Flight 1 GPS data

I flew my APRS tracker on board this flight and the Garmin Etrex Summit also stores a track log internally. I downloaded that log using the Mapsource software that Garmin sells. Here is a pdf file of the ground track recorded for that flight.

A little explanation will hopefully make this a bit clearer. :-)

The background is from a topographic map and the horizontal line is the east-west dirt road just north of the flying field. The track starts south of the road and is a small cluster of points. This is where I was setup with the X30 crew. I then proceeded south to safety check-in. Followed by a short easterly trip to pad management. Then the trek out to the M pads (starting southeast to the fence line then northwest to the pad). Then there is a cluster of points at the pads.

The first two points of the track during flight are grossly in error but the position then settles down as the rocket heads to the northwest. I suspect that the Garmin units use some software to help their position accuracy by predicting the next position based on past positions and dynamics. The sudden shift from stationary to high acceleration seems to upset it for a couple of seconds. This same behavior is seen in the M1850 flight data.

The ground track is a fairly straight line until apogee and then interesting things start to happen. It all ends where the rocket hung in the power lines. No further data was recorded on this track for some reason.

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