Rest in Pieces - post the rockets you once loved that died tragically

[Donnager]

Two worst were 1) an Aerotech Aerreauxbie Hi(sp) Which I had a tracker on and followed it until the tracker stopped. It was a rocket yard sale. I think the coupler in it was a little soft and sticky--didn't release, and I gave it a pass.
2) Was a Mach1 54mm Alien Interceptor. It didn't eject the parachute and hit the sod from a couple thousand feet. Curled up the 1/4" round rod in the nose, and shortened it a bit. I bought a new section and share it and the electronics with a Mach1 Boost 54. The payload section and electronics are now interchangeable.

 

[NTP2]

The love of my life, my loc patriot on its maiden flight drifted into (sobs) the forest of doom and darkness and is lost in action l. No pictures remain.

 

[Buster]

The love of my life, my loc patriot on its maiden flight drifted into (sobs) the forest of doom and darkness and is lost in action l. No pictures remain.

I understand. My favorite V2 was last seen descending towards the German POW camp at Hearne.

 

[NTP2]

I understand. My favorite V2 was last seen descending towards the German POW camp at Hearne.

Well that’s appropriate for it I guess.

Edit but I’m sorry for your loss.

 

[Buster]

Well that’s appropriate for it I guess.

Edit but I’m sorry for your loss.

Thanks my Madcow Patriot 4.0 was special too. Lost it ina field for 6 months. Got L1 and L2 with it so I can understand about losing your LOC Patriot.

 

[NTP2]

Thanks my Madcow Patriot 4.0 was special too. Lost it ina field for 6 months. Got L1 and L2 with it so I can understand about losing your LOC Patriot.

But the patriot was new I just loved the look and was hoping for more time together.

 

[Buster]

But the patriot was new I just loved the look and was hoping for more time together.

So sorry what a tough one to lose.

 

[BEC]

Here are a couple of entries:

First is my first Estes Green Eggs. I was doing a series of multi-altimeter flights (testing some new AltimeterOne and Two firmware). Here is the model in a video frame grab on its last successful flight. Motor was an Estes D12-5. Data here: https://flightsketch.com/flights/3915/



I opted not to video the last flight of the day. OOOPS. It was going up on a routine D12-5. The motor blew almost immediately and scattered the model all over the place. Motor mount, upper portion of the body (which was quite cooked inside), a view at the pad including the offending motor, two of the three fins. From the FS data, the motor blew about half a second into the burn: https://flightsketch.com/flights/3916/




That one got replaced, and the second one has had its own share of problems but is still flyable. A third one is in the build queue.

Next, an Estes Beta. I’ve posted this in a couple of other places. This particular model was donated to my club, decades-old but un-flown. I got it airworthy and enjoyed flying it, mostly A10-0T to 1/2A3-4T (to over 650 feet typically). Then an upper stage opted not to light and the field was dry and hard. The white bits on the ground near the model are shavings off the balsa nose cone as it was driven into the body.



The body from just above the stars wrap and the nose cone were replaced and it is still flying. On the pad before the first flight after the repair:

 

[burkefj]

Titan II Missile on a J-510 with defunct ez forward closure failure and a Redstone missile with an L-1000 DMs casing failure due to incorrect wind angle. The Titan was re flyable the same day the redstone died.

 

[Voyhager3]

My Ecee Thunder l, shredded, to rebuilt, to CATO on an e12…
Maybe I’ll find on for sale again, but unlikely…

 

[SolarYellow]

I understand. My favorite V2 was last seen descending towards the German POW camp at Hearne.

My very first launch there, I lost one over the fence. Would have left it there, but it had an FS Mini on board, so I was going to get it back. Braved the cow pies, fire ants, and potential for copperheads and leavers of cow pies I imagine. Got it back.

View attachment 606561

That's a nice view of your launch pad setup.

 

[Buster]

My very first launch there, I lost one over the fence. Would have left it there, but it had an FS Mini on board, so I was going to get it back. Braved the cow pies, fire ants, and potential for copperheads and leavers of cow pies I imagine. Got it back.



