A good "General" use 38mm CTI case

[PiperCPO]

Greetings all,

I am in the planning stages for a Binder Excel DD build. I am thinking of taking advantage of the Cesaroni certification special that is available and getting a 38mm case and load for a level 1. I am looking to get a case that I can use down the road that will provide options. I have been considering a 5 a or 6 grain case, but just wanted to get opinions from others as to what they would suggest in the Cesaroni 38mm class. (BTW the reason I am looking at Cesaroni is that the two vendors that visit my club's launches carry Cesaroni and not Aerotec.)

 

[Worsaer]

Take a look at the following list. Knowing that you can add two spacers, the limitation will be how much space you have in rockets for a 4 or 5 grain case.
Fortunately, CTI cases are not terribly expensive.

https://pro38.com/products/pro38/motor.php

 

[Exactimator]

With my L1 4" cardboard fleet, I use my 3 grain casing almost contantly to launch 2 and 3 grain motors. I use my 5 grain once in a while and my 6XL rarely.

 

[Dave A]

Greetings all,

I am in the planning stages for a Binder Excel DD build. I am thinking of taking advantage of the Cesaroni certification special that is available and getting a 38mm case and load for a level 1. I am looking to get a case that I can use down the road that will provide options. I have been considering a 5 a or 6 grain case, but just wanted to get opinions from others as to what they would suggest in the Cesaroni 38mm class. (BTW the reason I am looking at Cesaroni is that the two vendors that visit my club's launches carry Cesaroni and not Aerotec.)

Buy a 3g and 6g case, 2 spacers and you have 6 combos to choose.
from G to Js.

 

[cerving]

If you get the 4G and 6XL cases you can fly any 38mm motor except the 1G's, which are all G motors.

 

[woferry]

If you get the 4G and 6XL cases you can fly any 38mm motor except the 1G's, which are all G motors.

^^^This. And the cert special isn't a bad idea to get the case for free, the option I took is I found a vendor who would 'upgrade' the normal 3G+6G+2spacers CTI starter kit to 4G+6GXL+2spacers+XLspacer for a small extra charge. Was still a great deal compared to all of the parts separately, and like Cris said covers all of the motors I was interested in flying in CTI 38mm anyway.

The 6G and 6GXL cases start getting pretty long though, need to make sure whatever rocket(s) you have built/are planning on building can take it and still have room for the recovery gear. My Go Devil 38 is a really tight pack with the motor retainer placed for a Pro38-6GXL motor.

 

[markkoelsch]

Buy a 3g and 6g case, 2 spacers and you have 6 combos to choose.
from G to Js.

+1 to this. You may be able to find a good deal on this too. Black Friday/Saturday is coming soon.

 

[MikeyDSlagle]

To take advantage of the cert special you have to buy the load and you get the case for free right? Buy a load for the 4g case and get that case for free. Then pick up some spacers and you'll be able to fly all but...3 or so level 1 38s. Just make sure the 4g won't overfly your field. I have a 1g I've never flown I may can cut you a deal on if you want a 1g.
Or do the same with a 3g and then repeat with the 6g for your level 2. You will probably be getting ready for 54mm by then.

 

[Coop]

IF I had to get one from a cert special in 38... I would get the 3-grain. This will, with 2 spacers, let you fly G-I. The reloads for 38 are not terribly expensive. It's probably my most-worn casing, serving time in my 4" Red Max, Minie-Magg, Space Ark, King Kraken, And 1 or 2 others along the way. Enjoy, and good luck!


Later!

--Coop

 

[watermelonman]

I got an absurd amount of use out of my 38mm5G cases. The motors in that size are all excellent.

When you add a grain the choices are not that great. Then there is 6XL, which goes back to good selection, but too expensive and goofy long.

