C5-3's

[ELBRAZ]

At the recent Tripoli OKC Regional 'Sayre Shootout' a friend handed me an old Estes rangebox with 9 packs of C5-3's. (and a box full of other neat stuff, including a sealed Estes Designer Assortment)What was the CATO rate for these critters?
-Braz

 

[DynaSoar]

Originally posted by ELBRAZ
At the recent Tripoli OKC Regional 'Sayre Shootout' a friend handed me an old Estes rangebox with 9 packs of C5-3's. (and a box full of other neat stuff, including a sealed Estes Designer Assortment)What was the CATO rate for these critters?
-Braz

I have a 3xcluster model that requires these. C6's don't have the start-up kick needed. I've used lots of them with no problems.

 

[SwingWing]

IIRC there was one year/date code that was particularlly prone to CATO. Something about the coring tool used then. I have had two C5-3 CATOs

 

[marvSRG]

I've never heard of any problems with them.

However, out of curiosity...if they have so much more kick than C6's, why, then, is the average thrust labeled as only 5N?

 

[MetMan]

Originally posted by marvSRG
However, out of curiosity...if they have so much more kick than C6's, why, then, is the average thrust labeled as only 5N?

The C5 thrust curve has a large initial spike and then a long, low thrust tail. These are great motors--never had a problem with them.

 

[shreadvector]

What does it take to get useful information or an answer to your actual question? Probably having *me* read your message finally.

Year X had the worst batch of C5-3 motors ever made. They were so bad that Estes told people not to use them. they never did a formal "recall", but a LOT of people had disasters. here is an example I know of. they sold the C5-3 in bulk packs to schools and youth groups. The groups spent their time and money building the models, then got together for their big triumphant launch day (with parents and admininstrators present). Then every single C5-3 motor exploded. When these fail, they did not have a simple blow through of the propellant upward like a roman candle. They split the casing and went BANG. They don't really explode like an explosive would, but the overpressure is so great that the casing fails and it's loud. Rockets are quite destroyed as well.

Again, this is only year X.

Originally posted by ELBRAZ
At the recent Tripoli OKC Regional 'Sayre Shootout' a friend handed me an old Estes rangebox with 9 packs of C5-3's. (and a box full of other neat stuff, including a sealed Estes Designer Assortment)What was the CATO rate for these critters?
-Braz

 

[DynaSoar]

Originally posted by shreadvector
What does it take to get useful information or an answer to your actual question?

It takes finding out how many were made over how many years and what proportion of those failed, since that's what the question was. A story about a bad batch and how bad they were does not answer it, nor does a piece about some of the things that can cause it.

 

[Donaldsrockets]

I have used several of these and only had one CATO.

Blew the nozzle at ignition but my rocket was completely undamaged by it.

I currently have one in my range box. I'm hoping to try it out in my Outlander.

 

[SwingWing]

Originally posted by shreadvector
What does it take to get useful information or an answer to your actual question?

Is there a place where the MESS information is summarized? I went looking for data/trends/summarizations and could not find a shread.
NAR takes in the data via MESS submissions, it should be available somewhere.

 

[shreadvector]

they have explained this many, many times in the past.
Mostly on r.m.r.

Something about the M.E.S.S. not being a valid statistical survey and possibly having the data interpreted in a sucha way that it could be harmful to a manufacturer.

In other words, it's all about fear of lawsuits.

If they think they detect a real problem, they might contact the manufacturer.

As always, if you want a real answer to a question, you need to directly ask the people who know. Send an e-mail to the NAR S&T Chairman and/or Secretary.

Originally posted by SwingWing
Is there a place where the MESS information is summarized? I went looking for data/trends/summarizations and could not find a shread.
NAR takes in the data via MESS submissions, it should be available somewhere.