Your most embarrassing launch at a rocket shoot

[usfup328]

I had a two stage c motor rocket. I had a big group of people for its maiden and it was a sunset launch so it was suppose to be good looking. Well without knowing I put a delay in both stages and worse yet I didn't put any what I call "fire shield tissue" in the rocket. I'm on the pad and I preform the countdown and the first attempt was a miss fire, second attempt was also a miss fire, third attempt ignited the first stage and it launched straight up. When it got to 550 ft it stopped, dropped, and fired and went straight out of the launch site and drops the first stage. Me and a few others went looking for it but found only the first stage. I have decided to not launch there anymore and to buy a motor with no delay in it next time.

[jsdemar]

I get an error message at that url saying it is unavailable. IS there a different link we can use?

Oops, here's the correct link....
http://www.spaceportservices.com/video/crazy_chuff.wmv

[Marc_G]

Thanks. That was funny.

[Nerull]

My L1 attempt last weekend. I had the option of flying a freshly built Small Endeavor or a LOC Fantom. I decided the Fantom was the safe option - a big dumb rocket that had flown before. I had built the Fantom many years ago, and it was my first HPR build, but I had never flown it much. One of the reasons was I had used the LOC shock cord mount, and simply didn't trust it. I had been trying to figure out the best way to upgrade the shock cord mount, but figured it would last one more flight, at least.

A CTI H87 produces a beautiful flight, parachute deploys, booster section falls to the end of the shockcord....and keeps falling. Uh Oh.

Only broke a fin, at least. There was so little wind the payload section and parachute landed less than ten feet away from the booster.


Someone else flew a gorilla red which chuffed for a good 30 seconds, luckily not producing enough thrust for the rocket to jump off the rail.

[awseiger]

I'm always embarrased when my rockets don't fly straight. I have a TLP Maverick that loves to fly sideways like a real Maverick instead of up. Comments include "Oh look it's like the real thing!"

Most embarrassing for me is when it goes off into the trees, or it goes so high it can't be seen an nobody sees it come down. Either that or any time my rocket is launched, and the RSO has to blow the "WARNING" whistle...

[Scott231]

Cub Scout launch 30 kids/40 parents and siblings. After 30 or so A,B, & C launches by the kids (mostly 600-800ft) I put my AT Arreux on the big rod with all the parents saying "What's Mr. Simpson got this time?"

An F26 AT motor pushes rocket up to 1,800 ft, I lose it in the air, a parent finds we track it and 20 seconds later it lands behind the trees. I get much applause. As I go to retrieve the rocket I find it sitting on highway 38 just as a Ford F-150 flattens the entire lower half. Upon return to the range with a pile of rubble in my hands I hear, "What did you do to your rocket?" Thanks A-hole!

[MarkII]

I did a static display for the local Discovery Center on one of their Boise Astronomical Soc. events. I had one of the very new then I195 BJ motor that I fired for a display. I knew of the possiblity of a mishap and had surrounded the motor with a 2 foot length of 1/4" thick 4" steam pipe. When I was assembling the motor I had to open the nozzle. I was curious about that, the only 38mm motor I ever used that wasn't drilled was an H123. Well, the nozzle was too small causing an overpressure that split the case halfway down and spit the aft enclosure into a duckpond that was littered with Miller Genuine Draft lids... they are the same gold as an AeroTech enclosure. Being it is a duck pond I wasn't about to go looking in a bacterial cesspool AeroTech replaced the case but not the aft end nor the load even though they were clearly at fault for providing me a load with an undrilled nozzle.

Then there was my NCR Eliminator at the first Las Vegas Turkey Shoot. I got an H97 that was from a batch that would ignite then have most of the upper grain crumble and clog the nozzle, putting out the fire. It flopped on the playa from about 100 feet, very embarrassing I never got a replacement for that one, either.

Where am I when all the good stuff happens?

[MarkII]

Most embarrassing for me is when it goes off into the trees, or it goes so high it can't be seen an nobody sees it come down. Either that or any time my rocket is launched, and the RSO has to blow the "WARNING" whistle...

I hate when that happens ...

As I go to retrieve the rocket I find it sitting on highway 38 just as a Ford F-150 flattens the entire lower half.

... but it's nothing compared to how much I would REALLY hate experiencing that one! (Yikes!) Fortunately there are no highways anywhere near where I launch.

[RayGNJ]

When I flew my two stage Der Red Max I put the sustainer motor in backwards. What was to be a highly anticipated launch for the new fliers at the launch ended up being a lawn dart. Luckely the was no damage due to the soft ground and was able to reload it an get it to fly properly.

