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I just had a warranty claim with AT and once again, stellar service. Thank you AT for keeping us flying!
 
Many vendors appear to be out of stock if the 29mm 40-120 Hobby Line casings. I have had mine on back order for nearly two months now from a vender. Any idea when these cases will be available again? Or insights to what is going on for the supply issue?

Thanks
 
A number of nearby hobby shops here in the northeast *used* to stock Aerotech kits/motors etc. along with the usual stuff by other "esteemed" competitors... but none have any Aerotech product now. When asked, I got the reponse "Aerotech? Oh they're out of business". It's as if you guys dropped entirely off the map after your big fire some time ago. (I'm not 100% up on the history as I've only come back to rocketry in the past few months). The on-line vendors have stuff in stock so I'm "pretty sure" AT is still in business! That said, I can't get an F motor without expending an extra $32 unless I can get it from a vendor that shows up at a launch and half the time they don't have the right delay or motor to begin with. So with a $10+ dollar shipping charge I'm at the price of two g-motors before I order any at all! When I lived in Salt Lake I could get stuff at the local shops... in New England, the stores are scattered about and, well, if they think you're out of business... they sure as heck are not going to order anything, are they? There are precious few brick-and-mortar places in the northeast that carry your stuff and most of the time they're out of stock... or an hour and a half drive (I know y'all in the "big" states out west are laughing now but an hour and a half in traffic is a lot less fun than a 100 mile drive out your way). To make a long-winded rant much shorter... I think AT has a bit of a "communication" problem.
 
A number of nearby hobby shops here in the northeast *used* to stock Aerotech kits/motors etc. along with the usual stuff by other "esteemed" competitors... but none have any Aerotech product now. When asked, I got the reponse "Aerotech? Oh they're out of business". It's as if you guys dropped entirely off the map after your big fire some time ago. (I'm not 100% up on the history as I've only come back to rocketry in the past few months). The on-line vendors have stuff in stock so I'm "pretty sure" AT is still in business! That said, I can't get an F motor without expending an extra $32 unless I can get it from a vendor that shows up at a launch and half the time they don't have the right delay or motor to begin with. So with a $10+ dollar shipping charge I'm at the price of two g-motors before I order any at all! When I lived in Salt Lake I could get stuff at the local shops... in New England, the stores are scattered about and, well, if they think you're out of business... they sure as heck are not going to order anything, are they? There are precious few brick-and-mortar places in the northeast that carry your stuff and most of the time they're out of stock... or an hour and a half drive (I know y'all in the "big" states out west are laughing now but an hour and a half in traffic is a lot less fun than a 100 mile drive out your way). To make a long-winded rant much shorter... I think AT has a bit of a "communication" problem.
I don't think there is a communication problem...I think there is a lack of hobby shop placing orders. It's not that difficult to find aerotech if they really wanted to keep the product line. Most stores I used to by from dropped the line because they don't want to to pay shipping on the products

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I don't think there is a communication problem...I think there is a lack of hobby shop placing orders. It's not that difficult to find aerotech if they really wanted to keep the product line. Most stores I used to by from dropped the line because they don't want to to pay shipping on the products

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Oh I get not wanting to pay shipping! I'd sure rather not have to, but so it goes... And you may be right, but I can say I personally have been involved with three shops now that seem to think AT is out of business. I was talking to the owner of a shop today and distributors aren't showing up to trade shows, if they do show up, they don't bring product or catalogs. This guy told me that he could only get ONE catalog from another company (not AT). Last year the distributor promised to bring materials/kits etc and when he got there, he was told "I forgot". He called the same person this year and when the next show occured was told: "Didn't bring anything..." Not how I'd run a business... and I'm no biz wiz. I suppose it's the way of the world today and all... and I'm not blaming Aerotech, but it seems the distributors are the ones dropping the ball here. If *I* ran AT I'd want to know why anyone would think I was OOB.
 
Oh I get not wanting to pay shipping! I'd sure rather not have to, but so it goes... And you may be right, but I can say I personally have been involved with three shops now that seem to think AT is out of business. I was talking to the owner of a shop today and distributors aren't showing up to trade shows, if they do show up, they don't bring product or catalogs. This guy told me that he could only get ONE catalog from another company (not AT). Last year the distributor promised to bring materials/kits etc and when he got there, he was told "I forgot". He called the same person this year and when the next show occured was told: "Didn't bring anything..." Not how I'd run a business... and I'm no biz wiz. I suppose it's the way of the world today and all... and I'm not blaming Aerotech, but it seems the distributors are the ones dropping the ball here. If *I* ran AT I'd want to know why anyone would think I was OOB.
If anywhere near me had a LHS, I'd download a .PDF, highlight what I want, and have a chat with the owner about stocking them. This would be likely to work only if I was there frequently.
 
