Massacre on a Tuesday night.

I went launching with my two teenage sons, and discovered that a bad day launching is still better than sitting in front of the TV. Even though everyone's fleet was decimated, and no rocket flew twice, we had a riot.

Patriot (C6-3) Parachute didn't fully deploy, Took 30 minutes to locate, discovered cracked a fin on landing.

Baby Bertha (B4-4) Parachute didn't deploy, motor mount travelled through airframe on impact.

Hi-Flyer (A8-5) Streamer got tangled on shock cord, cracked fin on landing

Cosmic Explorer (C6-5) Parachute hung in tube, ballistic landing, required an amputation of 2" worth of BT

Long Tom #2 (C6-0/C6-7) Lost after an unstable boost and subsequent horizontal flight. Ejection charge hadn't fired when it disappeared over the horizon.

Skywriter (B4-4) Hung on the launch rod.

Skywriter (A8-5) Delay was too long, landed ballistic, then blew out the motor mount

Everything but the Long Tom (correction: and the Skywriter) will fly again at our next launch. Enjoy the photos of the carnage...

Additional photos...

Absolute carnage. I love it

That's quite a picture of the bent Skywriter! :eyepop:

Bad launches on Tuesday...Tax day on Tuesday.......hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

Cosmotiger said:

That's quite a picture of the bent Skywriter! :eyepop:

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You can't really see it in the photo, but the nose cone is impacted at least 3/4" into the body tube. It was voted our favorite failure of the night.

I love rocket mayhem!

Sounds like you had way more fun than a certain group of North Korean rocketeers had recently!:clap:

I've had days like this.

RGI, you've had issues with stability with the Long Tom as well?

Everyone loves a good train wreck:y:..nice looking birds..sorry..was

RGInCanada said:

You can't really see it in the photo, but the nose cone is impacted at least 3/4" into the body tube. It was voted our favorite failure of the night.

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You have a great way of accepting things that can happen when you send your rocket up on a launch.I get down for a bit when I lose on to those rocket eating trees or have a bad landing.But that's part of rocketry:wink:.

GDJ said:

I've had days like this. RGI, you've had issues with stability with the Long Tom as well?

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I didn't get enough flights to say for sure I suspect a fouled launch rod, increased liftoff weight due to the C6-7 in the upper stage, and marginal wind conditions did this one in. The rest of my flights (on the Long Tom) were more stable.

cjp said:

You have a great way of accepting things that can happen when you send your rocket up on a launch.I get down for a bit when I lose on to those rocket eating trees or have a bad landing.But that's part of rocketry:wink:.

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I was pretty bummed about the Long Tom and the Cosmic Explorer because of the effort that went into finish them vs. the low number of flights on them. On the other hand, the Cosmic Explorer is now completely restored, and since my personal fleet is limited to three rockets (my self imposed limit), I now have a vacancy that can be filled.

You know they say a bad day of flying rockets is better than a good day at work. Not to sure about that now, that was the most rocket carnage I have ever seen in one day all heaped up on one guy. I'm sure you just wish you would have stayed in bed that day. Alas, never give up never surrender!

TA

What has the weather been like up here? Plastic chutes and cold do not go well together. If this could be the cause, look at some 6 or 9" nylon chutes.

RG - a sincere thank you for sharing; now we're feeling rather fortunate.

We too (family of four) went out to launch this weekend and had a "mere" 75% mishap rate!

Launch 1: Skywriter (daughter's), B6-4, a little early for the eject but weathered it fine, good recovery with full chute. Unpredictable winds but this one landed within 100 feet of launch site.

Launch 2: Cosmic Cobra (son's), C6-5, good trajectory, ballistic recovery. Son now *completely* understands the term "lawn dart".

Launch 3: Big Daddy, E9-6, due to squirrely winds, misjudged the launch angle. Good launch trajectory... with the wind... recovery 1/2 mile away with cracked fin!

Launch 4: Super Toob'oh, B6-4, good launch, parachute ejected but fouled in the shock cord... hard landing squashed two of the "fin tubes".

We had another 4 rockets but decided the odds were simply against us. Must be "spring fever" for rockets...

Disaster_Guy said:

What has the weather been like up here? Plastic chutes and cold do not go well together. If this could be the cause, look at some 6 or 9" nylon chutes.

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The temperature was around 10C / 50F. Would you consider that too cold for plastic chutes?

RockItDad said:

We had another 4 rockets but decided the odds were simply against us. Must be "spring fever" for rockets...

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That's where brains come in handy We just kept going, saying, "Well, the next one will work"

Where are you attaching your chutes and how are you loading them into the rocket?? From the pictures, I see nose cones and a length of shock cord out but no chute or shroud lines. On all my lightweight "Estes type" rockets I attach my chutes to the nose cone with a fishing swivel.

To pack, wadding goes in, shock cord, and then the folded chute right below the nose cone. Everything in the recovery system has to be lightly packed also.

Edit: I see your shroud lines on the black and white rocket, looks to be attached to the nose cone.

rcktnut said:

On all my lightweight "Estes type" rockets I attach my chutes to the nose cone with a fishing swivel.

To pack, wadding goes in, shock cord, and then the folded chute right below the nose cone. Everything in the recovery system has to be lightly packed also

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Yep, that's exactly what I'm doing. (Snap Swivel and all). Thinking back, I used a larger parachute with a large spill hole on this launch as a visibility test. I think the combination of cool weather, a bulkier parachute, and shroud lines that were a bit longer than "stock" did in the Cosmic Explorer (black and white rocket) flight.

I would consider 10C to be iffy for small (10-12") chutes.
rex

RockItDad said:

RG - a sincere thank you for sharing; now we're feeling rather fortunate.

We too (family of four) went out to launch this weekend and had a "mere" 75% mishap rate!

Launch 1: Skywriter (daughter's), B6-4, a little early for the eject but weathered it fine, good recovery with full chute. Unpredictable winds but this one landed within 100 feet of launch site.

Launch 2: Cosmic Cobra (son's), C6-5, good trajectory, ballistic recovery. Son now *completely* understands the term "lawn dart".

Launch 3: Big Daddy, E9-6, due to squirrely winds, misjudged the launch angle. Good launch trajectory... with the wind... recovery 1/2 mile away with cracked fin!

Launch 4: Super Toob'oh, B6-4, good launch, parachute ejected but fouled in the shock cord... hard landing squashed two of the "fin tubes".

We had another 4 rockets but decided the odds were simply against us. Must be "spring fever" for rockets...

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"NOM NOM NOM - Damn, we're HONNNGRREEEE!!" - The Rocket Gods.

50F or 10C is when chutes start getting stiff, especially smaller ones.

If it's cold enough to wear a jacket, sometimes I'll unsnap the chutes (I have most on snap swivels) and stuff 'em in an inside jacket or sweater pocket, then just snap 'em back on just before loading up the rocket. That seems to keep 'em a little warmer and flexible.

Definitely if it's any colder than that you don't want rockets to sit around more than about 3-4 minutes with chutes packed before launch. If there's any delay of more than maybe 5 minutes you probably want to pull off the nose cone, pop out the chute, repack it and then load up again. Giving the chutes a light dusting of baby powder can help a bit too.