What is the craziest recovery that didn't result in any major damage to your rocket?

In my pre-BAR period, I had a two X 18mm Saturn 1B (don't recall the manufacturer - got the kit at the Kennedy Space Center circa 1980) that left the pad on 1 motor. Turned cruise missile off the rod and flew towards a little knoll. The second motor came up to pressure late and turned the nose up so that it hit broadside, parallel to the slope. Didn't even break the escape tower.

Last year, my Titan IIIe modded for powered, pop-off boosters, suffered a CATO in the port booster. Kept flying. Then the starboard booster failed to separate and clung to the core until apogee and separation. Total damage: one broken shock cord from the dangling I separated booster nose cone and 2 of 8 booster attachment lugs torn loose.

https://youtu.be/lPuRdJ1obcI

I have so many crazy recoveries I don't even know where to start. But, here's a crazy/funny "recovery" that just needs to get bumped every now and then. This was an M motor by the way.

Jim

https://youtu.be/JNqQGzvnKyk

Charles_McG said:

In my pre-BAR period, I had a two X 18mm Saturn 1B (don't recall the manufacturer - got the kit at the Kennedy Space Center circa 1980) that left the pad on 1 motor. Turned cruise missile off the rod and flew towards a little knoll. The second motor came up to pressure late and turned the nose up so that it hit broadside, parallel to the slope. Didn't even break the escape tower.

Last year, my Titan IIIe modded for powered, pop-off boosters, suffered a CATO in the port booster. Kept flying. Then the starboard booster failed to separate and clung to the core until apogee and separation. Total damage: one broken shock cord from the dangling I separated booster nose cone and 2 of 8 booster attachment lugs torn loose.

https://youtu.be/lPuRdJ1obcI

Click to expand...

JimJarvis50 said:

I have so many crazy recoveries I don't even know where to start. But, here's a crazy/funny "recovery" that just needs to get bumped every now and then. This was an M motor by the way.

Jim

https://youtu.be/JNqQGzvnKyk

Click to expand...

To attach a video to a post is easy, just to the right of the insert image icon is something that looks like a ladder (or a film strip). Click that, paste in your link, and we can watch the video in the forum, ad free.

[video=youtube;lPuRdJ1obcI]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPuRdJ1obcI&feature=youtu.be[/video]

[video=youtube;JNqQGzvnKyk]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNqQGzvnKyk&feature=youtu.be[/video]

K'Tesh said:

To attach a video to a post is easy, just to the right of the insert image icon is something that looks like a ladder (or a film strip). Click that, paste in your link, and we can watch the video in the forum, ad free.

Click to expand...

You see ads when you watch my videos? I didn't know that. I hope I'm advertising something neat!

Jim

JimJarvis50 said:

You see ads when you watch my videos? I didn't know that. I hope I'm advertising something neat!

Jim

Click to expand...

Rocket condoms.

Thanks for the tip, Jim. From the iPhone app, both video insertions look the same - and ad free.

I was a student at Platteville University from 1965 to 1967. One winters day I carried my rocket and gear out to a fallow farm field about a 1/2 mile from the dormitories. It was one of those cold, clear days when the sky was deep blue and you could track a rocket forever. I had my Astron Apogee II loaded up with a B14 booster and C6-7 upper stage. There was about 8 to 10 inches of snow on the ground. I did the countdown and when the B14 lit it left the booster stage sitting on the pad. The rocket got up to about 30 or 40 feet and the B14 burned through and the separation blew off two of the three fins. Now unstable the Apogee was doing loops over my head. I hit the dirt (snow) and suddenly the rocket became stable and parallel to the ground and disappeared over a small rise. Glumly, I packed up my gear and trudged back to the dorms. I scanned the snow surface but could see nothing. A little farther I caught an unmistakeable whiff of black powder. I looked carefully at the snow and could just make out where the surface was disturbed and there were small bits of grass and dirt. Sure enough, I dug a few seconds and there was the upper stage. I cut an inch off the front of the body tube, glued on two fins and it flew again. This time I had a tighter fit between the motor and the booster body tube. Man, I loved those B14's.

Tom

Mine was a scratch built 3" DD rocket that flew on a J350W to just over 4,400 ft. Both ematches were checked and were about 1.2 ohms each. The altimeter gave the proper three beeps and the launch went great. At apogee there was no charge. The rocket got flat and started falling flat. The main was set for 400 ft and I expected it to nose down and come in ballistic until the main blew. No, it stayed flat all the way to 400 ft, and beyond. It fell flat the whole way and landed just over a hill about 800 ft away. When I topped that hill, I saw the field of standing corn the rocket fell into. What may have been more amazing then the thing falling flat from over 4K ft was that I followed what I thought was the line diagonally through the standing corn and almost stepped on the rocket. I walked right to it about 150 yards into the corn.

Post flight; the altimeter was beeping altitude like the flight was nominal. Both ematches were measured and both were open. The bridge wires had melted through but neither had burned the pyrogen. Both ematches were commercial and were from two different manufactures.