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

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

Best regards,
Brian

My helicopter recovery rockets descending upside down.

Not my rocket- the first carbon fiber rocket I ever saw- a Shadow Aerospace Raven on a Kosdon J1500 ( really closer to a J850 but a lot of 38mm motor). Rocket teleports off the pad, no deployment so it comes in clean from about 10k. Hits soft wet ground and buries itself up to the fins. Guy still has RDF signal so I go with him and we find it pretty quick. Stuck in mud, and we find shovel and dig is out. He cleans it up, figures out what went wrong, preps it and flies out this time successfully.

This one got pretty crazy due to the 5 second delay. There was a slight wrinkle in the body tube, but it was repairable, so I fixed it.

[video=youtube;QTItiJrt8U0]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QTItiJrt8U0[/video]

[video=youtube;VwLYp0sNXoM]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VwLYp0sNXoM[/video]

When my 29mm minimum diameter with streamer recovery came down more than a half mile away. When we got to it we found it undamaged, less than 10 feet from the edge of a major highway. If it had gone a few feet farther there might have been serious problems.

I have had a few close calls. One was a Semroc SLS kit that I launched at the park and it ended up drifting out of the park, went across a major road and then landed on the side of that road. I was running after it the whole time since I really liked the rocket and didn't want to lose it.

I also remember a few launches where the rocket had hung up on the launch rod and ended up with a really low altitude ejection and recovery.

Best regards,
Brian

My Formula 38 on an H250G, with DD, but still a wicked fast flight. I had RDF, and set off tracking it. The signal got pretty strong pretty quickly, and I got nervous about trees... As I got to the last fild before the tree line there was still no rocket, but a super strong signal. I kept walking and looked up to see it hanging from a tree right above a rocky creek bed! We latched onto the parachute with the club's poll, and managed to snap the shroud lines. It took a while, but we eventually snagged the NC and yanked the sucker down, slamming it into the 4" water onto rocks. I was sure I'd have fried all the electronics and probably snapped a fin. Amazingly, the whole thing was undamaged and all the electronics work fine! Quite the lucky save.

Nate

The first flight of 4" MAC Villain EXT. The booster landed in a little creek that runs along the edge of our field and actually caused the motor to chuff a bit as it filled and generated steam. Luckily, the camera was up and out of the water and the payload section landed on a dry island!

[YOUTUBE]ocOyZiCWVQE[/YOUTUBE]

My AT G-Force. Only went to about 900', but it was windy, and it came down about 300' away. As I was walking to it, I didn't realize that it had wind-dragged several hundred feet into a creek. Someone else founding floating downstream hours later.

The tubes were water-logged and crumpled, but I straightened them out, hardened them, and the rocket is ready to fly again.

I seen a saucer fly on a K with a chute. The Chute came out 1-2s into the burn and it whirled around in the air dragging the chute. At burnout, it came down safely (chute already out). Chute was not even scorched because of the arc it was travelling kept it out of the motor's flame.

Bat-mite said:

My AT G-Force. Only went to about 900', but it was windy, and it came down about 300' away. As I was walking to it, I didn't realize that it had wind-dragged several hundred feet into a creek. Someone else founding floating downstream hours later.

The tubes were water-logged and crumpled, but I straightened them out, hardened them, and the rocket is ready to fly again.

Click to expand...

FYI - its final spot in the stream was at least a 1/2 mile from the pad.

Kevin,

Thanks again for recovering it. Although old and inexpensive, I love that rocket. So glad I could fix it at virtually no cost.

Not quite a recovery, but when I first flew my 2 stager LPR rocket, the staging somehow popped the nose cone off of the sustainer. Weirdly enough, the rocket still flew fine under the sustainer's power, with the nose cone dragging behind it in the rocket exhaust (and just an open body tube on the top end). The ejection charge pushed the chute out at the right time, and all went well, until the nose cone/chute separated from the main rocket- probably because it had been weakened by the rockets exhaust. The rocket proceeded to core sample, and the nose cone/chute floated off to somewhere yet to be found. No damage to the sustainer and the booster stages otherwise, and the rocket flew again, with a new nose cone/chute.

Best part of all of this was that I have onboard video of the flight on youtube.

Bat-mite said:

Kevin,

Thanks again for recovering it. Although old and inexpensive, I love that rocket. So glad I could fix it at virtually no cost.

Click to expand...

My buddy John actually got it while waiting for me to drive out an pick him and my Dad up from some long recoveries. Teamwork, I guess.

djs said:

Not quite a recovery, but when I first flew my 2 stager LPR rocket, the staging somehow popped the nose cone off of the sustainer. Weirdly enough, the rocket still flew fine under the sustainer's power, with the nose cone dragging behind it in the rocket exhaust (and just an open body tube on the top end). The ejection charge pushed the chute out at the right time, and all went well, until the nose cone/chute separated from the main rocket- probably because it had been weakened by the rockets exhaust. The rocket proceeded to core sample, and the nose cone/chute floated off to somewhere yet to be found. No damage to the sustainer and the booster stages otherwise, and the rocket flew again, with a new nose cone/chute.

