thobin
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Nov 9, 2009
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Lets see where do I start. It was rainy, all day kinda rainy. But to my joy at around 5:00pm the sun came out and started its siren call to come out and play. "YES" maybe I can take the boys and launch a few rockets. I had been working hard all week and I finished a long list of honey do's. I had been good, cleaned my plate, did my chores and walked the dog.
Unfortunately the Rocket Gods were displeased with me for some reason and chose to damn my launch with mayhem and sorrow. Why? we can only speculate. Wrong engine selection? And now picture this. Light wind from the south east, sun slowly setting. For a rainy start to the day there were only a few clouds in the sky and they were painted with a soft glow of orange.
Rocket 1- First on the pad was my new Astron sprint clone I had built with the help of JimZ . This rocket was meant to move! And it did 3-2-1 The A8-3 came to life and the Sprint shot off the pad like a bullet. I lost sight till the tracking smoke and the puff of the ejection charge pointed the way. "That thing is way up there!" Highest flight of the day I might add, a testament to what can happen when you airfoil the fins and fill all the balsa to a smooth surface. It came down pretty slow for a streamer and landed a fifty yards away with no damage, so I thought. When I started to pack it away I noticed that the streamer was pretty melted up. Ah well its cheap I have tons of streamer no loss. Now that was the first warning from the Rocket Gods. Did I head the warning! HUMMM nope. Warning #1
Rocket 2- Pretty uneventful it has no name just another beater rocket I slapped together. It went strait up and and came down, good deployment and landed in the sod farm next to us. Yes it was on the other side of the fence but "eeah" I have kids. Once the rocket made its way back, my boy in tow I found the 12” Estes parachute had been melted and strings all broke up. Aww man these chutes are getting harder and harder to find. Warning #2
Now it starts to get sad. So all you with weak constitutions read no further for sadness and despair prevails henceforth.
Rocket 3- From spare parts and stuff from rocket mishaps twice before. I had built an UP scale Astron Sprint, like a Phoenix rising from the ashes this thing really turned out nice. The Sprint waited on the pad for the go ahead and I had given the honors to my youngest boy. He put the key in and counted 3-2-1 and nothing. Like it was asking me to reconsider it knew it was on a doomed fight. It had suffered two catastrophic failures in its past lives and it did not want to go on a third. I told the boy to keep the button pushed and as I was about to go change out the igniter POP the C6-5 spit out the plug and igniter and sped toward the heavens, good tracking smoke and deployment 10 feet of streamer rolled out nicely. Well this is about when it all went south, I guess the wind had decided to pick up and the New Super Sprint made a B-line for the road. Not the road not the road I'm thinking. Now remember the fence, the one that protects all the precious sod farm grass. It didn't hit the road it hit the 6 foot chain link fence CLANG! Fins every were buckled body tube scratched paint the works. AAAARRRRG The pain the anguish! Oh the humanity!
Rocket 4- Not sure what the rocket is called its a Estes kit D POWER! Oh ya. Any way, Pre flight prep CHECK! D12-3 & igniter CHECK! Kid to push the button CHECK! 3-2-1 FWOOOSH just like the 3 before a spectacular liftoff. But for reasons unknown to me about 100 feet up the motor chuffed and must have lost some speed cause the rocket now turned east and began a cruise missile flight to the nether reaches of my home state. Oh man my kids are going to have to walk far to find that one. I was thinking. Just then while still under power FOOMP the ejection charge went off and parts went every where! The upper half of the rocket came down with the chute once again landing in the sod farm to the north. The lower half fluttered down and landed by the swing set, and the nose cone landed in the tennis court startling the players that were there. All parts were found only with minor dings and dents but never the lest it will fly again one day. AS for the D12-3 motor there is no sign of anything out of the ordinary to suggest why it did what it did. It is and older motor I have had laying around. I would say at least 10 years Hummm.
