List of easy-to-light/fast pressurisation AP propellants..?

Has anyone compiled a list of propellants listing relative ease of ignition / pressurisation time ? I'm thinking if such a thing existed it would be useful in selecting sustainer/airstarted motors. I did a search but couldn't see anything. If not, perhaps people would care to share - either hard stats or anecdotal evidence...
Thanks!

AT - Warp 9
AT - Blue Thunder
CTI - Almost all due to the BP pellet in the top grain.

AT - Super Thunder lights easily, I have never had one fail, but then again I use Pyrodex pellets.

Thanks. I had difficulty lighting one of 2 CTI white thunder, although this might have been for factors other than the propellant itself.

From Scott @ Loki :

Loki propellants light fastest in the following order.
Blue
Cocktail (because blue grains are at the top)
White
Spitfire


Red

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I asked him after I tried a Red in a sustainer, which did not go well

Since then I've run Blue and White in sustainer with success.

cheers - mark

Tim51 said:

Has anyone compiled a list of propellants listing relative ease of ignition / pressurisation time ? I'm thinking if such a thing existed it would be useful in selecting sustainer/airstarted motors. I did a search but couldn't see anything. If not, perhaps people would care to share - either hard stats or anecdotal evidence...
Thanks!

Click to expand...

Greens might be the most notoriously difficult to light. I launched a CTI L645G at LDRS where it lit the igniter and smouldered for 4 seconds before taking off.

My first 2 multistage flights were this summer, and to facilitate sustainer ignition, I actually prefer air-starting Aerotech RMS motors for a couple reasons. The closed tapped forward closure is a good attachment point for recovery (Aeropack makes a CTI attachment insert, but I saw that unscrew at LDRS), and by assembling each grain of the reload, I can use QuickDip pyrogen brushed inside one of the grains (the top grain core) with a toothpick. Even if the igniter slips down a bit, it still has a good chance of hitting the QuickDip'd core and lighting the motor. So far, this has worked for air-starting an H73J and I211W. I'm going to go for a J500G or I327DM next.

Reds from AT don't age well. I have had to send a 5 year old I 218 to the burn pile. I tried everything to light it. Which leads to believe they don't use SRNO3.

Not necessarily what you're asking but AT White Lightning Long Burn reloads are some of the worst motors on the market from a lighting perspective in my opinion. I've seen a K185 chuff on the pad for probably 10-15 seconds before coming up to pressure. It also appeared to not fully come up to pressure as it was in a GLR Firestorm kit that groaned off the rail, went nearly horizontal, and flew off land shark style to meet its demise.

Same with the AT J90. A couple launches ago we had a university team attempt to fly one. The AT supplied ignitor didn't work. So I ended up building an augmented ignitor with Blue Thunder shavings, "chunked" bp (for lack of a better term), and black powder. The augmented ignitor was so fat I had to disassemble the motor via the forward closure and feed the ignitor in from the top of the reload as it wouldn't fit through the nozzle. Even with that it took nearly 10 seconds for the motor to come up to pressure and ignite.

If I were attempting to stage with AT reloads White Lightning Long Burn motors would be at the absolute bottom of my list for reloads to use, for booster or sustainer.

I used most of an E motor grain (AT Blue Thunder) to airstart an M2020 earlier in the year. No hesitation. From go to gallop almost instantly, from the telemetry.
https://www.rocketryforum.com/threads/head-end-ignition-a-successful-method.153165/

Thanks all for the posts - all really useful stuff. Hopefully we can keep this thread going as a resource. From personal experience I've found CTI reds slow to come up to pressure, and intend to avoid them in complex rockets although in simple applications the CTI H120 and J355 are favourites of mine.
I've yet to fly any Aerotechs as they've not been available here in the UK for a long time, although that is, happily, about to change... Either way, the aim of this thread is to garner info across all brands of commercial motors, regardless of where they are / are not available.

I airstarted two CTI I55's a couple of weeks ago - from the onboard footage it looked quick and easy, both lighting from one 9V Duracell. At the same event I flew C-Star for the first time (K740) and found it very fast to come up to pressure.

Interesting, the red CTI K500 and K750 seemed to pressurize in shirt order on the pad.

I cut a .2" hole In the k500 cap (e-taped on) and poked some holes in the k750 cap with a screwdriver (also e-taped)

OverTheTop said:

I used most of an E motor grain (AT Blue Thunder) to airstart an M2020 earlier in the year. No hesitation. From go to gallop almost instantly, from the telemetry.
https://www.rocketryforum.com/threads/head-end-ignition-a-successful-method.153165/

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I stole your idea for my M2020...i have a Wildman Big Un with a whole D15 blue grain on it.

Cameron Anderson said:

I stole your idea for my M2020...i have a Wildman Big Un with a whole D15 blue grain on it.

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No worries. Share and Enjoy .

Just really be cognizant of the fact the igniter is in the motor in everything you do with the motor after fitting it. Keeping an external shorting connection across the igniter leads is some good insurance policy.

OverTheTop said:

No worries. Share and Enjoy .

Just really be cognizant of the fact the igniter is in the motor in everything you do with the motor after fitting it. Keeping an external shorting connection across the igniter leads is some good insurance policy.

Click to expand...

I just stole your ignitor for now, your head and ignition has me and a few friends in awe. We are actively trying to backwards engineer your technique into a CTI54 and shorting the ignitor safely is priority 1!

Nytrunner said:

Interesting, the red CTI K500 and K750 seemed to pressurize in shirt order on the pad.

I cut a .2" hole In the k500 cap (e-taped on) and poked some holes in the k750 cap with a screwdriver (also e-taped)

Click to expand...

Making the holes is a useful tip - thanks. A query I raised on CTI reds some time ago here:
https://www.rocketryforum.com/index.php?threads/148416/

Cameron Anderson said:

I just stole your ignitor for now, your head and ignition has me and a few friends in awe. We are actively trying to backwards engineer your technique into a CTI54 and shorting the ignitor safely is priority 1!

Click to expand...

Thanks. It seems to have worked well. Not much bother to put together either. Make sure you select an RTV that has minimal shrinkage on curing.

If you are going for 54mm you will need to rejig the connection somehow. On the 75mm motor it barely made it out the side of the enclosure and into a right-angle SMA connector in the available space. You don't have the luxury of space on the 54mm, but there should be some good methods available to you.

Tim51 said:

Making the holes is a useful tip - thanks. A query I raised on CTI reds some time ago here:
https://www.rocketryforum.com/index.php?threads/148416/

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Just a habit I got into at the mid power level. I would spit ignites often with the hard lighting propellant because I taped or capped the igniter on the nozzle. The pressure blows the cap.and takes the igniter with it, and rocket stays on the pad looking silly.

When I started poking pressure holes in the tape or cap, my ignition rate has been almost perfect. The initial gashes can escape slightly without blowing off the cap or spitting the igniter until the motor lights completely and EVERything gets spit out, taped or no.