Best part of all of this was that I have onboard video of the flight on youtube.

Click to expand...

Possibly drag separation if the cone wasn't tight? The charge cutting the cord may have been from not having (or losing) the protection from the heat of the charge.

cavecentral said:

My buddy John actually got it while waiting for me to drive out an pick him and my Dad up from some long recoveries. Teamwork, I guess.

Click to expand...

Well, please thank him for me. I'll be launching it at the sod farm in three weeks.

Well not serious damage, but the first flight of my YouBee (Upscale Break Away) ended with the rocket in tree.

[video=youtube;0ddTJ0jZoU4]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ddTJ0jZoU4[/video]

And that wasn't so bad because the shock cord was long enough that the 'chute was laying nicely on the ground and I was able to pull the rocket out of the tree.

That's when things started getting weird. As I repacked the recovery system into the rocket, I discovered that the ejection charge had melted the parachute's shroud lines where they were looped around the shock cord. They were twisted together with the shock cord. When I untwisted everything, the shroud lines came apart from the cord. Sometime during the recovery the shroud lines had broken, but they remained twisted together with the shock cord!

Then even weirder, I noticed a hole in the side of the bottom of the rocket between two of the fins. Later, I had a tough time removing the motor casing. When I finally got the casing out, I found out why it had been stuck. The hole in the rocket extended through the motor tube and through the motor casing. The casing had a hole punched into it. Apparently, the rocket had landed on a limb which punched through it.

-- Roger

This is my favorite rocket, the Madcow 2.6" FG Black Brant II. These pictures were taken before the maiden flight...
At Midwest Blast 1, on April 16, she was to have her maiden flight! I was so excited. I had built the AT H128 a while before, so I had loosened the closures and placed it in an airtight bag, waiting for the perfect time to use it. It was the perfect motor for a maiden for the BB II. She sat on the pad, awaiting her turn. Finally, the countdown began. And then...https://youtu.be/I8SwSdsnRlc
Something went horribly wrong! I wasn't so much worried about the rocket, I was worried about my brand new Möbius! Waiting for the LCO to clear the racks seemed like an eternity. I could see her out there, fins pointed toward the bright blue sky, almost yelling at me, "Here I am!" Finally, the range was clear and I started my walk, dreading whatever damage there might be. As I got closer, I noticed she had buried herself about 9 or 10 inches into the soil, but my killer tape job on the Möbius withstood the long drop and sudden stop. It was still recording! I had to pull pretty hard to get it free...
The recovery harness was a muddy mess and the booster was full of mud. But I took her home, washed and bleached the harness and re-epoxied the bulkhead into the NC. Wet sanded the upper half and applied more clear coat. This was taken post cleanup...
Next time I'll be sure to check the amount of BP in the forward closure. I had originally assembled it for a different rocket, but weather canceled that launch. So, into the bag it went for about three months. I never even thought about the black powder not being enough to get the laundry out on this flight. I know that will never happen again!

Many years ago, I managed to score a package (of 3) D11-12 motors. This was long before OR, and my knowledge of CG/CP. However the scratchbuilt rocket passed the swing test, so I took it out to my Great-Grandmother's ranch. I had previously lost my Defender to a tree there, and my first Cherokee D to the Rogue (that is as in a rogue wave, or a lovable rogue, not "red") River. I set the launch angle to maximum (it was a tad windy), and launched the rocket into the wind. Of course, it weathercocked, and proceeded to follow a very graceful arch heading for the recently mowed hay field and looking like it was going to impact long before the ejection charge fired. Fortunately for me (and it), the ejection did fire, and the rocket landed softly after a descent under parachute of (I'm guessing here) 20'.

My most recent memorable recovery moment was the launch of my 2" PSII based upscale of the Cherokee D. I built it zipperless with the separation joint just below the lower wrap. the chute was loaded into that section, and the shock cord was attached to the top of the baffle, and the nosecone. Problem was when the ejection event happened, the nosecone popped off, AND the recovery bay popped off, leaving the chute stowed inside it. It fell like that from its apogee until it was maybe 50' AGL (possibly less), and the chute finally pulled free and opened. My response... "I meant to do that!!!" Another short walk to recover it. My error? I had meant to tape the shoulder of the nosecone so it was a tight friction fit, and I just forgot it. Of course, as I was videoing it, I lost visual with the camera (Show of hands: How many rocketeers have forgotten that they were still filming, and end up with a video composed of voices and the launch field?). Even more typical for my luck, the camera battery died just as I realized I was filming the ground, and the parachute deployed.