A number of nearby hobby shops here in the northeast *used* to stock Aerotech kits/motors etc. along with the usual stuff by other "esteemed" competitors... but none have any Aerotech product now. When asked, I got the reponse "Aerotech? Oh they're out of business". It's as if you guys dropped entirely off the map after your big fire some time ago. (I'm not 100% up on the history as I've only come back to rocketry in the past few months). The on-line vendors have stuff in stock so I'm "pretty sure" AT is still in business! That said, I can't get an F motor without expending an extra $32 unless I can get it from a vendor that shows up at a launch and half the time they don't have the right delay or motor to begin with. So with a $10+ dollar shipping charge I'm at the price of two g-motors before I order any at all! When I lived in Salt Lake I could get stuff at the local shops... in New England, the stores are scattered about and, well, if they think you're out of business... they sure as heck are not going to order anything, are they? There are precious few brick-and-mortar places in the northeast that carry your stuff and most of the time they're out of stock... or an hour and a half drive (I know y'all in the "big" states out west are laughing now but an hour and a half in traffic is a lot less fun than a 100 mile drive out your way). To make a long-winded rant much shorter... I think AT has a bit of a "communication" problem.

I was in charge of marketing/sales for AeroTech from 1989-1993.

This was at a time where there was turmoil in the hobby rocket industry.
Estes had been sold and was under the management of Barry Tunick.
Tunick HATED all other hobby rocket companies and made it his mission to put them out of business.
One thing he would do when talking to a hobby distributor is tell them that AeroTech was out of business.
When I would contact a distributor and ask why they had not placed an order in awhile they would tell me, "Estes said you were out of business."

You mentioned that you were having issues with finding AeroTech products in the New England area.
New England was always a difficult sales region for AeroTech.
There were/are many 'Mom and Pop' hobby distributors in that area. They all were up in arms over 'their' territory being invaded by the huge nationwide distributors, especially Great Planes.
Several of these New England distributors (One in particular) demanded that AeroTech stop selling to Great Planes in order to get their business.
AeroTech (And rocketry in general) was a hot product line at the time so these distributors grudgingly carried AeroTech but didn't like it.

When rocketry cooled down as a product category and New England hobby shops contacted their local distributors to re-order, the distributors said AeroTech was out of business as payback.
I guess it is still going on today.
 
Bob's tale points to a very real risk for our hobby. Our hobby is small, with few paying customers. Aerotech, CTI, Loki, Gorilla, all cater to a relatively small high power market. None of them are getting rich from our small numbers. Rumors and innuendo within our ranks can have damaging effects that last for years. When we hear of things like this it's up to all of us to correct the rumors. Otherwise we could find ourselves with a much smaller range of choices when buying high power rocket motors.


Steve Shannon
 
If anywhere near me had a LHS, I'd download a .PDF, highlight what I want, and have a chat with the owner about stocking them. This would be likely to work only if I was there frequently.

The LHS owner would only be able to get AeroTech if the hobby distributor he ordered from carried the product.
 
The latest run is currently being etched and will be shipping early next week.

Many vendors appear to be out of stock if the 29mm 40-120 Hobby Line casings. I have had mine on back order for nearly two months now from a vender. Any idea when these cases will be available again? Or insights to what is going on for the supply issue?

Thanks
 
Are you going to move the MoonBurner discussion over here from the AirFest thread ?

Kenny
 
Funny you should mention this as I have noticed the same thing in my area. A few years ago I could go into the "lobby" of the hobby store and purchase the Estes Pro Series II F & G motors (made by AT I believe) but even these are no longer available. I see they are still listed on Estes website (along with a $35.49 hazmat charge) but not carried at the LHS anymore. Largest you can get there now is the Estes 24mm blackpowder E motors.


A number of nearby hobby shops here in the northeast *used* to stock Aerotech kits/motors etc. along with the usual stuff by other "esteemed" competitors... but none have any Aerotech product now. When asked, I got the reponse "Aerotech? Oh they're out of business". It's as if you guys dropped entirely off the map after your big fire some time ago. (I'm not 100% up on the history as I've only come back to rocketry in the past few months). The on-line vendors have stuff in stock so I'm "pretty sure" AT is still in business! That said, I can't get an F motor without expending an extra $32 unless I can get it from a vendor that shows up at a launch and half the time they don't have the right delay or motor to begin with. So with a $10+ dollar shipping charge I'm at the price of two g-motors before I order any at all! When I lived in Salt Lake I could get stuff at the local shops... in New England, the stores are scattered about and, well, if they think you're out of business... they sure as heck are not going to order anything, are they? There are precious few brick-and-mortar places in the northeast that carry your stuff and most of the time they're out of stock... or an hour and a half drive (I know y'all in the "big" states out west are laughing now but an hour and a half in traffic is a lot less fun than a 100 mile drive out your way). To make a long-winded rant much shorter... I think AT has a bit of a "communication" problem.
 
