Murphy strikes again.

I've got a 3" rocket that I was hoping to send up tomorrow. It's still in primer but it's complete. 54mm mount and I adapted it down to a 38 for its first flight.

Sims are done.
Motors arrived Thursday.
Test fit eggfinder.
Accidentally broke a lead. Found soldering equipment, re-soldered the lead on, tested it, it works, range is good.
I was test fitting everything today and realized I don't have a retaining ring for the 38mm adapter.
No, there's no onsite motor vendor at the launch. So unless I can find a 38mm snap ring somewhere (I don't think this is something true-value would have) then the big rocket's staying on the ground

Both my local Ace Hardware’s carry 2” and smaller.
And a good auto parts store, sometime they carry snap rings.

John

any chance your adapter is susceptible to a Friction fit solution?

Does the motor stick out the forwards end of the adapter? If so install it wrap tape around front of motor at the adapter until it cannot be pulled out.

Update:
Murphy is a jerk.

Good: My local True-Value carries retention rings!! Wow!
Bad: I bought two possibilities. Neither fit.
Bad: No, motor doesn't stick out, tape wouldn't work.
Good: The crew I launch with were GREAT with suggestions and offers to borrow gear.
Bad: 7pm, wrapping up supper, my son complains of a bad stomachache. This is unusual. At this point I still need to hit the grocery store for lunch at the launch, I still need to do a bunch of prepping... and with my son probably getting sick, I'm not getting the crew up at 6am to drive 3 hours to a launch. So I pull the plug.

...And Sunday afternoon, I find the ring.

The rocket will fly again!

ActingLikeAKid said:

Update:
Murphy is a jerk.

Good: My local True-Value carries retention rings!! Wow!
Bad: I bought two possibilities. Neither fit.
Bad: No, motor doesn't stick out, tape wouldn't work.
Good: The crew I launch with were GREAT with suggestions and offers to borrow gear.
Bad: 7pm, wrapping up supper, my son complains of a bad stomachache. This is unusual. At this point I still need to hit the grocery store for lunch at the launch, I still need to do a bunch of prepping... and with my son probably getting sick, I'm not getting the crew up at 6am to drive 3 hours to a launch. So I pull the plug.

...And Sunday afternoon, I find the ring.

The rocket will fly again!

Click to expand...

Wow, you've been through the ringer! It can be so hard to actual launch a rocket, for many of the reasons you mention. Not only do we have weather to contend with, but so many things can get in the way.

This happens to us all.

Murphy's rule of rocketry: If your rocket has a recovery device, eventually, we all forget to attach the recovery device.

LOL....That's a good one! Been there....done that.

cwbullet said:

This happens to us all.

Murphy's rule of rocketry: If your rocket has a recovery device, eventually, we all forget to attach the recovery device.

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Many years ago, a coworker introduced me to O’Shea’s Law: “Murphy was an optimist.”

cwbullet said:

This happens to us all.

Murphy's rule of rocketry: If your rocket has a recovery device, eventually, we all forget to attach the recovery device.

Click to expand...

One time I was out at the pad with Tom Cohen. We had loaded one of his huge, scratch-built things weighing over 100 lbs. As we started to raise the hydraulic rail, I asked, sort of jokingly, "Did you close up the quick-link on the main chute?"

His eyes opened wide and he had a blank stare for a second. "I think so ..." So I asked if we should bring it down and check.

"No, I'm pretty sure I did. I mean, I must have. Yes! I did. Pretty sure."

Needless to say, I was worried about that launch. But it turned out that he did, and everything went perfectly.

Bat-mite said:

One time I was out at the pad with Tom Cohen. We had loaded one of his huge, scratch-built things weighing over 100 lbs. As we started to raise the hydraulic rail, I asked, sort of jokingly, "Did you close up the quick-link on the main chute?"

His eyes opened wide and he had a blank stare for a second. "I think so ..." So I asked if we should bring it down and check.

"No, I'm pretty sure I did. I mean, I must have. Yes! I did. Pretty sure."

