Anima Mundi

Yoehahn said:

LDRS REPORT: Biggest CATO I have ever seen... started one helluva fire, and it just disassembled on the pad

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Was this the Team Dewalt rocket that cato'd? That was truly spectacular. Photos by Nadine had an excellent picture of it this morning.

TRF,

Please find my final report on this project below:

1. Arrived at LDRS 14 July about 10:00am. Checked in and found my L3 TAP. Best guys ever.

2. Initial TAP review complete about 11:00am.

3. Located the Cesaroni representative. He checked my grain bonding and assisted in final assembly of the motor.

4. Final assembly complete about 2:00pm. Erected at pad about 3:00pm.

5. Waited 90 minutes for LCO to push the button. Discovery Channel was sort-of running the range timetable.

6. Flight result is CATO.

7. Recovery is total loss. Every component was consumed in the resulting ground fire.

8. Cesaroni representative assisted in failure analysis. Report sent to my e-mail 16 July indicated forward closure under spec by 1mm. Their determination is failure by defect of manufacture.

9. Whiskey anyone?

10. Conclusion is the project was a success. I learned a lot. Had a great experience and made new friends. That, dear folks, is worth more than any other thing.

About Cesaroni? I bear no hard feelings and will continue to use their products. Working with them has been great and I'm looking forward to their support in the next project. Of course, that will have to be just a bit bigger!

Feckless Counsel

Geoffrey,

Extremely sorry to hear. Clearly you had your bases covered and were very deliberate in your design and build on this project. Hate to say it, but I saw exactly the same thing happen with a Cesaroni motor on a large L3 project at Thunderstruck this year. It was also (very) sad. I don't fly Cesaroni except at an occasional drag race where it is required; frankly kinda glad I don't--especially their larger stuff.

-Tim

Well put, and the best mindset to have after an event like this. We all like seeing the big flights, and sometimes the big "failures" are more exciting, but it's good to hear that this isn't the end of the story. Rising from the ashes will be a cooler project, "Axis Mundi" perhaps? Looking forward to following along and hopefully witnessing the next installment.

I have to say that CTI was honest in excepting blame in machining tolerences. I guess they replaced the load and hardware?

Sorry to see the loss. The third picture is amazing. Also, it looks like someone is standing awfully close in that third picture for such a large project. Would like to have seen the frames on either side of that to see how he reacted.

Sorry to hear about this.

I'm glad you have some positive "take aways" from the experience.

It was a great project and I enjoyed your build.

I hope you have another big project in your future.

Greg

I saw the project driving out to the pads, but didn't realize it was your bird. I was a little busy preping for a flight at the time, but ran to the flight line to watch.

Sorry it was a complete loss and I agree with Tim that I really don't like the big CTI motors. I've seen too many failures that were not the flyers fault.

I'd try it again with the same size tubes and make a nosecone for it as well. It would have been really cool to see it flying to prove your theory's on the design.

So the nose cone was destroyed?

Feckless Counsel said:

About Cesaroni? I bear no hard feelings and will continue to use their products. Working with them has been great and I'm looking forward to their support in the next project. Of course, that will have to be just a bit bigger!

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Have been following your build from the beginning, and have been excited to see/hear of the launch. So sorry to hear of the closure failure. I must say, and I am sure others would agree, that throughout this experience, you have been a consummate gentlemen. The quality of your build was inspirational to us all, as was your ambition to tackle a project of this magnitude. We have all experienced or witnessed failure at some point in our lives, and one measure of a man is how he handles disappointment not of his own doing. Your kind words towards Cesaroni reflect that. The flight was indeed a success. Best wishes on your subsequent endeavours.



P.S. Love the graphics. I've been a DeWalt user for many years, and am very happy with their tools.

Neuport said:

Sorry to see the loss. The third picture is amazing. Also, it looks like someone is standing awfully close in that third picture for such a large project. Would like to have seen the frames on either side of that to see how he reacted.

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That person was probably hundreds of feet away. You are seeing an illusion caused by the focal length of the lens.

Feckless Counsel said:

TRF,

Please find my final report on this project below:

1. Arrived at LDRS 14 July about 10:00am. Checked in and found my L3 TAP. Best guys ever.

2. Initial TAP review complete about 11:00am.

3. Located the Cesaroni representative. He checked my grain bonding and assisted in final assembly of the motor.

4. Final assembly complete about 2:00pm. Erected at pad about 3:00pm.

5. Waited 90 minutes for LCO to push the button. Discovery Channel was sort-of running the range timetable.

6. Flight result is CATO.

7. Recovery is total loss. Every component was consumed in the resulting ground fire.

8. Cesaroni representative assisted in failure analysis. Report sent to my e-mail 16 July indicated forward closure under spec by 1mm. Their determination is failure by defect of manufacture.

9. Whiskey anyone?

10. Conclusion is the project was a success. I learned a lot. Had a great experience and made new friends. That, dear folks, is worth more than any other thing.

About Cesaroni? I bear no hard feelings and will continue to use their products. Working with them has been great and I'm looking forward to their support in the next project. Of course, that will have to be just a bit bigger!

Feckless Counsel

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Great sense of humor in a difficult time. I see many people take it much worse.

Some of my pictures:

Some one has to have a video of this, Any links!?!

Boy I hate to see that, sorry for the loss. Reminds me of the Redstone project at LDRS 18 years ago;

https://www.rocketryplanet.com/content/view/318/38/1/4/

https://www.rocketryplanet.com/images/gallery/mr/index.html

As I remember it, Alan Sheppard's daughter got to push the button on that one...

Ah! My wife and I saw that flight (attempt) -- sorry it turned out so badly.

Amazing watching the billowing clouds of smoke coming up from the burning grains.

-Kevin

+1.