Cliff's Adventures: Temporary Insanity

I have been interested in model rocketry since I was a kid. My dad bought a rocket kit from Sears back in 1975. We built it. Launched it and never saw it again. I was hooked! This hobby was on again, off again over the years. Each time I got back into it my rockets were bigger than the last.

Enter Temporary Insanity. I designed and built this rocket for my National Association of Rocketry High Power Level Three Certification. The plan was to launch it at the 2008 Florida Winter Nationals launch in West Palm Beach. So, over the course of about a year I planned, designed and built the rocket in our spare bedroom which is now my rocket/hobby room.

I named the rocket Temporary Insanity because one day my wife, Laresa, came into the hobby room as I was working on parts of the rocket and asked what I was doing. After I explained to her the details, including how big it was going to be she responded

"Are you insane?"

"Yeah, but just temporarily" I replied.

My Insanity is nine feet - ten inches tall and seven and a half inches in diameter. It weighs about 50 pounds when ready for launch. It has electronics onboard to control deployment of three parachutes to safely return it to the ground for more flights. I used an "M" class motor to fly it to five thousand feet.

The flight in West Palm Beach was a complete success. The field we flew from was perfect and so was the weather. This is why we drove all the way there from Panama City to fly. There was nothing but sod and cut sugar cane for miles. Completely flat terrain.

Yep, it's purple!

Later that year, I launched Temporary Insanity at our club launch in Samson, AL. This time I attached a video camera to record the flight looking back at the ground. Below is the video shot from the rocket and from the ground.