 

[CzTeacherMan]

I have a 38 3-grain, 4-grain, 6-grain, and now a 6XL.
The 3- and 4-grain cases get used most often. Price of reload is a big factor. However, there's a few times that I wish I had a 5-grain for one particular rocket. I'd say you're pretty golden with a 5-grain if you must only get one. A 5-grain with 2 spacers means you can fly all the 3, 4, and 5-grain loads. I bought the 3- and 6- cases thinking I could always use spacers down to the 1-grain loads. I have never flown a 1-grain load. Seems like an awful waste of motor space, ya know?
In the future, if you wanted, a 5-grain and a 6XL with proper spacers would allow you to fly just about every load you want.

 

[djs]

Agree with CZTeacherman. I fly the 3+4 grain sizes the most. I've flown in the 1+2 grain a few times, but not that many. I have all the cases up to the 6xl, but I don't think I've flown anything above the 4 grain yet in 38 CTI.

 

[Tim51]

Buy a 3g and 6g case, 2 spacers and you have 6 combos to choose.
from G to Js.

+1.

 

[grouch]

I used my 3 and 4 grain cases the most as well. The 5 grain case was used once, the others quite a bit. The I212 is a great load for a Mini Magg so that kinda dictated my choice.

 

[Banzai88]

I fly 3, 4, and 5 grain motors a LOT, so if I had to do it over again I would have opted for a 5g case and 2 spacers, and then later purchased a 3g to do the smaller stuff that crossed over into my longer 29mm range.

As it is, take a look at what you have and see where you intend to fly it most. There's a quite a bit of cross over in long 29mm to short 38mm and long 38mm to short 54mm.

I'm finding that the more I look at long 38s, the more I'm actually looking for the utility of 54s.

YMMV.

 

[PiperCPO]

Thanks for the suggestions everyone! I failed to mention that I will be building it with a 54mm mount and just putting an adapter in it until I get my level 1 and get practice in on the dual deploy. Then I will see about putting a 54mm in it and see where that takes me. For now was just looking for a starting point.

I appreciate all the input and the suggestions!

 

[watermelonman]

Thanks for the suggestions everyone! I failed to mention that I will be building it with a 54mm mount and just putting an adapter in it until I get my level 1 and get practice in on the dual deploy. Then I will see about putting a 54mm in it and see where that takes me. For now was just looking for a starting point.

I appreciate all the input and the suggestions!

Then I double down on my 5G suggestion, and also recommend you pick up some 54mm hardware soon. When I got my first 54mm rockets I swore I was going to save money by flying 38mm motors with an adaptor. Hah! I mean, I did once or twice.

Short fat motors tend to be a better deal than long skinny ones. Pull down the public reloads spreadsheet, add a column for price/ns, and see for yourself!

 

[tim cubbedge]

I agree with melonman - I have the 3, 5 & 6 grain case and use the 5 grain more than any other.

 

[kcobbva]

Buy a 3g and 6g case, 2 spacers and you have 6 combos to choose.
from G to Js.

+1
That's what I did and it's been great! Watch Sunward during black friday. Got my combo for a great price last year.

 

[ActingLikeAKid]

My take on it - and granted, my situation is a little different (I have a 38mm mmt rocket I'm building up that I may adapt down to 29s) - is this: Get the 3G case or 4G case. If you're really excited about stuffing a big motor in your rocket, get an AT SU motor. I'm planning/hoping to, once I get my L2, stuff the biggest AT SU J-motor in the rocket and see if I can bust mach and a mile. If I was doing that every month, a case would make sense. But for once, maybe twice a year, I think AT SU for the big motors and CTI 1-2-3g for the smaller ones makes sense to me.

My $0.02

 

[scsager]

If you get the 4G and 6XL cases you can fly any 38mm motor except the 1G's, which are all G motors.

This is really good advice... and unfortunately (for me) not intuitively obvious.

I opted for the 38mm 3-Grain L1 cert special and a 54mm 3-grain L2 cert special. My cost to add (4) spacers and a 54mm closure = $75 total.

Doing a 4-grain 38mm L1 and a 38mm 6XL L2 allows you to fly a lot of less expensive H-I-J motors with a much smaller cost for the 3 spacers.