What rocket have you crash damaged and repaired/rebuilt/modified the most times?

I kind of enjoy fixing or modifying crash damaged rockets just as much as building new ones and was recently inspecting the latest damage on the rocket that I've had to fix/modify the most, which actually turns out to be my first hpr I every built - Mini Magg. During its last flight it incurred some airframe damage where the nose cone fits. This will be fix #5, but I was also thinking of doing some additional modifications to it.


So, what rocket have you repaired/rebuilt/modified the most? A pic of its latest self would be cool if you have one!

None.

I used to have an Estes U.S.S. Atlantis that had something catastrophic happen almost every flight. Since it was the first rocket I built after an Alpha III I always repaired it. By the time it got lost in a move (lost many favorites in that missing box) I’m guessing it weighed nearly double it’s starting weight in extra glue, paint, reinforcements, and filler.

Some of the events I recall:
• Severe weather-cocking put it through a chain-link backstop (we launched from a softball field).
• A dog caught it coming down. In the dog’s mouth of course.
• Drifted onto a road. Car flattened it within 2 seconds.
• Parachute came out a bit early and those stickers we used to assemble Estes parachutes with didn’t hold. Came down on a monkey bars set on the playground, harder than anything around except the parking lot.

And yes, it was repaired to flightworthy status every time. I miss that rocket.

I can’t even remember how many times I rebuilt my original Estes Renegade. Back then that was my favorite rocket to fly.
From lawn darts to power line hangs, I always recovered it. Sometime tracking for over a mile.
It got shortened, fins replaced and new tubes spliced in. When I left for college it still stood on my bedroom shelf. I don’t know what happened to it then.
Liked it so much after I became a BAR, that was the first rocket I built.
Estes no longer carried it so I had to clone it. Still one of my all time favorites.

I have 3 that required new body tubes after bad flights. Fat Daddy deployed under thrust and zippered all the way down to the upper centering ring. A Cluster-R Standard ARM that failed to deploy and the fiberglass fins destroyed the tube on impact. An MCR Lil John that had a hard landing on asphalt which wrenched the fins bad enough it was easiest to rebuild.
Thankfully nothing has had to be rebuilt twice yet.

So, my kids and I built this...we had a plastic bowling set and sacrificed a few pins for the chance to build a steam punk kind of build. The main body is a BT60 with a BT20 engine mount.

Our first launch was way under powered (my fault as I wasn’t really sure how it would perform so I didn’t want to over power it...oops). One of the fins broke off upon landing...so, we fixed it.

The second launch had a much better flight on a ‘C’ engine, but once again, I screwed up by grabbing a C 6-7...oops! This time,because she’s a heavy ship, the chute deployed about a millisecond before she crashed back to Terra Firma. This time, all the fins were destroyed beyond repair, so I sadly turfed them and pulled a set out from cannibalizes Estes Astron Sprint kit.

Is it third time lucky? By switching fins a cut a ton of weight...and by using the appropriate engine, we should see a good flight out of her this spring. [emoji848][emoji6]

This is a replica of one Benjamin’s favorite toys...he asked if we could build one just like it. This is the result, a BT 80 main body and BT 60 fin attachments. It has space for a 24mm ‘E’ engine for its full flight. For its first flight I used the 24mm ‘C’ engine...much to my chagrin, I probably should have gone with a ‘D’. She had a wobbly flight (as short as it was) and the chute deployed just as she crashed to the ground. Remarkably, only one of the BT 60 tubes broke away...

I not only fixed the fin but have done a little more work to attain a better weight distribution for a more stable flight...we’ll see how it goes for her next launch.

I still want to see her fly on a ‘D’ before I pop an ‘E’ in her...more to follow [emoji6]

1) HP scratch built rocket crashed 3 times and rebuilt, once motor ejection failure, once early motor ejection under full thrust, and once altimeter failure.
2) Estes Impulse crashed 3 times and rebuilt, all three times over 16 year period, failure to light both engines.
3) Estes Maxi Force crashed and rebuilt 3 times also over 16 year period, all three times failure to light all engines.
I have learned a lot from each failure. I learn something new every day. I'm not going to ever make those mistakes again, only new ones.

Had to google Estes Renegade and USS Atlantis, now I want one of each

Also ran across this: https://www.davidjmiller.net/dmpgrok2.htm

Back around 1983, I bought my band teacher's Centuri Saturn V, and in the deal, I scored his V2, Mach 10, and his Estes Trident. When he did the Trident, he did a HORRIBLE job on painting it. The decals were taken from a Cherokee D, the paint job was done by hand, and it had the worst paint streaks (The Saturn V was gorgeous). The fins and the various nosecones were painted in the heaviest silver paint, the rest of the kit was white. And I hated it. One day, I decided to go ahead and shove a motor in it, and send it on its way.
And it flew... And my heart changed... I LOVED this rocket. Sure, I wasn't thrilled with the paint, but it was one hell of a good flying bird. Then one day, I launched it with a C6-7 (this was before the internet was widely available, and I didn't know what motor to use), and upon ejection, the nosecone and the parachute separated from the rest of the rocket. The main body of the rocket fell horizontally, and then hit the corrugated metal roof of the Model Railroad clubhouse that was on the burned out lumberyard in Phoenix, Oregon I was launching from. I was lucky, and it slid off and landed at the edge of the building. I watched the nosecone and the parachute drift off into the distance, likely landing in an orchard, or the BLM land in the hills behind them. Despite my attempt to follow it, it was lost for good.

The fins were badly cracked from the impact on the building, and the hard ground. I glued the fins back together, replaced the shock cord and the nosecone parts cannibalized from an Alpha. It hasn't flown since, but upon replacing the shock cord again, I might be inclined to send it up again. I've cloned it one and a half times since then. It's full clone zippered on it's maiden flight, and it took several years before I figured out how to fix it (cut out the damaged section, replace with a tube and a coupler. The clone's don't have perfect 120 degree separation. I'm looking to build another someday.

The Apache for my Nike Apache (PSII sized) is on its 5-6th incarnation. Separation has blown the fincan apart twice. Bent upper body tube. Complete shred on a G65 flight.

I rebuilt it to flyable again and again. It's ready to go now. But I moved up to Tomahawk sounding rockets - keeping the same scale. Well, slightly oversized. The PSII 2" tube makes a nice sized rocket. So far, I've lost one of those to CATO and another to 'failure to recover'. It flew away.

And rebuilt both.

I’m not sure...but one contender is an ordinary Alpha that now has 82 flights on it. Over its life two of the three fins have broken off (one near the root, one further out) and have been glued back multiple times, it’s had several shock cords is on at least its second ‘chute.

I also have a Nova Payloader which has had 101 flights on it. It has one fin that’s been reattached at a break more than once and has had snapback dents on the other two fins repaired on several occasions. It is on its third ‘chute and has had at least that many shock cords. The top of the body has been repaired on a couple of occasions and the body just above the fins was somewhat crumpled about six flights ago. There I pulled it out as straight as I could and flowed thin CA into the damaged area to stiffen it well enough that I could get it to 100 flights. So far it’s gone past that by one.