That's a nice view of your launch pad setup.

That’s Texas for you. Thanks I miss that V2. Flew that Patriot at Hearne on it’s RTF.

 

[tfischer]

RIP My first rocket as a BAR this summer. Apogee Aspire lost today somewhere around 2000' after shock cord separation from airframe. Marco polo helped locate the nose cone, shock cord, and streamer.

 

[Donnager]

The body from just above the stars wrap and the nose cone were replaced and it is still flying. On the pad before the first flight after the repair:
View attachment 606564

My first two stage. I lost it in my school band marching area. I recovered the booster, never found the rest. I'd like another.

You did a better job on the fin fitment, but I was about 14 when I built it.

 

[BEC]

My first two stage. I lost it in my school band marching area. I recovered the booster, never found the rest. I'd like another.

You did a better job on the fin fitment, but I was about 14 when I built it.

Thanks for the compliment, but I didn't do the fins on that one (well, I did tweak them a bit). I did build two others for Classic Model at NARAM-64, and there I used my Harrison/Rose fin jig to place them.

 

[JohnCoker]

The second flight of my OTRAG had a max-Q failure on 4x M1315s:

 

[Buster]

The second flight of my OTRAG had a max-Q failure on 4x M1315s:

The Thunderbirds have nothing on you! Did you find all the pieces?

 

[SolarYellow]

The body from just above the stars wrap and the nose cone were replaced and it is still flying. On the pad before the first flight after the repair:
View attachment 606564

I just realized that's a Wizard decal and nose cone.

 

[BEC]

I just realized that's a Wizard decal and nose cone.

Well, the decal sheet may have also come with Wizards at some time — I don’t know. The nose cone is a BNC-20N. Were there every any Wizards with a balsa nose cone?

This is the KD-45 decal scan from JimZ. The original Beta came with these decals and when they added the 13mm motor mounts to make the TK-45, the decal was unchanged.

 

[SolarYellow]

Well, it's the same stars and bars graphic, anyway. On the right is the old school Wizard decal from JimZ. On the left is yours above.

 

[BEC]

It certainly doesn’t surprise me that they would reuse art work.

Oddly enough the catalog picture of the Beta never used that band.

 

[cwbullet]

My portapotty rocket is in 1 million pieces.

 

[BigMacDaddy]

Today had a couple of really nice launches and then this one... May need to cant the engine and/or add nose weight... arched over the top quite badly!

 

[KenECoyote]

Estes PSII nike Smoke on an Estes G80 SU motor. I really liked this rocket and it regularly got compliments. It left the rail and flames shot out the side of the fin can.

 

[KenECoyote]

My Aerotech G-Force with my custom "God Phoenix" paint (Rusto 2x and tons of masking) had a firey end with a suspect old H reload that chuffed the entire time on the pad.


I'll rebuild when I get enough spirit to do it again.

 

[NTP2]

My portapotty rocket is in 1 million pieces.

Will it be rebuilt with a build thread? I need to make one.

 

[BigMacDaddy]

The result of arching over the top and burying your nose 4" down in the mud before blowing your ejection charge...


By the way, scrubbed that nosecone off and used it in the next launch. Sadly, I decided to test tumble recovery on the body so only attached chute to the nosecone. It was quite windy so the nosecone went to never-never land (and rocket landed a little hard so gonna attach chute to both in the future on this model)...

 

[droopy]

Ahh, good thread...

My favorite "Rest In Pieces" was my L1/L2 rocket, a LOC Caliber ISP. I'd already rebuilt it at least once (I think the red portion might have been all that was left of the original...) and had been using it to learn dual deploy. It had quite a few successful flights. This one was notable for two reasons. 1) I included a large open baggy of red chalk to help see it at apogee and 2) I always ziptied my altimeter batteries. This flight a friend convinced me to try a new "bulletproof" battery holder.

I don't remember what motor this was, but I do remember it was a LOT of G's. The battery fell right out of the "bulletproof" battery holder. And the whole thing came in ballistic. Spreading red chalk over the snow like a murder scene! No recoverable onboard video either.

John