Treed Rockets Tribute

My younger boy's Crossfire. On its first flight, along with our new Altimeter Two.



That's a 15 foot orchard ladder and three long bamboo poles duct taped together with a hook screwed into the end. All recovered okay - though Asa's been loathe to fly it since.

Jackball74 said:

I got to thinking about how many trees out there have been the final resting place of numerous wayward craft.

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Great idea for a thread.

Hah, don't encourage the trees!! Of course now that I fly in the western desert, trees are no longer of much concern.

And there it is!



It will obviously not fly again, but since the kevlar failed, there is hope to someday recover the nose cone too.
The Krylon Banner Red is apparently quite the durable paint.

Searching my Posts here I was able to find that that rocket was treed on the 16th of June of last year. It felt like a lot longer for some reason.

Remarkably, the Fins exhibit zero warpage, and are serviceable pending a minor repair.
The tail cone and retainer clip are re-useable too. Time to re-build it!!!

It's 3fnc, not to hard to make a new tube. Sanded the old Glue off the fins and there it is.
All I have to do now is assemble it. I might glass it with .75oz. cloth first, so that if it ends up in a tree again, I can learn what happens to a glassed bird in a tree. I will also be sealing the inner walls of the Tube with Super Thin CA this time around, as I do that with all my rockets nowadays. It keeps the soot from building up on the inner walls and drawing moisture into the body tube.
Dry fitting everything looks great. Infact, everything fits so perfectly, and the quality of the tubeing from BMS is so nice, that I'm not going to glass it.
I am out of Nitrile Gloves anyway, so the Rocket Gods are trying to tell me that I should build this one old school, but with my higher quality standards I've developed since I last built a Crossfire. Seeing how hard it was to tear apart my soggy treed airframe tough me a lot about the strengths and weaknesses of the components and adhesives that I had used. I learned a lot in the autopsy. I will mostly strengthen this with CA.



I will use a coupler infront of the Fins to strengthen that part and to serve as a mount for my shock cord.
It's only an 18mm but that does'nt mean I won't put a D21 composite in it.

Boomtube you have enough problems with open fields swallowing your rockets at Pawhuska. You don't need to give the trees any ideas!

Got that strake fixed, MMT glued together and clipped the motor hook because it really does'nt need to be so long.
I also got the inner wall of my new tube soaked in Super-Thin CA. It is a BMS tube, and of superb quality. It will not require filling spirals before primer.

I got some fillets laid in today, and have to say, this has been one of the most enjoyable rocket building experiences.
She's looking pretty good compared to how she looked a few days ago.



If the weather is nice so she can get some paint she'll be tasting the blue sky within the next week or so.

Lost my scratch built Moondoggy to a rocket eating tree in Nov. 2010 and recovered it 9 1/2 months later (well the sustainer anyway).



Here's what it looked like just before launch:

DavieRockets said:

Lost my scratch built Moondoggy to a rocket eating tree in Nov. 2010 and recovered it 9 1/2 months later (well the sustainer anyway).

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Here's what it looked like just before launch:
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That doggy looks like he's getting a prostate check via rocket.:surprised:

DavieRockets said:

Lost my scratch built Moondoggy to a rocket eating tree in Nov. 2010 and recovered it 9 1/2 months later (well the sustainer anyway).

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Here's what it looked like just before launch:
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Neat! What all did you use to cobble that together?

It started off as an Estes Blue Ninja. The nosecone was a stuffed dog's toy to which I removed the squeeze whistle and stuffing. Kids loved it and it flew pretty well.

If anyone is flying at the Manchester Sod farm in TN soon, my cowabunga is hanging in a tree. My parents took this picture yesterday, but their tree trimmer pole wasn't tall enough to reach it.

djs said:

If anyone is flying at the Manchester Sod farm in TN soon, my cowabunga is hanging in a tree. My parents took this picture yesterday, but their tree trimmer pole wasn't tall enough to reach it.

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Egad, the rocket gods are truly unfair to tree your L1 bird. A travesty the likes I have not seen prior.

That Crossfire nose cone is still in that tree at the park, hanging from the piece of 100# Kevlar.
When and if it comes down, I'll build another Crossfire for it.
I could use another 24mm Crossfire to throw a F32 in. A "disposable rocket".

I don't have many photos of the Models we hang in the trees surrounding our Club Launch Site but in the fall and winter it looks like we have decorated many of the taller (70ft plus) Oaks.
I do have one of me some time ago using a fishing rod and small bungie cord to retrieve my Mean Machine from a 30ft or so tree. Recovery took about 5 or 6 tries to snag the limb that held the model. All came down with only the plastic chute being damage

My L1 bird, last launch of the day ... had to leave her hanging.

My L1 bird, a LOC IV. But I got her back, with absolutely no damage. Minor hiccup, successful cert.
My first Estes Ventris, on her second flight. Hard to see, but strung out over three tree tops...
But later I decided to take a look and I could tell the booster wasn't where I left it four months prior. As I walked into the woods, I found this...

My first mid-power rocket, an Aerotech Arreaux:

Look what decided to come down today!!!
It was in the tree on our morning walk, but when my Dog and I went back in the afternoon, it was not in the tree, and had landed on the grass.




Looks like I need to build another Crossfire now.

When I first saw this post, and scrolled to the bottom I expected to see something a little different. Mind you, I did edit the original image.

Danno said:

My first mid-power rocket, an Aerotech Arreaux:

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Ahh recovery by Stihl.

djs said:

If anyone is flying at the Manchester Sod farm in TN soon, my cowabunga is hanging in a tree. My parents took this picture yesterday, but their tree trimmer pole wasn't tall enough to reach it.

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FYI- treed rockets do come down- my parents got the cow down out of the tree a week ago. It's at their house, so it'll be a while before I can determine if the cow will fly again or not.

djs said:

FYI- treed rockets do come down- my parents got the cow down out of the tree a week ago. It's at their house, so it'll be a while before I can determine if the cow will fly again or not.

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Might have some trouble getting the old girl in the air again...I'm sure she's udderly upset...

loopy said:

Might have some trouble getting the old girl in the air again...I'm sure she's udderly upset...

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Oh, you had to go with the cheesy pun... You know some people will milk them for all they're worth. :wink:

Nothing to see here... Mooove along.

I've herd about enough of this.

Here's a fresh one, in the second highest branch, at least 45 feet up: