Had my first casualty.

:eyeroll: Well I'm going to blame this one on my not trusting my gut, and launching it when I shouldn't have. My G-force got off the pad pretty good. Almost too good for the Aerotech launch pad, as you can see the blast shield spin, and the base actually jumped from the downward force. When I went to prep the rocket, and check the parachute, I felt that there was a slight vacuum between the forward, and rear section. I should have waited, taken it home, and sanded the coupling area, or added a small hole in the body. Well I didn't, and paid the piper. The Rocket Gods were happy to have my sacrifice.

[video=youtube;CxqQJbiu5w4]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CxqQJbiu5w4[/video]

The rocket landed so hard, that the paint exploded off the nose cone. LOL






I did have 2 successful launches on my Initiator
[video=youtube;BFHf3nq0Lzg]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFHf3nq0Lzg[/video]

Also a very good launch on my Mustang. It looked great in the air.
[video=youtube;H32JULJsLRE]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H32JULJsLRE[/video]

Hope you enjoy. Even losing a rocket, I had a blast with my family out at the lake bed. I also got to meet a very cool forum member, who met me out at the lake today. Thanks Rob, I look forward to launching more rockets with you.

Ouch!! That's a awesome G-Force, so sorry it had to crash. I want to get a G-Force, and I'll definitely learn from your mistake.

Seem's like you're not the only one who lost a beloved rocket on the field this week! The Rocket God's are getting quite greedy - that's why I don't believe in Rockism OR Rocksim (Haha!)

In all seriousness, this is a tragic event, and we will help you get through this moment, let's all have a moment of prayer for our brother - Amen.

I was in a phase of denial and depression when my Astrobee crashed, and I feel you man.

Bill

Yes, got to meet Todd out there, an awesome fellow hobbyist!
Sucks about the g force, but other launches looked great.
I feel partly responsible for that cato...never, ever listen to the guy who shows up with no rockets LOL, "yea just peel the paper and poke a hole"

I still think it's salvageable....:dark:

Ouch!

That looks almost as painful as watching slow motion videos that don't even show the entire flight to completion.

Sorry for your loss.

Thanks. Sorry on the videos. My son was in charge of videos today. The slow motion seems to make the videos much longer than I would have liked, and he uploaded them before I could edit.

Rob702Martinez said:

Yes, got to meet Todd out there, an awesome fellow hobbyist!
Sucks about the g force, but other launches looked great.
I feel partly responsible for that cato...never, ever listen to the guy who shows up with no rockets LOL, "yea just peel the paper and poke a hole"

I still think it's salvageable....:dark:

Click to expand...

Yeah, maybe salvageable for parachutes. Taping that thing together would make a ACME Spitfire, and god we don't want another one of those...

I have a nose cone that looks just like that! Come to think of it-it was at Jean Lake too...hmmm. The Recovery Gods giveth and the Rocket Gods taketh....
Condolences and may you have straight smoke and good chutes from now on!

(The fin can should fly again! Us mortals can be persisant little beasties...)

LOL...we all feel your pain because all of us have been there done that - and much worse.

My first L2 attempt was at NSL in 2009. Long story short, I lawn-darted a 5.5" dia 6' long rocket into the rock hard Wisconsin clay due to my incompetence. In front of A LOT of people. I destroyed my 29/240 casing on my first L1 attempt due to loading it incorrectly. Again, in front of about 100 people. So as you can imagine I'm a bit gun-shy of doing an L3 considering my current pattern.

If I were you I'd get a better pad which is more than likely going to mean building one. That pad is good for up to E-F flights and that's it IMHO. Anything beyond a small F and you're going to get the infamous "Mantis dance" like you see in the video. This is especially a problem with larger mid-powered rockets like a G-Force.

Now the vacuum you are talking about...I guess I don't understand what the issue was here or how this flight failed. Was there not enough BP charge to blow off the chute and cone?

From the picture it looks like you could - if you want to - cut off the damaged airframe and square the tube up and fly it again no problem. I've done that many times.

Don't be discouraged though. There are 2 types of rocketeers in the world: Those that have crashed a rocket and those that will crash a rocket.

-Dave

Ouch

DAllen said:

Don't be discouraged though. There are 2 types of rocketeers in the world: Those that have crashed a rocket and those that will crash a rocket.

-Dave

Click to expand...

It's those who have crashed a rocket and those who lie about it.


This is what happens when you don't put enough BP in. :/

What do you mean by feeling there was a "vacuum?" I don't understand the cause of the crash.

A vacumm when seperating or a feeling of compression while sliding together as long as its sliding is not necessarily a bad thing its just a close fit between coupler and airframe. That kind of fit will make better use of the ejection charge gases, it can also cause issues with high acceleration causing a pressure seperation if not vented. If the rocket failed to seperate that would indicate the fit was too tight or the ejection charge was not big enough. My $.02

Yikes. That looks too much like my G-Force. Felt like I was having a nightmare.

Thanks for the condolences folks. A little clarification on the vacuum. When I went to separate the rocket at the coupler, it was difficult to pull apart, I believed it to be from a vacuum it created as i pulled the two pieces apart. You could hear air drawing from the motor. I pulled off a layer of the tubing on the coupler, hoping to loosen the fit between the connections, and it was a little easier. When the rocket launched, the flight was good, just past apogee we saw the ejection charge go off, but it was a puff of smoke out of the motor mount, and the two parts never separated. I was using an Aerotech RMS 29-40/120 G76-7G which I loaded. The ejection charge did go off, as I pulled out the motor you could see residue on the ejection nozzle, and all the contents were consumed when I opened it to clean it. Maybe the charge just wasn't big enough to separate the two parts, but being that its an aerotech rocket, using aerotech equipment, I would think it was designed to operate off a standard charge.

Any chance that the shock cords or a piece of the parachute got wedged between the coupler and booster?

XxDrPxX said:

Thanks for the condolences folks. A little clarification on the vacuum. When I went to separate the rocket at the coupler, it was difficult to pull apart, I believed it to be from a vacuum it created as i pulled the two pieces apart. You could hear air drawing from the motor. I pulled off a layer of the tubing on the coupler, hoping to loosen the fit between the connections, and it was a little easier. When the rocket launched, the flight was good, just past apogee we saw the ejection charge go off, but it was a puff of smoke out of the motor mount, and the two parts never separated. I was using an Aerotech RMS 29-40/120 G76-7G which I loaded. The ejection charge did go off, as I pulled out the motor you could see residue on the ejection nozzle, and all the contents were consumed when I opened it to clean it. Maybe the charge just wasn't big enough to separate the two parts, but being that its an aerotech rocket, using aerotech equipment, I would think it was designed to operate off a standard charge.

Click to expand...

Sounds to me like the issue was not a pressure differential causing the sucking air sound but rather the coupler was too tight. It's a bit of an art to judging what is too tight and what isn't. Or, what Bat-mite suggests is certainly a possibility.

Your G-Force farfed better than my first.

https://www.rocketryforum.com/showthread.php?7788-Aeroforce-G-Force-4

On my rocket the coupling was not just tight. It was the wrong coupling. A common problem with Aerotech rockets I have heard.

Just read your thread. Thanks for sharing. Sounds like a few people have all had the same problem. Its unfortunate as it is an awesome rocket for its size, and price point. Maybe with some mods I could make it work. Think ill just move onto some fiberglass model next

1974_Trident said:

Your G-Force farfed better than my first.

https://www.rocketryforum.com/showthread.php?7788-Aeroforce-G-Force-4

On my rocket the coupling was not just tight. It was the wrong coupling. A common problem with Aerotech rockets I have heard.

Click to expand...