Maiden and final flight of the Cherokee-L. The Cherokee-L was an 8:1 scale up of the Estes Cherokee-D making it 12 foot 4 inches tall and 8 inches in diameter. It weighed in at 46 pounds. It was designed and built by Brian and Mike Tripp.
The motor was a re-loadable ISP-L952 rated with an impulse of 5120 N-sec.
The rocket was scratch built using components from CCA (California Consumer Aeronautics); a premier supplier of Hi-Power components of the day.
Failure of the ejection system sent this rocket into the impact zone. The resulting tooth pics filled about three garbage bags.
Within minutes we had a low low flyover of a Learjet type jet from the Border Patrol. We all held up our CA-Pyro licenses. Later we were told they picked it up on their radar and thought it might have been a drug hop and drop over the border. We were only 2 miles from the Mexican border.
The launch was at the old Tripoli Prefecture #5 Coyote Wells Test site near Ocotillo, CA.