Needless to say, I was worried about that launch. But it turned out that he did, and everything went perfectly.

Click to expand...

There's a good lesson in this in my opinion. As there are more complexities involved in our rocket builds, I fall back to training I received as a private pilot on the importance of checklists. For my future flights, I am putting together a preflight checklist from final assembly of the rocket prior to carrying it out to the RSO and ultimately to the pad, through pad departure. Some may view this as being overly anal-retentive, and that's okay, but it will help me avoid those doubting questions during the launch countdown.

g.pitts said:

There's a good lesson in this in my opinion. As there are more complexities involved in our rocket builds, I fall back to training I received as a private pilot on the importance of checklists. For my future flights, I am putting together a preflight checklist from final assembly of the rocket prior to carrying it out to the RSO and ultimately to the pad, through pad departure. Some may view this as being overly anal-retentive, and that's okay, but it will help me avoid those doubting questions during the launch countdown.

Click to expand...

Interesting that you mentioned the checklist. I was just talking with a fellow at a launch at Bayboro, NC two weeks ago about that VERY thing, a checklist to be sure you didn't miss anything. The only caveat that stands out to me is that the list would be VERY long, everything from e-match leads secured to powder in the charge wells, to wiring connected, to shock cord quicklinks, and so on...

SammyD said:

Interesting that you mentioned the checklist. I was just talking with a fellow at a launch at Bayboro, NC two weeks ago about that VERY thing, a checklist to be sure you didn't miss anything. The only caveat that stands out to me is that the list would be VERY long, everything from e-match leads secured to powder in the charge wells, to wiring connected, to shock cord quicklinks, and so on...

Click to expand...

It's the details that can getcha!

There's certainly room to break the list up into sections - Pre-RSO / Post-RSO as one example. But I agree that the list could be lengthy.

g.pitts said:

It's the details that can getcha!

There's certainly room to break the list up into sections - Pre-RSO / Post-RSO as one example. But I agree that the list could be lengthy.

Click to expand...

Knowing me, item #1 on my checklist would be to remember to bring the checklist, which creates kind of a loop ....

Hi Folks;

Any rocket that has dual recovery, I use a checklist. It has not failed me to date, other than the time I left the checklist at home. A tip of the hat to Bat-mite, he saw that coming.

Jim

Bat-mite said:

Knowing me, item #1 on my checklist would be to remember to bring the checklist, which creates kind of a loop ....

Click to expand...

That's why you tape the checklist inside your motor box. If you remember your motors, you've got the checklist. of course, then you'll bring your motors and forget to bring the rocket...

skydog said:

That's why you tape the checklist inside your motor box. If you remember your motors, you've got the checklist. of course, then you'll bring your motors and forget to bring the rocket...

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Item #1 on the checklist: TAPE CHECKLIST TO MOTOR BOX.

Two-section checklist is good idea

I prep ebays the week/day/night before launch so as not to make launch day more enjoyable

Nytrunner said:

Two-section checklist is good idea

I prep ebays the week/day/night before launch so as not to make launch day more enjoyable

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I do every thing I can during the days leading up to the launch. On launch day, my goal is to turn on and insert the tracker, assemble the sections, add shear pins. Hopefully everything else was done at home.

I have started prepping my birds the night before the launch. I used masking tape on prepped birds to hold the nose cones on while transporting the rocket. The tape would also remind me which rockets were prepped.

You can guess what happened........yes, I launched a rocket without taking the masking tape off, at a very public launch event. It wasn't pretty. Fortunately the only injury was to my ego.

I found some bright pink masking tape, relatively cheap, on Amazon. Now when I prep my rockets ahead of time, I use this tape to hold the nose cone in place (AND remind me that the rocket has indeed been prepped), and I leave a "tag" of the tape (backed up against itself so it is not sticky) OBVIOUSLY hanging out the side, so HOPEFULLY I will remember to TAKE IT OFF when I get to the pad. Sort of a cheapo version of the "REMOVE BEFORE FLIGHT" tags used by the military and probably on some High Power Rockets.

g.pitts said:

Item #1 on the checklist: TAPE CHECKLIST TO MOTOR BOX.