The best recovery story was when I was flying my Sentinel (clone) in Ashland, Oregon. It was a windy weekend day, and I went out to one of my favorite fields to fly. Turns out that there was a soccer game going on, but the adjacent football field at SOSC (now SOU) was not being used. I set up on the north side of the field (furthest into the wind I could get), tilted the launch rod to the max into the wind, and launched it. Of course, 30 feet up or so, it got hit by a strong gust, and weathercocked. It flew cleanly over the heads of the soccer game, and was well on its way to impacting in and among a group of people sitting on their 2nd floor deck who were watching the game when the ejection finally fired. The people on the deck were well on their way to scattering as it really did look like it was going to join them up there, but the parachute deployed, and the rocket drifted back over the heads of the people who were now watching the rocket, rather than playing the game. It did have to clear a tall cyclone fence (which it did barely), and landed gently in my hand, after I took a small back step of about 6 paces. I remember that that was the first time I ever said... "I meant to do that!". I had figured I'd have had to use the entire field to recover that rocket, but that and the rocket that detonated shortly afterwards (motor CATO'd) were the two closest recoveries I've ever had despite the wind.

I guess mine would be when my Shai Hulud landed in a pond. While looking for some sort of boat on the shore (there were two as I remember but neither would float) I also noticed that the high winds that put it there were blowing it to shore. It was Estes tubing so I thought it was a goner. I had 'pseudo glassed' it and once I poured the water out, it dried and was fine. Luckily the motor mount was phenolic so it didn't swell. I've has other water incidents and none came out that well.

20 years ago, I was flying on my ten acre hay field in the late evening after the winds had died down. With dusk approaching, I launche<script id="gpt-impl-0.6770576020820835" src="https://partner.googleadservices.com/gpt/pubads_impl_85.js"></script>d my scratch built Atlas and Mercury capsule, which I built back in the mid-60's. I pushed the launch button and immediately lost track of the rocket in darkening sky. I heard the ejection charge and spotted the booster coming in ballistic without the capsule. I had designed the Atlas/Mercury to descend together, both on a chute, but tied together with the shock cord. As hard as I tried I couldn't locate the capsule in the sky. After a few minutes I began searching the hay field with my dog and a flashlight. I found the booster stuck in the mud in partially dried up ditch and the mud was still too soft and went over the tops of my shoes. I knew I needed a shovel and a pair of knee high boots to recovery the booster. So, I finally gave up and went home for the night. I left my launch pad there in the field so I had an anchor point for the mornings search.

I returned the next morning and began scanning the field for the capsule, but I was unable to see any thing but grass. So I walked over to the pad and tried to visualize the launch angle and where the booster had landed. I took a couple of steps in the general direction of the down range launch angle and lo and behold there was the capsule. A mere 10 feet from the pad and nestled in the tall grass. It had became so dark that night and I was focused on the booster that I never saw the capsule land. I happily picked up the capsule, then turned my attention to the booster recovery. There was no damage to booster other than mud shoved deep into the body tube. They both lived to fly again, and still do, some 50 years after they were built.

I suppose we all have had a land dart at some point. But how many of you escaped carnage from one? Here's a shortie with an under powered flight that did actually deploy the chute and nary a scratch on the rocket.

[video=youtube;EgFf4hO01ck]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EgFf4hO01ck&feature=youtu.be[/video]

Gary,

That is too funny. The icing on the cake is when the ejection charge comes at the very end.

Best regards,
Brian

BRS Hobbies said:

Gary,

That is too funny. The icing on the cake is when the ejection charge comes at the very end.

Best regards,
Brian

Click to expand...

No damage either Brian. All are parts I ordered from you! :grin:

My shortest flight... https://www.flickr.com/photos/dhkaiser/15671416056/in/album-72157647414175153/

Bat-mite said:

My AT G-Force. Only went to about 900', but it was windy, and it came down about 300' away. As I was walking to it, I didn't realize that it had wind-dragged several hundred feet into a creek. Someone else founding floating downstream hours later.

The tubes were water-logged and crumpled, but I straightened them out, hardened them, and the rocket is ready to fly again.

Click to expand...

My G-force also landed in a creek- here in Tucson, so the likelihood of that actually happening is pretty damn slim! Santa Cruz river, actually, but those that know it will understand. It actually was the ONLY successful flight I had on that one, should'a known it was jinxed. After that was a failed separation (not related to the water damage- that was all fixed), which I rebuilt as a nose blow, then, I flew it without the BP charge (long story). That one was not as lucky.

dhkaiser said:

My shortest flight... https://www.flickr.com/photos/dhkaiser/15671416056/in/album-72157647414175153/

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Aww, poor little guy was afraid of heights! Love the kid's laugh at the end- that's why so many of us come back to this hobby as BAR!

dhkaiser said:

My shortest flight... https://www.flickr.com/photos/dhkaiser/15671416056/in/album-72157647414175153/

Click to expand...

LOL That was an awesome flight and an easy recovery. Did you happen to get an altimeter reading on that one?

Best regards,
Brian

dhkaiser said:

My shortest flight... https://www.flickr.com/photos/dhkaiser/15671416056/in/album-72157647414175153/

Click to expand...

This knucklehead I knew thought a MMX motor would fly my Mini Fiddle Faddle. It was designed for 13mm motors and he rigged the mount up to fit an MMX. Needless to say, it was highly under powered. Ahhhh yes....such are the "know it alls:. Prolly my shortest flight also.

[video=youtube;EQ8z6_FzHLY]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQ8z6_FzHLY&feature=youtu.be[/video]