AeroTech Open Thread

[ATGM]

View attachment 377740
Estes Conquest on an AT E18W-4. Great APCP substitute in place of the BP Estes E12-4. (HARA February launch credits to Turbulent Sphere for the nice shot.)

Nice shot!

 

[ATGM]

Why do the hobbyline prices keep going up? I paid like 45 for a 24/40 hardware set last year and now I see they're 55. Kinda feels like we need more people making hardware like the old Dr Rocket and RouseTech stuff for hobbyline.

The cost of aluminum has increased substantially. Fin.

 

[ATGM]

View attachment 377742
Peter’s rocket on an Aerotech I280 DM. He L1 certified this Saturday.

Congrats to Peter!

 

[Andrew_ASC]

Chris and PyroBob seem to have trailer full of competitor and Aerotech reloads at the flying fields. Why don’t you get out and fly some high power recently, Dave?! Certain motors vendors suck at restocking. I no longer order motors from Apogee.

 

[ATGM]

Get the money from Aerotech up front . . . Sorry, but "business is business", especially if there are possible "cash flow" issues.

Dave F.

 

[Arsenal78]

Chris and PyroBob seem to have trailer full of competitor and Aerotech reloads at the flying fields. Why don’t you get out and fly some high power recently, Dave?! Certain motors vendors suck at restocking. I no longer order motors from Apogee.

Chris is my local supplier (and when I say local, 1.5 hour driving time, same state lol). I fly Aerotech for 24 and 29 with the exception of Estes here and there. My 38's are Loki which Chris has a nice supply of. He definitely has a good stock of Aerotech reloads though. I've found Apogee to be less than reliable when looking for motors and even kits so I don't even bother shopping there. Can't go wrong with Chris though, and if he doesn't have it, he'll get it. I was looking for a Loki 38/120 and he didn't have any in stock but he said he'd look. Got an email about a day or two later saying he had one for me .

 

[Andrew_ASC]

Burned an H130W with a ten second delay last weekend. Performed flawlessly to 2300ft. Most of the flyers had Aerotech. Dave you need to go fly more before rattling off to a certain vendor rep online. Chris was an on-site vendor at Kentucky Sod Farm too. Fresh DMS straight from Aerotech into the flyers hands. I saw it happen.

 

[ATGM]

I've been waiting for 4 month for a M1850 White Lightning and a L1365 Metalstorm that I ordered from Performance Hobbies in October. Kenny showed me his latest Aerotech invoice just 2 days ago and they are still backordered, along with several reloads ordered by his other customers.

Wonder what happened to this?

We catoed it at Airfest and haven't had time to get it back on the stand. I will have a list of motors ready for certification later this week. Maybe we can sneak this one in.

 

[ATGM]

2 blew up that I know about , one durring LDRS and the other I'm not sure of the location . Also one blew up at LDRS in Bonavile on the salt flats . Mike Riners all metal rocket took a good hit.

What are you talking about? We only flew it once.

 

[ATGM]

Is there a particular reason for this?

If I recall, the throat and cores were both too small.

 

[ATGM]

What would the chances be of getting a -0 delay quest motor for staging to a traditional black powder motor? Has something like this ever been considered? It would be fun to do some18mm min dia two or three stage rockets starting with one of Aerotechs D 18mm motors staging to traditional black powder. I ask this not knowing what the grain geometry is like inside of their 18mm motors. If it's a slotted grain going to a delay element I could see how this might not work but if it's end burning configuration it could maybe work.

We may be looking into such a thing. There is a lot of stuuf going on with Quest in the background that will be in play soon.

 

[ATGM]

Q-jets are slotted grains open to the delay element. Therein lies the issue of composite direct staging.

Standard practice is not to reduce a delay below 4 seconds with an open grain to prevent chamber pressure rupturing the delay element. Q-jets dont have lower than 4 second delays.

Academically, I wonder if the 4 second restriction is necessary on such small motors, but the proof is left as an exercise to the reader.

While the A and B Q-Jets are slotted, the C and D use cores.

 

[ATGM]

Bring back Thermalite.

#bringbackthermalite

 

[ATGM]

Do we have an update on the G8st-p?

We began shipping these out last week, vendors will have stock before end of the week.

 

[ATGM]

Hey Charlie, when are you going to have the old style black hats back in stock? I would love to have one.

We have the OG AeroTech hats in stock if that's what you mean.

https://www.aerotechstore.com/index...id=113&zenid=bec557356f11a6a917a4254afbf5303e

 

[ATGM]

I think the casings of those were getting too hot so they woun't be available for a long time if at all.

Yes, the G11 and G12 got a little too toasty.