Yes. Let's begin.

I have flown the I59W and the H45W a few times , very cool .

Are the new products coming all going to be DMS ? I am overdue to try a I65W ..mainly because I haven't built anything for it.

Also rumored is that the Medusa nozzles in the RMS line were going to be updated with a single throat version ..is that for TailCone closure compatibility ?

Kenny
 
I have flown the I59W and the H45W a few times , very cool .

Are the new products coming all going to be DMS ? I am overdue to try a I65W ..mainly because I haven't built anything for it.

Also rumored is that the Medusa nozzles in the RMS line were going to be updated with a single throat version ..is that for TailCone closure compatibility ?

Kenny

I flew my first i65 in April. Built a 54mm phenolic rocket for it. Did about 7500' as I recall. Like the motor a bunch- might do not again at Midwest Power.

I am pretty sure I can get more altitude out of it by tweaking the design- maybe over the winter.
 
Hey Charlie,

I just downloaded the instructions for the M685W-P and the second page is very blurry. I tried using Chrome and Acrobat and it's the same in both readers.


Chris
 
The new products coming out will be across all product lines but the longburn Dark Matter works well as a DMS because of the toll the heat takes on a casing. The other goal with the other DMS longburns is to get a 10 second delay in them so look out for that too as we dial those in.

The 54mm Medusa is safe for now but the 75mm Medusa will be replaced eventually by a smaller single throat than the one we currently use. This allows for use of 75mm crossloads across the board without damaging the retaining ring of the hardware.

As far as I know, 54mm and 75mm tailcones work okay but the 38mm and below do not.

I have flown the I59W and the H45W a few times , very cool .

Are the new products coming all going to be DMS ? I am overdue to try a I65W ..mainly because I haven't built anything for it.

Also rumored is that the Medusa nozzles in the RMS line were going to be updated with a single throat version ..is that for TailCone closure compatibility ?

Kenny
 
[video]https://youtu.be/hgU93Py52V8[/video]
What is this new Warp 9 load I am hearing about? An L4199n in 98mm???? Do you have any info you can put out? Thrust curves would be nice to see......

Well we are going to attempt to put it in the air this weekend up at Black Rock, if I can upload a photo here I will post the curve for you but for whatever reason it is giving me problems right now. Here is some video:

https://youtu.be/hgU93Py52V8
 
[video]https://youtu.be/hgU93Py52V8[/video]

Well we are going to attempt to put it in the air this weekend up at Black Rock, if I can upload a photo here I will post the curve for you but for whatever reason it is giving me problems right now. Here is some video:

https://youtu.be/hgU93Py52V8

Is that the same motor Nik B. Was trying to fly at Air Fest last Weekend>?
 
Hi Chris,

We have been improving our instructions across the board intermittently as time allows and have finished up the 75mm line just recently. Here is the link to the newer instructions along with the bonding instructions needed for your particular motor. We will be cleaning up those older links as we move along but the links below will provide you with the newest instructions.

https://www.aerotech-rocketry.com/u...MS-75 1280-10240 2 pg Instr 3-19-16 Small.pdf

https://www.aerotech-rocketry.com/u...002 M650W Grain Face Bonding Instructions.pdf

Let me know if this gives you any problems, thanks.

Hey Charlie,

I just downloaded the instructions for the M685W-P and the second page is very blurry. I tried using Chrome and Acrobat and it's the same in both readers.


Chris
 
Hi Charlie,

Thanks for the link. These instructions look simpler than the original set. Unfortunately I assembled my M685 yesterday. I have one suggestion. I dry fit my grains into the liner one at a time, but I only did it at the end of the liner. You might want to add "Make sure that the grains will pass all the way though the liner without binding." I had a couple grains that started into the liner fine but got hard to move once they were in the liner. I had to use a block and mallet to get the last pair seated.

BTW: Would the Glue All Max that AT recommends for grain bonding work for these moon burner motors? It is thinner and has a longer cure time. It was a lot easier to work with IMHO.


Chris
 
So whats the deal with the 54mm hardware? No vendors seem to have the cases for RAS. Right now I'm looking for a RAS before November when i play to do a launch.
 
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