Treed Rockets Tribute

I got to thinking about how many trees out there have been the final resting place of numerous wayward craft. Who knows how many branches have been decorated over the decades? And even though the paint fades and the fins warp, they still look cool. So if you have pics of your own rockets that have become high-tech ornaments (or happen upon some), post away.

My Estes Jupiter-C after it failed to clear a stand of pines



A nosecone in a park near St. Augustine

Here's one of my Crossfires. It's in the local Park here, and has been since last year.




I'll get another Pic' of it next time I go to the Park.

I dropped two rockets in the trees at Bong. Both had on-board video.

Just took a little wind and weather (and a month or two of time) and I got them both back.

[YOUTUBE]fPumUg5OnaU[/YOUTUBE]

[YOUTUBE]2s_ugHm1GMA[/YOUTUBE]

That "nosecone in a park near St. Augustine" has some weird white mass growing from it???? Is that a shredded BT or what the heck is it?

my Gold Strike 2012
View attachment 254044
I don't usually take pictures of treed rockets (BAD MOJO) :wink:
One club I fly with has a very old oak tree, at any given time it holds 12-15 rockets. In the winter it looks like it's been decorated.
Every month it'll give a up a nose cone or two. Last time I got back 3 of the 7 nose cones from my Estes Renegade D

TopRamen said:

That "nosecone in a park near St. Augustine" has some weird white mass growing from it???? Is that a shredded BT or what the heck is it?

Click to expand...

It fluttered like a parachute, so I figured that it just got tangled up pretty good. I tried to get it down but it was a bit too far up. That's a rough place to launch - small field and plenty of trees and water around.

After 'Bertha's first flight, two or three years ago. Went back the next day to try and get it down and a neighbor came out, climbed the tree and cut the offending branch off. I got the rocket back with just one scratch.

This is the landing spot for my LOC IV on my Level I certification flight. I was able to pull it down with only slight damage to the body tube.

Only you can prevent litter.

Anyone who NERRF knows about the 2 rivers on field and the surrounding hills.

Flight went bad from start, hooked rail and took off in severe rainbow. Still went 6,000ft + and landed 2 miles away off field over the hills. [obviously I had a tracker]

After trekking through a swamp, got to a tall hill covered with a stand of Black Walnut trees....yep black walnut.

Had to go back next day with a chain saw.Damn tree wasn't gonna keep my rocket! Kinda felt guilty about cutting down a tree worth several thousand dollars, till Rick said " well you can have the darn thing if you want to haul the logs out throughout the swamp" LOl

So down went the 80 ft tree and my rocket & I were re-united.

Center pic at 12'oclock shows orange chute in top of canopy, it was waaaay up there.

Same thing happened to me. Competitor 4 landed on the island created by the 2 rivers at the METRA field. Got the booster back, the upper half with Spherachute, Gwiz MC, MAWD, and Dennis Lappert's tracker remained.

Today I had to go to the Post Office, so I grabbed my Camera and swung by the Park which is like 2 minutes down the Road from my house to visit my treed Crossfire.
Looks like one of the "Strake Thingies" on a Fin may have been damaged. Otherwise she's looking good for a Bird that's been in a Tree for nearly a year.



That's a Kevlar Shock Cord, so it will be there for a while yet.

Here's how I handled getting my RC plane out of a tree (about 50ft up)

Rocket + Bowfishing Reel

[video=youtube;fvnGmVHtF8A]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fvnGmVHtF8A[/video]

They're not in a tree, but here's a few rockets that ended up on power lines after a boy scout launch of 965 rockets a few years ago.

We had a tree at the southern edge of our field at VOA. One tree. ONE! I was out recovering one of my rockets a couple of weeks after a Cub Scout launch and counted seven rocket husks hanging in various stages of decay. Not all were Scout rockets, but at least none of them were mine. I lost several to the VOA, but none in the trees to my knowledge. Now B6-4 Field, that's another story. I think I counted 25 at one point, some of which are still hangin' 'round.



My just finished, first flight, ready for the decal Estes Monarch was the most recent victim. Wish I still had a picture of the VOA tree.

Fishhead said:

We had a tree at the southern edge of our field at VOA. One tree. ONE! I was out recovering one of my rockets a couple of weeks after a Cub Scout launch and counted seven rocket husks hanging in various stages of decay. Not all were Scout rockets, but at least none of them were mine. I lost several to the VOA, but none in the trees to my knowledge. ... Wish I still had a picture of the VOA tree.

Click to expand...

Let's not forget about that small wedge of trees near the entrance of VOA...the ones that caught my Small Endeavour on it's first flight...you know - the warm up to my L1? Luckily Rick came out the next day with his daughter and his high angle rescue ropes...and the two of them spent about 2 hours out there climbing the tree to get my rocket back...

The rocket in my avatar was launched once. It caught heat wave, we watched it go behind the tree line and we never saw it again... Probably in a tree somewhere!

This could be a "circle of Life" kinda thing...

God made all the trees and every living thing...

Man cuts down tree and makes cardboard...

Man makes rocket...

Man launches rocket...

Tree reclaims rocket... "Circle of life"

I visited a rocket of mine that a tree ate a couple of years ago.



It's ability to troll me is still alive and well.

I don't have pictures but I have three stories. First, my junior high school had a few tall pines that would eat our rockets. I got my brother's Red Max stuck in one and we got it down by throwing pieces of cinder block at it. We got the rocket and no one was hurt. Then ten years later I got the same Red Max stuck in a tall tree at my parent's house. My girlfriend asked for my dad's .22 rifle and shot it down. It came down in pieces and had a ricochet crack in the nose cone. A few years ago I restored that rocket and launched it on a wide open field so it wouldn't get caught again. Also, I had an Alpha III that got caught in a tree at my present launching field. It remained in the tree for a year until the fin can fell out and I retrieved it. Unfortunately, I never got the nose cone back because the trees were later cut down.

I have over 500 recorded launches and only 2 were caught by trees - both on the same day. I got them both back with no serious damage to the rockets or trees. Although one of them required a 20 foot extension ladder.

I need to get my lead fishing weight, fishing line, and wrist rocket sling shot along with a roll of parachute cord.
Then I can get them all down out of the tree.
Just ask my friends at Whitakers NC and get them to tell you about "Birddog"

I had a Custom ATW that was stuck about 20 feet up in a tree at B6-4 Field. I tried to get it down with fishing line and a sinker, but the line wasn't strong enough and kept snapping. I wanted to find some thin wire to see if it would work better, but before I could try it THEY PRUNED THE #&@*?!^ TREE! I've been flying there for 38 years and they never did anything to the trees before. Sure enough, one of the branches they pruned was the one with my rocket on it. Not a huge loss as it was well weathered, but I wanted the nose cone back so I could clone another one.

use a 1oz barrel fishing weight and 100lb test fishing line

bobby_hamill said:

use a 1oz barrel fishing weight and 100lb test fishing line

Click to expand...

If you are into that sort of thing, there is a bunch of forums on the Net for Survivalists. Some of them use similar Techniques for hoisting Antennas for Comms Equipment into and onto Trees and Structures, both legally and illegally.
Some of them have developed some really cool Line Launch Techniques/Methods/Tools which could likely be used for Rocket Recovery.

[video=youtube;Mxb7E7QN0OY]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mxb7E7QN0OY[/video]


[video=youtube;wZOY-5RSHxY]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZOY-5RSHxY[/video]

Todays visit revealed that the only part I still want is the one still in the tree.
The Field was quite well soaked with wet slush, and I was going to walk through it to set up a launch, but the wind started, so I aborted immediately, and decided to zoom in on my treed Crossfire with the camera I had brought along to film with.
I just barely got around to uploading and looking at the photos, and realized that the Body Section has departed.
Perhaps tomorrow, I'll grab my Dog and my Snowshoes and my Dog and I will go see if we can salvage our Airframe.
I imagine the bond likely separated where the shock cord met the body tube. Every time the tube swelled with moisture, the wind flexed it at the point at which it was anchored, therefore mechanically separating the fibers which held it together with every environmental cycle. The end result of which was most likely separation of all structural support at the juncture of said materials.

I'm going to do a staged "Rocket in a Tree" someday and make a Webcam/LiveFeed that will watch it.
Bets will be placed on how long it will take to fall and how many Pieces it will separate into.
There can be a live feed and a lot of folks would like it.
It would be entirely up to nature to decide what happens to the Rocket.

I just realized that I have absolutely no pictures of any of my rockets hanging up in trees.

I’ll have to go out tomorrow and launch a few, up close next to a big stand of tall tre. . .

I do believe this strategy needs to be rethought.

A few more I forgot I had.....







As mentioned above, these happened on the same day. A Custom ATW and a Quest Flash. I thought the ATW was going to be the easy one to retrieve, but it thwarted me on multiple occasions. When I returned this year, the tree had been pruned, including the offending branch.

I have one stuck high up in a big ole white ash at my father-in-law's. Haven't checked on it in a few years but this thread has got me to thinking that I should take a walk back the field with my camera.