Testing is a very important part of rocketry. Finding a place where you can perform testing safely and efficiently is critical to being able to launch your rocket. The best place to check out and work the fabrication, electronic, and operational bugs out of your equipment and rocket is at your school. The best place to dry run and work the bugs out of your checklists and procedures is also at your school. Replacement parts can be locally acquired, and you are not limited as much in time. The desert or launch site is not a good place to troubleshoot your equipment. Repair parts maybe hours away. You may be interrupted by other groups trying to launch or static fire. It may be extremely cold or hot making it uncomfortable. Food and water are limited to what you have brought with you. Plus, your pressure consumables are much cheaper through the school.
If your school does not let you do high-pressure or cryogenic testing, Flabob is a good place to go. It is still in the city. Basic parts can be close by. Food and water are nearby. It doesn't get as cold or hot as in the desert. You won't get interrupted by teams static firing and launching. Pressure and cryogenic consumables are not as cheap as at school but are easily delivered to Flabob because it is in town.
Once you have reached the point where you have performed dry runs of all the checklists, procedures, and check outs and your equipment and rocket are functionally performing as desired, it is time to go out to FAR Site. Pressure and cryogenic consumables are more expensive and take advance planning to get them delivered to FAR Site. Make sure you have an account with Linde, Airgas, or WestAir for the consumables and order at least one-week in advance.
Testing at your School
- Water-proof-testing of propellant tanks
- Water-flow-testing of injector (impingement and Cd)
- Functional testing of static test firing stand valves
- Functional testing of rocket valves
- Leak-testing static test firing stand
- Leak-testing rocket
- Engine static test firing stand propellant loading dry run with water
- Rocket propellant loading/unloading dry run with water
- Packing and unpacking checklists dry runs
- Setup and teardown procedures dry runs
- Normal and abort procedure dry runs
- Propellant loading and unloading procedure dry runs
- Countdown and abort procedure dry runs
- Ground controller checkout
- Control console checkout
- Recovery system arming and disarming dry runs
- Recovery system deployment test
Testing at Flabob
- Packing and unpacking checklists dry runs
- Setup and teardown Procedures dry runs
- Normal and abort procedure dry runs
- Engine static test firing stand propellant loading dry run with water
- Rocket propellant loading and unloading dry run with water
- Countdown and abort procedure dry runs
- Water-proof-testing of propellant tanks
- Water-flow-testing of static test firing stand
- Water-flow-testing of rocket
- Cold-flow-testing of static test firing stand
- Cold-flow-testing of rocket
- Rocket launch rail fit checks
Testing at FAR
- Engine static test firing
- Packing and unpacking checklists
- Setup and teardown procedures
- Normal and abort procedure
- Static test firing stand leak test
- Static test firing stand valve functional
- Static test firing stand propellant loading and unloading
- Countdown and abort procedure
- Engine static test firing
- Rocket static firing
- Packing and unpacking checklists
- Setup and teardown procedures
- Normal and abort procedure
- Rocket leak test
- Rocket valve functional tests
- Rocket propellant loading and unloading
- Countdown and abort procedure
- Rocket static test firing
- Rocket recovery system test flights
- Rocket launch
- Packing and unpacking checklists
- Setup and teardown procedures
- Normal and abort procedure
- Rocket leak test
- Rocket valve functional tests
- Rocket propellant loading and unloading
- Countdown and abort procedure
- Recovery system arming and disarming
- Rocket launch