then back on again.  Dip switches in the position Scott had left them in.  I even asked him later and he specifically remembered leaving them in the on position for me. We returned the rocket to the pad at about 1:30 Went through all the same procedures as before, except I let John Van Norman arm the BS Timer this time.  I had had enough of that for one day.  He confirmed that we had a solid with pulsing red LED on channel one.  Had no problems with arming either unit. Launched within 10 min of arming. Great boost on the L-850. No evidence of either ejection charge firing. Crash! From what was recovered, we were able to determine several things. Neither match burned so of course no BP burned. The electronics were destroyed, but we were able to get a few things from that.  The igniter wires from both units were still firmly secured to the correct terminals and channels of each unit (remains).  The matches were still in good shape and one of the 9v survived.  The 9v tested as still having 8.3 v.  We took that battery and fired both matches.   They fired perfectly. The simulations showed that there would be 5.5g of force on liftoff which would have been adequate to trip any functioning G switch.  We were all surprised at how stable the flight was, so there was nothing about the flight pattern that could have contributed to a failure. At this point, I can only explain one failure. I FAILED TO TEST THE BATTERIES BEFORE THE SECOND ATTEMPT.  I don't know the condition of the second battery for the second flight attempt.  The one that came back still had 8.3 volts which should have been adequate, however, not optimum.  I don't know what the impact might have done to it.  The surviving battery was pulled from the G-Wiz and that was the primary unit. I suppose everyone who reads this will find something useful and might come to different conclusions about what happened.  My main disappointment was the loss of the nose cone which I had planned to use on another project some day.  I also destroyed my friends timer, but he really didn't have much feeling about it after seeing the first one fail as it did.  He would have been the next one to use it. The grand disappointment was for my wife who labored for hours building a most magnificent 144" parachute to demo her fine products. I'm not too hurt over it because I have not found some grossly negligent act or failure on my part that caused this.  When I find that, then I can kick myself all the way home from a launch. For the rest of you...I don't think anybody was as ticked over it as JVN.  You should hear him on the video my friend Jim got.  Good thing he was way out on the range and Scott was on the flight line.  The crowd always loves a good crash.  Nobody got hurt and nothing got damaged. (well, kind of) The remaining fincan is now in Las Vegas awaiting placement in the High Power Rocketry Hall of Fame now under construction. ( I am unworthy )  My only claim on this one is that I think I was the first to build that large of a scale of the "Toy Story" rocket know as "The Big One." Thoughtful comments on this are welcomed and appreciated.  Rage If you think it was a really great article, hit this and vote for us. Next project is the Rocket Dynamic Systmes North Star 2 Stage (14'x 5.5").  Rocket Dynamic Systems Check out the great kits from RDS.  Top quality products and even better service every time.