Click to expand...

Item #0: Write Checklist!

I love this thread.

And I'll add one more thing: My new favorite app, EverNote.
There's a website and a mobile app. With pretty good speed, what's updated on one is updated on another.
You want a checklist of stuff to do? Cool. Write it in a browser tab, then it's on your phone* when you're at the launch.

It's especially nice because...
-Sitting at my desk at work and I think "oh, I need to make a note to charge my camera" - boom. Added.
-11pm and I"m going to bed and I think "wait, I need to make sure to plug in the eggfinder...oh. Yeah, I wrote that, okay"
-Working on assembling stuff into a staging area, I can check it off on my phone.


*-if you have cell signal. If you don't, you can buy premium which lets you work offline.

I have an app like that. It's called Google Keep.

Need to add something to the shopping list? Boom. Fiance has it, too.

cwbullet said:

This happens to us all.

Murphy's rule of rocketry: If your rocket has a recovery device, eventually, we all forget to attach the recovery device.

Click to expand...

hah! i've done this. Making sure all the recovery lines are connected is now on my staging checklist.

Bat-mite said:

Wow, you've been through the ringer! It can be so hard to actual launch a rocket, for many of the reasons you mention. Not only do we have weather to contend with, but so many things can get in the way.

Click to expand...

Ditches...ditches get in the way.

This is my lame rocketry story that coincides with the topic. I have not launched a rocket all year. Finally, one perfect day comes along, I have all my ducks in a row, all my equipment is operational, and we're on our way.

Phone rings in my pocket and I know it's an employee at the hobby shop I manage. I pull over on a side road, as my blast deflector is rattling too, so I decided to return the call and fix that at the same time. Call returned, blast deflector quieted, and ready to turn and around and hit the road again.

Miss the entrance on an extremely soft field lane-way while backing up and get stuck.

This is where it gets really interesting. No damage to van at all while it sits there. Tow truck pulls it out, breaks the steering rack and causes over $4000 in damage to our 12 year-old van.

Long story longer, call insurance, they write it off, and we now have a brand new van, and I still have not launched any rockets this year.

Ouch.

And rust... rust gets in the way.

Tyler P said:

Ditches...ditches get in the way.View attachment 397693

This is my lame rocketry story that coincides with the topic. I have not launched a rocket all year. Finally, one perfect day comes along, I have all my ducks in a row, all my equipment is operational, and we're on our way.

Phone rings in my pocket and I know it's an employee at the hobby shop I manage. I pull over on a side road, as my blast deflector is rattling too, so I decided to return the call and fix that at the same time. Call returned, blast deflector quieted, and ready to turn and around and hit the road again.

Miss the entrance on an extremely soft field lane-way while backing up and get stuck.

This is where it gets really interesting. No damage to van at all while it sits there. Tow truck pulls it out, breaks the steering rack and causes over $4000 in damage to our 12 year-old van.

Long story longer, call insurance, they write it off, and we now have a brand new van, and I still have not launched any rockets this year.

Click to expand...

Unreal!

Tyler P said:

This is where it gets really interesting. No damage to van at all while it sits there. Tow truck pulls it out, breaks the steering rack and causes over $4000 in damage to our 12 year-old van.

Long story longer, call insurance, they write it off, and we now have a brand new van, and I still have not launched any rockets this year.

Click to expand...

That really sucks. At least insurance covered it and you have a new van, I mean rocket-transportation-vehicle.

Bat-mite said:

Unreal!

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Murphy and O'Shea teamed up on this one. Just got the new van Wednesday and the launch window is closing fast on our season here. We had over 106km/hr winds today and it's turning cold. I have a feeling I may be winter launching at this rate.

mbeels said:

That really sucks. At least insurance covered it and you have a new van, I mean rocket-transportation-vehicle.

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Yeah. Probably a blessing in disguise, really. It didn't have high mileage but it had some things coming up that would have costed some money. We've got payments now, but at least it's new, and there's just as much room for rockets in the new one!