Well that didn't work... Failure Gallery

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Aksrockets

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Post whatever you want about your rocket failures. These could be:
Catos
Shreds
Instability
Lawn darts
Land sharks
Core samples
Or anything that didnt work quite like you expected.

here is mine.
See the pictures and the paragraph titled "naive launch" those flights didnt work out so well because I didnt know about the CG/CP of the rocket or what that even meant.

Here is just a photo of my failureIMG_7159.jpg
 
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I've never heard a good E15 story. What was the end result? What's the story behind this bird? Very interesting design.
 
My most painful failure - my 4 inch AIM-120C on an M1300 Dual Thrust last year at LDRS:

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(For anyone who wants to fly an M1300, I suggest you glue the grains...)
 
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I've never heard a good E15 story. What was the end result? What's the story behind this bird? Very interesting design.

This was the thread: https://www.rocketryforum.com/showthread.php?t=3215

It was a beta for PemTech's HMAS Bonestell. I had plenty of nice flights. It was a bit squirrely because of a crooked fin. I was searching for the power threshold where the bad stuff started to happen. I found some old E15s from the early 90s in my garage.


CATO

:sad:

:cry:

I gave the carcass to a kid who was present in the hope of enticing him to further participation. Didn't happen.

:sad:
 
This was my most energetic failure yet. At the MWP 8 drag race I flew my "Dangler" (Means someone who is really good at hockey, this flight was dedicated to my hockey team) on a wicked fast K-850 brass blue motor made by Darin Raymond. The mach delay was set a little too short and I popped my drouge shortly after burn out. It was alright though, only 2 out of 5 survived the race.

Manny

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Here is what happends when your ignitor isn't inserted all the way up to your delay. Kodak Easy Share 093.jpg

Last flight of Junk Shot 007.jpg
 
Oh, where do I start? Let's see... the first picture is the end result of the cato of one G80-4T single use motor in a 3 motor cluster. Blew the side of the rocket open and started it on fire. All fins remained attached, and the other two motors were fine, so it had a stable flight and normal, albeit low, apogee deployment. The rocket recovered in flames, close to the pad, under a full canopy.

The second thru fourth pictures are the result of a delay element o-ring not sealing. Basically, 10% or so of the thrust went out the forward closure like a little blowtorch, opened the rocket early, blew out the laundry, and burned thru the shock cord. The rocket survived and flew again the next day.

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In honor of my only non-ejection event on a 29/40-120 motor. A G71 IIRC. I reckon I forgot to back fill the press-on cap with dog barf to make sure the powder stayed near the ejection port (?)

This rocket's BT was window tint tube (similar to Quantum tube). The nose cone was toast, the small fins on the ring shredded off at impact, and about 1/2" of the tube needed to be trimmed off. A new nose cone section was fabbed and it is flying again.

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Well, here's mine. The first pic is both my full size Phoenix (a paper rocket of my own design, and a really good flyer) along with a mini version I was experimenting with. The second pic is the result of not wrapping the chute tight enough and having it hang in the tube causing a blowout.

phoenix3.JPG

crash.jpg
 
Well, here's mine. The first pic is both my full size Phoenix (a paper rocket of my own design, and a really good flyer) along with a mini version I was experimenting with. The second pic is the result of not wrapping the chute tight enough and having it hang in the tube causing a blowout.

Those look great. Do you have the plans available?
 
What happens when nose cone is too tight. This G-Force was repaired and flew again, crashed several more times and was repaired several more times.

G force lawn dart.jpg
 
Not my own failure, but I got a sweet photo.
It seems like the delay was about 5-6 seconds too long. The rocket lawn-darted, ramming the BT over the nose cone. Hard. This is the Arizona desert we are talking about. That stuff is like pavement. Then, a second or so later, the ejection charge went off, but the nosecone was stuck, so it blew the BT to pieces. I suppose its better the charge went off before people got there though...

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Phantom 4000. Loved that kit, many good flights on F101, G55, and clusters. A few 5x D12 flights, to date still my most complex clusters. This last flight was on a G55, and the nosecone was too tight. Should have continued to sand it. Ballistic from 500 feet, nosecone stuck about 2 feet down into sod. Looked like one of those cartoon cannons that got plugged and blew up in daffy duck's face.

Phantom4k_close.jpg

Phantom4k_side.jpg
 
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My Art Applewhite "Stars and Stripes" treated shabbily by an Estes E9-P.
The saucer is barely visible at base of smoke plume.

Stars and Stripes liftoff - ADJUSTED.jpg
 
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Scratch-built Feuerlilie F25 failing to launch with an Estes B6-4.

The rocket survived and has flown safely since. :)

704f25_cato_klein.jpg
 
Ahhh KEWL! I've had a couple of those...LOL!
Here are 5 early offerings; 3 Catos...1 prang and a Bernoulli Lock..before I found out what that was!
Cato's were the only D13 cato I suffered, a C6 & a much later D12 very cold weather boomer.

Putting an B8-5 in an interceptor was just a bonehead move on my part..last flight of the day and last motor in the box LOL...live and learn.

