Rocket prepped but not flown - how long do you keep prepped?

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Nick@JET

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So I ground tested and prepped a rocket for flight in April. The tower didn't show up so I scrubbed the flight and put the rocket on the shelf. Then another flight scrubbed - and here we are 4 1/2 months later. Do I make new fresh charges? Is BP hydroscopic? if not I'm going to roll with the current charges.

I disassembled today and never unplugged the LIPO from the ALT and it has sat for 4 months. So I removed the lipo and stuck on charger and found the battery actually lost nothing and was full charge!

Any of you run into similar issue with rocket prepped and scrubbed time after time?

How long have you gone without re-prepping if you will?
ImageUploadedByRocketry Forum1502986411.989303.jpg
ImageUploadedByRocketry Forum1502986424.030371.jpg
 
DISCLAIMER -- I am not telling you what is SAFE, BEST PRACTICE, PROVEN or RELIABLE. Just personal experience.

I have left a rocket prepped as long as three months. I once loaded an L900 into a CTI 54-6XL casing and left it in there, in my basement, for over six months. My BP charges are stuffed full of dog barf and taped over, so no moisture or humidity get in.

It would be far safer to remove the BP and e-macthes to prevent getting a nose cone embedded in your sheetrock. But barring some kind of weird, anomalous static shock igniting your matches, nothing is going to happen.
 
Disclaimer: You yourself need to decide how much risk you want to take on. For some, storing a fully prepped rocket with ejection charges hooked up is too much of a risk. For others it's not.

If you decide to leave it prepped, here's what I suggest:

  • Always store it in a dry place that's temperature controlled.
  • The BP should be fine if it's left in place.
  • Position the rocket so that in the highly unlikely event the charges would go off it separates without endangering anyone.
  • As far the motor, if it's going to be more than a month I recommend you pull it out and seal the entire thing in poly bag with a few desiccant packs. No need to disassemble the motor, just do the poly bag on the outside of the casing.
  • You can leave the Lipos in the airframe. I would normally pull them out and give them a top up charge a week before the launch.

I have 2 rockets that I didn't get to fly last time that are fully prepped on the rack. Should be a simple job to spruce them up for the next launch. It will be 3 months between flights and I don't expect any problems.
 
The tower didn't show up so I scrubbed the flight...How long have you gone without re-prepping if you will?...

So yeah... I built a tower for a 3 fin 54mm minimum diameter rocket a number of years ago. Wanna take a stab at which rocket it was for? I'd be willing to sell it to you for the cost of the parts...:)

I've let a rocket sit for 9 months full prepped, no issues when the trigger was pulled. :)
 
So yeah... I built a tower for a 3 fin 54mm minimum diameter rocket a number of years ago. Wanna take a stab at which rocket it was for? I'd be willing to sell it to you for the cost of the parts...:)

I've let a rocket sit for 9 months full prepped, no issues when the trigger was pulled. :)
haha I know what rocket that is for. I would be willing to buy the tower - really need it for Argonia - but fly aways will likely be the answer and Chris CVIII is bringing a tower but may be in high demand. Still have yet to fly it - so it is ready to go for Argonia for maiden flight - but need an RF tracker hopefully Gus will allow me to borrow for the flight.
I may fly at MWP as well we will see

Disclaimer: You yourself need to decide how much risk you want to take on. For some, storing a fully prepped rocket with ejection charges hooked up is too much of a risk. For others it's not.

If you decide to leave it prepped, here's what I suggest:

  • Always store it in a dry place that's temperature controlled.
  • The BP should be fine if it's left in place.
  • Position the rocket so that in the highly unlikely event the charges would go off it separates without endangering anyone.
  • As far the motor, if it's going to be more than a month I recommend you pull it out and seal the entire thing in poly bag with a few desiccant packs. No need to disassemble the motor, just do the poly bag on the outside of the casing.
  • You can leave the Lipos in the airframe. I would normally pull them out and give them a top up charge a week before the launch.

I have 2 rockets that I didn't get to fly last time that are fully prepped on the rack. Should be a simple job to spruce them up for the next launch. It will be 3 months between flights and I don't expect any problems.

Thanks Nate, wasn't really smart in the storage, I actually drove around in my car with it for a couple weeks before I realized ...GEEZ the battery is still plugged in wow

DISCLAIMER -- I am not telling you what is SAFE, BEST PRACTICE, PROVEN or RELIABLE. Just personal experience.

I have left a rocket prepped as long as three months. I once loaded an L900 into a CTI 54-6XL casing and left it in there, in my basement, for over six months. My BP charges are stuffed full of dog barf and taped over, so no moisture or humidity get in.

It would be far safer to remove the BP and e-macthes to prevent getting a nose cone embedded in your sheetrock. But barring some kind of weird, anomalous static shock igniting your matches, nothing is going to happen.

Good to hear, ill pull the trigger in a couple weeks - that battery took no charge, ejection charges are intact and just as I installed them so this makes me feel alot better - I dug in to the AV bay after I posted to verify everything looked and tested ok.
 
I've got an AV bay fully prepped down in basement for a year now... I might actually fly it this weekend... :eyeroll:
 
Call me/text me once you see these pics... tower is a fixed design and drops into Kloudbusters pads with ease... let me know if you want me to bolt it together for additional pics.

DSCN1191.jpg DSCN1192.jpg DSCN1193.jpg DSCN1194.jpg
 
Wait... you might actually fly a rocket? in the air?

Well, since flying under the water is verboten, I'll aim for sky and hope I don't miss... But hope I DO miss the water upon landing. No more swamp baths for me. :puke:
 
So here is a question for those who either leave birds prepped, or prep at home prior to traveling to the launch site. When you build your charges, do you go ahead and fully wire them up? or do you leave them disconnected and shunted, then connect while doing final preps? Shunting the wires seems like the safest to me for transport, but figured I would see what everyone else does!
 
So here is a question for those who either leave birds prepped, or prep at home prior to traveling to the launch site. When you build your charges, do you go ahead and fully wire them up? or do you leave them disconnected and shunted, then connect while doing final preps? Shunting the wires seems like the safest to me for transport, but figured I would see what everyone else does!

I usually prep my ejection charges the day before the launch. Then I just leave the arming switch turned off until it is on the pad.

If you considering shunting the e-match wires because of the possibility of electrostatic discharge accidentally firing the e-match, maybe a good idea just to be safe but probably unnecessary. The current in typical static discharge is at least 1000 times to low to fire an e-match.

In any case, I always handle rockets with loaded charges like they could fire accidentally at any time.
 
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So here is a question for those who either leave birds prepped, or prep at home prior to traveling to the launch site. When you build your charges, do you go ahead and fully wire them up? or do you leave them disconnected and shunted, then connect while doing final preps? Shunting the wires seems like the safest to me for transport, but figured I would see what everyone else does!

I wire them up at the house. I want to do as little in the field as possible. I get to fly more rockets that way.
 
DISCLAIMER -- I am not telling you what is SAFE, BEST PRACTICE, PROVEN or RELIABLE. Just personal experience.

I have left a rocket prepped as long as three months. I once loaded an L900 into a CTI 54-6XL casing and left it in there, in my basement, for over six months. My BP charges are stuffed full of dog barf and taped over, so no moisture or humidity get in.

It would be far safer to remove the BP and e-macthes to prevent getting a nose cone embedded in your sheetrock. But barring some kind of weird, anomalous static shock igniting your matches, nothing is going to happen.

hahahahahahaha,,,

Oooppppsssss,,,, sorry...

Teddy
 
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