 

[ATGM]

They did test fire a......38mm DMS H26ST-P endburner static test, 245 N-sec., 9.5 second burn....today.

Tony

Hello Charles,
when will AT handle the CE certification and a distributor in Europe?
The next days of flight begin and we have no longer a dealer
which may distribute the AT products. If the CE certification is taken over by the dealers themselves, I could imagine that we can no longer pay for the reloads. We already had to spend 50% -100% more on a reload than in the USA.
Regards Ralf

Hi Ralf,

Thanks for the inquiry. We are currently producing various reloads for CE testing to be done as soon as possible. As for the cost I cannot comment as I am not familiar with the current process that dealers use over there but we would like to grow the hobby over there and keeping the cost low is crucial to that.

 

[ATGM]

Any news at all on 75mm hardware?

The local guy is running all 75mm tubes as of Saturday. I expect to have them shipping out next week.

 

[krislhull]

The local guy is running all 75mm tubes as of Saturday. I expect to have them shipping out next week.

So the hardware I’ve had on order with BAR since October should be arriving soon? I hope so! I need that for my L3 attempt!

 

[rharshberger]

Any further updates on the M1955DM certification? Really looking forward to this for SodBlaster II Labor Day weekend.

 

[KenRico]

I missed Vegas ! Any pics of the pink motors or info ?

Kenny

 

[Syclone]

We catoed it at Airfest and haven't had time to get it back on the stand. I will have a list of motors ready for certification later this week. Maybe we can sneak this one in.

Please sneak one in, along with a 98/2560 Super Thunder.

 

[Luzwingnut]

All of that is/has been in stock for some time. Not sure who your particular candyman is but vendors should have these in stock.

The candyman sent an "IN STOCK" email!! Thank you, ATMG, for your assistance.

 

[Handeman]

I pre-paid an order from Performance Hobbies back in October. He still doesn't have the order in.

Why do some vendors get stock and others don't?

 

[Dave A]

I pre-paid an order from Performance Hobbies back in October. He still doesn't have the order in.

Why do some vendors get stock and others don't?

They are unable to produce enough product to fill everyone's order. I know for a fact the October order had not been completely filled, it was prepaid.

 

[dshmel]

I ordered 39 motors of various flavours last BS sale (29 - 98). Took delivery of all but 5 yesterday from Tim.

 

[Bungie64]

I pre-paid for a 29/40-120 case in june last year from a vendor after losing mine. Order still hasn't been filled. I know it took some time to replenish supplies and start filling back orders but it's closing in on a year. Starting to question the legitimacy of the vendor. I could go right to Aerotech or Apogee now and get one. I have since purchased one, but since I already paid for the other it would be nice to have.

 

[Ez2cDave]

I pre-paid for a 29/40-120 case in june last year from a vendor after losing mine. Order still hasn't been filled. I know it took some time to replenish supplies and start filling back orders but it's closing in on a year. Starting to question the legitimacy of the vendor. I could go right to Aerotech or Apogee now and get one. I have since purchased one, but since I already paid for the other it would be nice to have.

I would cancel the order and get a refund from the credit card company if the vendor doesn't comply with a prompt refund in full. Vendor loyalty is one thing, but bad business is another.

 

[jnobels]

I pre-paid for a 29/40-120 case in june last year from a vendor after losing mine. Order still hasn't been filled. I know it took some time to replenish supplies and start filling back orders but it's closing in on a year. Starting to question the legitimacy of the vendor. I could go right to Aerotech or Apogee now and get one. I have since purchased one, but since I already paid for the other it would be nice to have.

My vendor just got these back in stock. It had been over a year.

Buy 2....

 

[afadeev]

I pre-paid for a 29/40-120 case in june last year from a vendor after losing mine. Order still hasn't been filled. I know it took some time to replenish supplies and start filling back orders but it's closing in on a year. Starting to question the legitimacy of the vendor. I could go right to Aerotech or Apogee now and get one. I have since purchased one, but since I already paid for the other it would be nice to have.

I would cancel the order and get a refund from the credit card company if the vendor doesn't comply with a prompt refund in full. Vendor loyalty is one thing, but bad business is another.

+1 on what Dave said.
Far too many people stick by the vendors with self-imposed inventory management challenges, and then pass (lack of) availability blame to the product manufactures.

29/40-120 cases have been readily available from multiple sources for some time. Here is one: https://wildmanrocketry.com/collections/hobby-line
If your current source doesn't have product X in stock, but other vendors do, cancel the order from your current source, and draw some conclusions.
If your current source is refusing to cancel your order and refund the money they took from you 9 months ago, definitely draw some serious conclusions. And post vendor's name publicly, so that we can all avoid him.

YMMV,
a