E12-4 CATOs

The intent of this thread was not to scare people but to find out if others have had problems with E12’s. Looks like the majority of fliers are NOT having issues.

neil_w said:

I have not heard many reports of E16 or F15 CATOs. Obviously they can happen, but there doesn’t seem to be any indication that they’re trouble-prone. Certainly nothing like the E9 and E12.

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I've seen a few... some of the catos were of the nature where the nozzle just spat out and the motor acted like a road flare... I've seen this on both E16s and F15s... also seen a few "kabooms".

deangelo54 said:

The intent of this thread was not to scare people but to find out if others have had problems with E12’s. Looks like the majority of fliers are NOT having issues.

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Right. I will likely not use that suspicious motor of mine though, unless it's in something I care to risk. The nozzle looks just too squirrely for my taste. Of course, the E12 flys my estes phoenix perfectly... as if the motor were made for it... but now that I have enough spare parts to clone another one... who knows. Might be fun 'blowin somethin' up!

Be it good, bad or indifferent, Estes is going to send me a replacement pack of E16-6 motors. At least I know these will not have been sitting around for a few years exposed to sun, cold and various changes in humidity.

Let us know how those motors turn out. If one of those also CATOs then I would strongly suspect it's a manufacturing defect.
See this thread for a couple of E16 and an F15 nozzle blowout CATOs earlier this year:
https://www.rocketryforum.com/threads/e16-catos.150500/

Bufkin Fairchild said:

Due to this thread I am going to start logging my E12 launches.

I have an extended Estes Executioner that only flies on Hobby Lobby purchased E12-4's. I think I've had about 10 launches so far.

Last one was yesterday, flew great. Temps in the low 40's. Date code on the E12-4 was "A 03 30 17". Was the last of a package.

This thread had made me scared......

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Me too... I used an E12 on my recently finished, 40+ year old Centuri Saturn V last July... I'm thinking perhaps we'll go a different way when I fly it again!

I don't fly E motors too often, but flew 3 E12s yesterday, date codes 04 02 12 and 06 22 12. All worked fine.

Es are good for saucers.

At the launch yesterday, 2 E12 and 1 E16 cato. All were fireballs out the front. Another cool day on the field.

An E12 pack is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you going to get.

I have seen plenty of 24mm "explodo E's" to the point I quit carrying them the last couple launches I watched seems to be about 20-30% failure rate. Better survival rate then 2 years ago. But still not to my liking.

We had a few Cato over the weekend.

Save them for warmer weather. They shouldn't cato if they're closer to the maximum temperature they've been exposed to. I see most catos when the weather is cold.

I say again this is an unacceptable failure rate for Estes engines. I have never had a bad experience with Estes engines. I fly 18 year old C6-5 engines all the time from an old stash. Zero problems. Also even though I have heard of D-12 failures I have never had one. I have yet to fly an Estes E engine yet because I am afraid of using the ones I have. I believe, again, this failure rate is unacceptable and needs to be addressed more aggressively by Estes.