Interceptor-b8-sm_results of B8-5 Prang Flt_06-10-72.jpg

SST Shuttle-b3b-sm_2 pic & C6-3 Cato_04-23-72.jpg
 
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THOY Wasp was flown on what the package said was an F40-7, but turned out to be more like a F40-13 or so. It kicked the payload section out on the way down [and thank goodness, too, as it was carrying an RRC2X along for the ride], and the lower section took a core sample.

wasp_after.jpg
 
My 9ft long Halfway There, fortunately my one and only lawn dart. It was on an F40 reload. Never did figure out what happened, it just never separated. There was black powder residue in the top of the motor tube, so I know the charge went off. I think there was just too much volume to pressurize.

[YOUTUBE]mMY6w5zxXL4[/YOUTUBE]

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Roger Smith (Jonrocket.com) is our section's "go-to" man for great launch pictures.
He caught my MARTIAN PATROL CATO on an old Quest C6-3.
It fireballed through the middle and blistered the paint a bit.
In the picture, the saucers are still hanging on.
No real damage, it's flown a few times since.

Enlarge the picture and you can see the engine falling underneath the rocket.
As much as we searched, the casing wasn't found.

Martian Patrol C6-3 CATO_WEB.jpg
 
Roger Smith (Jonrocket.com) is our section's "go-to" man for great launch pictures.
He caught my MARTIAN PATROL CATO on an old Quest C6-3.
It fireballed through the middle and blistered the paint a bit.
In the picture, the saucers are still hanging on.
No real damage, it's flown a few times since.

Enlarge the picture and you can see the engine falling underneath the rocket.
As much as we searched, the casing wasn't found.

Do you have the plans and part list for the Martian Patrol? I have a Lunar Patrol and might like to clone the martians to go with it...assuming I ever get to build anything again.
 
Do you have the plans and part list for the Martian Patrol? I have a Lunar Patrol and might like to clone the martians to go with it...assuming I ever get to build anything again.

It's tough to clone because of those two foam saucers. Keep an eye on Ebay - They come up ever so often and don't usually bid up too high.

The plans are available on YORS:

https://www.oldrocketplans.com/mpc/mpcR-844/mpcR-844.htm
 
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So apparently, a 5 inch Performance Rocketry nose cone fails at around mach 2.2...

(Pics and video to come)
 
Do you have the plans and part list for the Martian Patrol? I have a Lunar Patrol and might like to clone the martians to go with it...assuming I ever get to build anything again.

Hi John,
I don't know if the two were compatable. The foam saucers have little plastic pieces that slip over the dowel like extensions on the outside edges of the fins.
Thanks Greg for the plans link.

That fireball C6-3 was the first time I flew it.
Later, it flew twice at the NEFAR launch. I stuck a B6-2 into it and asked a few to watch the three pieces for me. I didn't know how far away the saucers would fly.
It probably got 150 feet in the air, the saucers flapping along the side as it went up. The parachute ejected and the saucers released.
One saucer fell in a flat position, "sort of hovered". The other saucer flipped end over end. I was laughing anyway.
I loaded up a C6-3 to try and redeem myslf, at least for a better altitude.
It was higher, but the same recovery on the two saucers.

They do sell on EBAY here and there. One guy is selling a kit for a by-it-now price of $99.95! Good luck! He's relisted it for six months now.
 
This was an Estes Mean Machine that I converted to a Centuri ThunderRoc. I put an E mount in it, and launched it on an E9-4 for the first flight. Unfortunately the E9-4 turned out to be more like an E9-1. The whole crowd watching the launch went "OOOOHHH!" at the same time. (Kind of like every male in the movie theater did when Lou Gossett, Jr. kicked Richard Gere in the pills in "Officer and a Gentleman".) I complained to Estes, and they told me that the Mean Machine wasn't supposed to fly on E9's. They sent me a new coupler to help with my rebuild.:y::confused2:

17 inch zipper in Thunder Roc.jpg
 
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So apparently, a 5 inch Performance Rocketry nose cone fails at around mach 2.2...

(Pics and video to come)

I saw your post on RP about that, I was hoping to see pics and video. Too bad, you'll get 'em next time. Although, I can imagine an N5800 Cstar shred was pretty spectacular!

Manny
EDIT: Did you happen to be using a Raven or other Featherweight altimeter? If you were, could you either post or send me the file? I'm trying to put together files for the MWP 5800 drag race. Thanks.
 
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When I first was getting into the hobby I built a rocket entirely of parts supplied by the Pepsi corporation (just to see if I could). I thought I needed more nose weight because it was stubby so I added a stack of bottle caps (and a couple lead tire weights).

View attachment 49705

It looked nice and the flight started out pretty good on a C6 something...

View attachment 49706

Sadly, it wasn't stable enough, was over stable, or a C just wasn't enough to get it going. It made a nice high arc nose first into the edge of the soccer field and nearly every single part unglued from the other.

View attachment 49707

I still have the parts in a box somewhere...
 
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