[JPVegh]

I was at a large club launch. I had my min diameter 29mm rocket on the pad. My turn came to launch and the countdown commenced, 5,4,3, 2, right when the count got to 1 my pants fell down. That wasn't the embarassing part, the embarassing part was that I was wearing myThursday underwear and it was Saturday!

[rstaff3]

Jeff, you story stinks

[MysticalRockets]

Al G. will probably remember this...

Middle of winter. My first reload. I put it together, no problem. Got it all set up on the pad, went over to the launch table and sat down. 3.2.1 launch. Rocket goes up about 50 feet and turns into a ball of flame.

I pull my hands out of my pocket, and an O ring comes out with it.

"Guess it wasn't an extra one after all..."

[RocketMike]

This happened when I was teenager. It wasn't my first ever launch but it was my first with a "real" launcher. In other words an Estes Porta pad and launch system and not the low budget homemade thing I had cobbled together out of a Pringles potato chip can with dead batteries glued in it for weight, a straightened coat hanger as a launch rod and a piece of scrap pegboard covered in tin foil for a blast deflector. Yes you read right, that puppy lasted about ten launches and we won't even talk about the homemade controller with no safety key and a regular non momentary toggle switch to launch......but I digress.... I had gotten the Porta pad and controller as part of a starter set. Also included in the set was an Alpha which I meticulously put together, sealed, sanded and painted. Everything went beautifully, first with an A8-3, then with a B6-4. Two picture perfect launches and recoveries. I was beaming until a friend mentioned that somehow my Alpha looked different from his. It was then that I realized I had glued the fins on in the wrong orientation! The rocket looked OK and flew great but what was supposed to be the root edge wasn't. Back in those days I was much more of a perfectionist than I am now and I tried to " fix" the rocket. Big mistake, I ended up trashing it. It was shame too because it flew great, fins on the wrong way and all. I should have left well enough alone.
Michael

[Huxter]

Reading stories here, I think I can come clean now!

A few years ago, my older brother, my daughter and I went to a personel launch. Launched many rockets on good flights. At the end, I decide I wanted to "try" CAHD staging for the first time (a BAR gets cocky after a while ). Instead of choosing my faithful Big Bertha, I chose to CHAD stage my daughter's BABY Bertha DOH!

It got about 20 feet up before it started tumbling over and over, staged and promptly SLAMMED into the ground about 30 feet away from us - crushing the entire body. My daughter was speech-less! Didn't talk to me for several days. That was the last time she went to a launch. I read up on center of pressure after that!

Mark II: Your Alpha sounds like it got caught on a bent rod? Maybe it got bent in transport?

Pat

[Sparkytfl]

Two stage with a clustered booster. My clip whip had rusted a bit in the month since the last launch. I thought I sanded it well enough, but I guess not. Only 2/4 booster motors lit, leaving a c6-0 and b6-2 to try and lift a roughly one pound rocket. It went about fifty feet up, nosed over, lit the d12 second stage which flew off sideways and nose dived about 200 feet away. Pushed the nose into the body, splitting it open. Luckily the parachute padded it and all the damage was confined to the half above my coupler/baffle. Very easy fix, did more damage to my reputation. I just know they'll be hesitant to let me launch it next month. Igniters will be soldered to single-use clip whips from now on.

Same day I launched my very pretty but very heavy sidewinder on a c6-3, going about a hundred feet up. Later in the day I tried again with a d13 reload, hearing "hope you have a bigger engine in that sidewinder" yelled out as I walked it to the safety check. Well the red nozzle cap didnt come off, choked the engine. It sputtered to an altitude of maybe 200 feet, ejection at about 10 feet which was too late to keep it from smashing.

[sylvie369]

Oh, there was my entry in the anti-rocket contest. We were supposed to make rockets that creatively re-kitted themselves. I had a late entry when I realized I'd forgotten vent holes in the outer tubes of a five-engine 24mm cluster rocket I'd built. Perfect! I hoped the ejection charges would blow a few creative holes in my rocket. But I'd also forgotten to add a launch lug, so I borrowed some CA and attached one at the last minute. Then took my rocket out, set it on the pad, and came back to the range head. At ignition, my rocket's motors lit, and the rocket didn't move, and it just burned motors on the pad. Then the ejection charges went off - and the chute popped out, but there was no damage at all to the rocket.

When I got out to the pad I realized I'd CA'd the rocket to the pad: some of it had dripped down the side, then set up against the launch rod.

So when the mission was to destroy a rocket, I couldn't manage that right.

