Big Daddy CATO and rebuild

On saturday, I got to fly a ton of midpower flights. Everything had gone well for me that launch, until my BD exploded on it's first flight! There were 6 other CATO's that launch (5 were E9's) and this was another classic E9 explosion. Liftoff, cleared launch rod, and then suddenly the engine explodes. The nose and chute drifted away and landed 20 feet away unharmed.
The fin can is fixable, and I am considering using a pringles can as the main BT, it fits just inside the 3" BT. The nose is replacing the nose on my Leviathan (BD and Leviathan were painted the same), which got damaged when the chute pulled it across concrete on it's first flight.

SCrocketfan said:

On saturday, I got to fly a ton of midpower flights. Everything had gone well for me that launch, until my BD exploded on it's first flight! There were 6 other CATO's that launch (5 were E9's) and this was another classic E9 explosion. Liftoff, cleared launch rod, and then suddenly the engine explodes. The nose and chute drifted away and landed 20 feet away unharmed.
The fin can is fixable, and I am considering using a pringles can as the main BT, it fits just inside the 3" BT. The nose is replacing the nose on my Leviathan (BD and Leviathan were painted the same), which got damaged when the chute pulled it across concrete on it's first flight.

Click to expand...

That sucks!

You can score the Leviathan/Big Daddy nose cone on Estes' website. Of course, you should fill out a MESS report and contact Estes, they'll likely replace the rocket, and the motors. With the extra nose cone, you'd have a spare, or one for this one's rebuild.

Pointy Side Up!
Jim

Do you have to have ordered the kit and motors from estes to get a replacement?

No just call or email them.

Sorry for your loss. Estes customer service is great. They sent me a replacement BD for my incident, (which is a thread here) which USPS damaged, and I just got confirmation that they are sending another. They also sent me new D12-3's. I had to send them pictures of a few things, and that was it.

Estes knows about the E motor issues and is set to make amends. They'll take care of you.