First CATO

Well, today was an incredible day for launching. Highs in the mid-50's and light and variably winds! I do not think I have seen weather this good on a launch day since last summer.

Anyway, it was not a big day for us. Just a couple things here and there. We launched our prototype Gamma III Optimized for our first time. It flew beautifully. It could not have flown better.

Anyway, the point of this thread is that we went to load up our AT Arreaux(or however you spell it... ). We put an F50 in it and set it up on the pad. 5 seconds later, poof! We were not sure at first what happened but we knew it could not have been good cus we saw something shoot off sideways too fast to make out what it was. So, we went out to the pad and around to the back.

Turns out that we had our first composite CATO. It sounded like opening the lid on a pressurized can. The whole casing blew apart. You could see through the fin slot that the whole casing was smashed. Later on in the day, Alex found the nozzel about 20 feet away. What was the most interesting thing was that the grain was totally intact.

We have taken pictures of the incident and the damage. Now my question is, will we get a replacement for the motor or the rocket? We will see what we can salvage. I think the whole fin can is toast. I will post the pictures as soon as I get them.

Originally posted by phaar
Turns out that we had our first composite CATO. It sounded like opening the lid on a pressurized can. The whole casing blew apart. You could see through the fin slot that the whole casing was smashed. Later on in the day, Alex found the nozzel about 20 feet away. What was the most interesting thing was that the grain was totally intact.

We have taken pictures of the incident and the damage. Now my question is, will we get a replacement for the motor or the rocket? We will see what we can salvage. I think the whole fin can is toast. I will post the pictures as soon as I get them.

Click to expand...

Good work on taking pictures! Sorry to hear it happened though... This sounds very, very similar to a problem they were having a while back with the G35 EconoJets. I had a G35 fail just like what you described!

You need to contact AeroTech (either call or email). If you email them, attach the picture of the CATOed motor along with your shipping information. They WILL replace the motor. And there's a good chance that they'll replace the Arreaux since it's one of their kits too! (Include a picture of the kit as well...)

HTH,

Originally posted by phaar
Well, today was an incredible day for launching. Highs in the mid-50's and light and variably winds! I do not think I have seen weather this good on a launch day since last summer.

Anyway, it was not a big day for us. Just a couple things here and there. We launched our prototype Gamma III Optimized for our first time. It flew beautifully. It could not have flown better.

Anyway, the point of this thread is that we went to load up our AT Arreaux(or however you spell it... ). We put an F50 in it and set it up on the pad. 5 seconds later, poof! We were not sure at first what happened but we knew it could not have been good cus we saw something shoot off sideways too fast to make out what it was. So, we went out to the pad and around to the back.

Turns out that we had our first composite CATO. It sounded like opening the lid on a pressurized can. The whole casing blew apart. You could see through the fin slot that the whole casing was smashed. Later on in the day, Alex found the nozzel about 20 feet away. What was the most interesting thing was that the grain was totally intact.

We have taken pictures of the incident and the damage. Now my question is, will we get a replacement for the motor or the rocket? We will see what we can salvage. I think the whole fin can is toast. I will post the pictures as soon as I get them.

Click to expand...

I had the same problem with the same motor. Luckily it only blew out my PVC retainer, not the body. Now I wish I'd kept the casing for the serial number. I got a replacement kit for a different problem with a different rocket, but didn't get a replacement motor.

What was the motor lot number?

The lot # is 012620

Originally posted by phaar
We put an F50 in it and set it up on the pad. 5 seconds later, poof!

Click to expand...

I had a F50 do the same thing in my sprint. It torn a nice whole in the motor tube. No other damage. I did not repair the damage, I just fly it on motors (reloads) that are longer than a F50.

I did re-name the rocket to "CATO express"

Originally posted by Rocketmaniac
I had a F50 do the same thing in my sprint. It torn a nice whole in the motor tube. No other damage. I did not repair the damage, I just fly it on motors (reloads) that are longer than a F50.

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I wish we could do the same but if we want to ever fly this again, we will have to totally redo the whole fin can including the whole motor mount. The only things down there reusable are the fins. Everything else is shredded.

one of the guys at the launch had a G35 do the same thing... nozzle went poof off the bottom of the casing...

we asked him if it was one of the recalled motors, and he said it was not from that lot number.

we could only get the bottom of the grain out of the rocket at the field, as we didnt have any picks long enough to get what we thought was the delay and a portion of the casing still inside the motor mount.

didnt appear to have any damage to the rocket.

they also took plenty of photos of the damaged engine inside the rocket

later
Jerryb

Originally posted by lalligood
Good work on taking pictures! Sorry to hear it happened though... This sounds very, very similar to a problem they were having a while back with the G35 EconoJets. I had a G35 fail just like what you described!

You need to contact AeroTech (either call or email). If you email them, attach the picture of the CATOed motor along with your shipping information. They WILL replace the motor. And there's a good chance that they'll replace the Arreaux since it's one of their kits too! (Include a picture of the kit as well...)

HTH,

Click to expand...

I've had this happen 3 times. 2 F25s and one F50. Got replacements with no problem. Just email pics to Aerotech and explain the situation, and they'll send you new motors within a few weeks.

Good luck.

Originally posted by phaar
What was the most interesting thing was that the grain was totally intact.

Click to expand...

This is common when APCP motors cato at ignition -- such a small amount of propellent is burned as to be barely detectable. The sudden drop in pressure usually self-extinquishes the motor, preventing any further loss of propellent.

OK, I finally got the pictures...

And another...The only problem is that these 2 pictures do not show the damage to the rocket itself. Although it looks like you could just pop the fin back in, that is far from what we will have to do...the guts of this thing were pretty badly hurt.