This is another of those things that “they” said could not be done. It is a video shot between the stages of a model rocket, looking aft at the departing first stage (Note that the spent stage can be seen falling away in the smoke trail). The first attempt to do this failed, but a lot was learned. Unknown was the fact that the video cam in use had an auto-aperture and being enclosed between the stages it set itself to low light. At staging, the sunlight flooded in and blinded the cam for the 1.5 seconds it took to reset itself- by then, it was all over. Additionally, there was a great deal of backflow in the boat tail where the cam was located and a lot of smoke was retained after staging. These problems were resolved by cutting open the interstage area so that the sunlight would already be exposed to the cam at staging and the aperture would thereby be preset to the outside. Also a small air scoop was fashioned right above the interstage and would negate the backflow. The cam used was a Gear cam from boostervision.com. It runs on a standard 9 volt battery and the cam itself is about the size of a sugar cube. It broadcast live video back to a receiver that was hard wired to a standard Cannon ZR80 digital camcorder. To protect the cam a plastic window was cut from a CD case and glued in front of the peek-hole that the cam looked back through. Additionally, a second window was placed on 3 legs and fitted up against the first. The legs were then glued to the first stage, so when the first stage dropped away it would take the second window with it. The maximum sooting from the booster engine would take place at this instant, the attached departing window would carry away most of the soot. The booster engine was a D12-0 and the second stage engine was a C6-5.

The videos presented here are in two forms, one being real time video with natural sound and the second being slow motion with “more fun” sound. They make for an interesting study in model rocket staging. They also prove that Wes Oleszewski, the guy who owns Dr. Zooch Rockets and who did this all, is not a person to whom you say “That can’t be done.” Because he just has to find a way to do it!

Natural Sound                       "More Fun" Sound