So as I recall the events of my day with ESTES I can only wounder why things happen the way they do. Is it just the pit falls of Rocketry, or as simple as some days the bear gets you? OR is there a greater force at work, some cosmic power that flexes its will at a whim? We may never know. All can say is even after all the mayhem and all the dramatic description. “Man this was fun!”
TA
Unfortunately the Rocket Gods were displeased with me for some reason and chose to damn my launch with mayhem and sorrow. Why? we can only speculate. Wrong engine selection? And now picture this. Light wind from the south east, sun slowly setting. For a rainy start to the day there were only a few clouds in the sky and they were painted with a soft glow of orange.
Rocket 1- First on the pad was my new Astron sprint clone I had built with the help of JimZ . This rocket was meant to move! And it did 3-2-1 The A8-3 came to life and the Sprint shot off the pad like a bullet. I lost sight till the tracking smoke and the puff of the ejection charge pointed the way. "That thing is way up there!" Highest flight of the day I might add, a testament to what can happen when you airfoil the fins and fill all the balsa to a smooth surface. It came down pretty slow for a streamer and landed a fifty yards away with no damage, so I thought. When I started to pack it away I noticed that the streamer was pretty melted up. Ah well its cheap I have tons of streamer no loss. Now that was the first warning from the Rocket Gods. Did I head the warning! HUMMM nope. Warning #1
Rocket 2- Pretty uneventful it has no name just another beater rocket I slapped together. It went strait up and and came down, good deployment and landed in the sod farm next to us. Yes it was on the other side of the fence but "eeah" I have kids. Once the rocket made its way back, my boy in tow I found the 12” Estes parachute had been melted and strings all broke up. Aww man these chutes are getting harder and harder to find. Warning #2
Now it starts to get sad. So all you with weak constitutions read no further for sadness and despair prevails henceforth.
Rocket 3- From spare parts and stuff from rocket mishaps twice before. I had built an UP scale Astron Sprint, like a Phoenix rising from the ashes this thing really turned out nice. The Sprint waited on the pad for the go ahead and I had given the honors to my youngest boy. He put the key in and counted 3-2-1 and nothing. Like it was asking me to reconsider it knew it was on a doomed fight. It had suffered two catastrophic failures in its past lives and it did not want to go on a third. I told the boy to keep the button pushed and as I was about to go change out the igniter POP the C6-5 spit out the plug and igniter and sped toward the heavens, good tracking smoke and deployment 10 feet of streamer rolled out nicely. Well this is about when it all went south, I guess the wind had decided to pick up and the New Super Sprint made a B-line for the road. Not the road not the road I'm thinking. Now remember the fence, the one that protects all the precious sod farm grass. It didn't hit the road it hit the 6 foot chain link fence CLANG! Fins every were buckled body tube scratched paint the works. AAAARRRRG The pain the anguish! Oh the humanity!
Rocket 4- Not sure what the rocket is called its a Estes kit D POWER! Oh ya. Any way, Pre flight prep CHECK! D12-3 & igniter CHECK! Kid to push the button CHECK! 3-2-1 FWOOOSH just like the 3 before a spectacular liftoff. But for reasons unknown to me about 100 feet up the motor chuffed and must have lost some speed cause the rocket now turned east and began a cruise missile flight to the nether reaches of my home state. Oh man my kids are going to have to walk far to find that one. I was thinking. Just then while still under power FOOMP the ejection charge went off and parts went every where! The upper half of the rocket came down with the chute once again landing in the sod farm to the north. The lower half fluttered down and landed by the swing set, and the nose cone landed in the tennis court startling the players that were there. All parts were found only with minor dings and dents but never the lest it will fly again one day. AS for the D12-3 motor there is no sign of anything out of the ordinary to suggest why it did what it did. It is and older motor I have had laying around. I would say at least 10 years Hummm.
So as I recall the events of my day with ESTES I can only wounder why things happen the way they do. Is it just the pit falls of Rocketry, or as simple as some days the bear gets you? OR is there a greater force at work, some cosmic power that flexes its will at a whim? We may never know. All can say is even after all the mayhem and all the dramatic description. “Man this was fun!”
TA
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