[chadrog]

Oh, there was my entry in the anti-rocket contest. We were supposed to make rockets that creatively re-kitted themselves. I had a late entry when I realized I'd forgotten vent holes in the outer tubes of a five-engine 24mm cluster rocket I'd built. Perfect! I hoped the ejection charges would blow a few creative holes in my rocket. But I'd also forgotten to add a launch lug, so I borrowed some CA and attached one at the last minute. Then took my rocket out, set it on the pad, and came back to the range head. At ignition, my rocket's motors lit, and the rocket didn't move, and it just burned motors on the pad. Then the ejection charges went off - and the chute popped out, but there was no damage at all to the rocket.

When I got out to the pad I realized I'd CA'd the rocket to the pad: some of it had dripped down the side, then set up against the launch rod.

So when the mission was to destroy a rocket, I couldn't manage that right.

I knew I had a video of this, for some reason I never got them put together.

[MarkII]

I was beaming until a friend mentioned that somehow my Alpha looked different from his. It was then that I realized I had glued the fins on in the wrong orientation! The rocket looked OK and flew great but what was supposed to be the root edge wasn't. Back in those days I was much more of a perfectionist than I am now and I tried to " fix" the rocket. Big mistake, I ended up trashing it. It was shame too because it flew great, fins on the wrong way and all. I should have left well enough alone.
Michael

One rocket with Alpha fins glued on the wrong way was the Centuri Astro-1!

[MarkII]

Mark II: Your Alpha sounds like it got caught on a bent rod? Maybe it got bent in transport?

Pat

Possibly, but I think it was just a weak motor. I had pinched the spring pin that coupled the two sections of the launch rod with pliers so that I could (with effort) separate them to facilitate transport. I carried everything to the launch site on my Schwinn Varsity: I carried my Electro Launch with just the bottom half of the launch rod inserted in it on my spring clip-style seat rack with the clip fitting over the pad to hold it in place. I used rubber bands to clamp the upper half of the rod to the bike's top tube. I carried the rocket by lowering it onto the stub of launch rod that was inserted in the launcher. I carried my motors, igniters and wadding in a small leather seat bag. I broke down and transported the two halves of the rod separately in order to protect it from getting bent. I rejoined the sections at the site when I set up my pad. I had assiduously sanded the joint so that there would not be any "step" there for the lug to catch on. It was a pretty slick system (not bad for a 13 year old) and it always worked very well, especially since I never brought more than two rockets with me to our casual vacant lot launches. The pad and the rockets sat right behind me and rode back and forth nicely and peacefully in my draft shadow. The launch rod that Estes used in the Electro Launch back in 1967 was exactly the same one that they still use today in the Porta Pad II. So is the blast deflector, except that the old one had a steel spring pin in the center instead of a plastic insert. I don't remember a bent rod being the problem, but then, that very first launch did take place 45 years ago.

[Sparkytfl]

One rocket with Alpha fins glued on the wrong way was the Centuri Astro-1!

I think the astro looks better. And I love the paint scheme. A bit like the 1990ish estes sizzler. Beautiful rocket and I've never even heard of it. Thanks for posting, it's ended up on my list of possible G/H power upscales.

[les]

Was trying for my L2 with my first Av bay. I had dual altimeters, but I could only get one to turn on. Took the rocket down and tried to reset the setup. Tried again, still couldn't get the one altimeter to turn on and had to carry the rocket off the pad in shame.

Ended up rebuilding the Av bay and finally got my L2

[MarkII]

I think the astro looks better. And I love the paint scheme. A bit like the 1990ish estes sizzler. Beautiful rocket and I've never even heard of it.

The Astro-1 was a little longer and a little wider than the Astron Alpha, and it had a longer, more "ogival" nose cone. Semroc has a reproduction (a "Retro-Repro") of the Astro-1. http://www.semroc.com/Store/scripts/....asp?SKU=KV-30

They also have a slightly downscaled version that flies on 13mm motors: http://www.semroc.com/Store/scripts/...s.asp?SKU=KA-4

One of their other kits, the Astron, takes obvious design cues from the Astro Jr.: http://www.semroc.com/Store/scripts/....asp?SKU=KA-23

Finally, Semroc's beginner kit, the Start, bears a strong resemblance to the pre-Damon Estes Astron Alpha from the 1960s (but with a couple of differences): http://www.semroc.com/Store/scripts/....asp?SKU=KA-25

[RocketT.Coyote]

Flew the Estes Baby Bertha during our CAP model rocketry launch on base last month. Flew well enough on an A8-3 as a first flight. Went to a B6-6 for the second. Used the Centuri motor in the range box. The catastrophic failure blew out the engine mount. At least the cadets got to witness what a CATO sounds like.