Aerocon's FlippiTwin is a VERY cool two stage rocket where the sustainer is breech launched from the booster, for more details head over their web site and check it out.

For our Twin's maiden voyage, we decided to put the DraganFly Eyecam on the payload section to try and capture the staging process and for the most part succeeded.


click on picture for a higher resolution version

Though a little grainy, the "trained eye" can see the first signs of staging smoke in frame 2, growing until frame 5 where there is a lick of flame. In frame 6 the flip out fins barely emerge from the smoke and in frame 7 the sustainer is well underway. 

Because of the altitude, this pushed the limits of the tiny EyeCam's transmitter so the signal popped in and out, but there still was some nice stuff to show. I expect that problem may be resolved with the addition of a high gain antenna.

Click here to download the 7.6mb DivX video.

At the end of this video, watch the shadow of the payload section slowly lands in the tall dry grass. (the sustainer body broke free unfortunately)