After having a water recovery at last week’s DART launch, I finally got my Generic back to flight-worthy condition.
First things first, though: removing that soaked motor! It was more of a job than the D12-5 that drowned in my Hi-Flier XL, with the paper casing collapsing into a dense, hard pack that was very difficult to get a grip on with my pliers. Like dog barf that was welded in.
My relentless attack on the casing ended up splitting the body tube seam, so as my mind was mostly idle while picking scorched and damp paper out of the mount, I started thinking about what I was going to do about the ruined tube. I couldn’t just fly it that way. It was structurally unsound, and probably wouldn’t survive the pressure of ejection even if it somehow managed to remain rigid. I’d need something to stiffen the tube and make it airtight, like a coupler or sleeve.
It’s a BT-50 kit, with a 24mm inner diameter. Too bad I didn’t have any spent motor casings around, that would have made things easy. Cut the nozzle out, either remove the shock cord mount or cut the tube, glue the casing in place, and put the rocket back together. If only I had a spent D12 lying around.
Or a C11.
A D12 or a C11….
C11….
THAT’S IT!
I had static fired a couple of C11-7s to make the spike for my Estes Goblin. With that thing out of commission and unlikely to fly again until I can next get out to TRASD or ROC, I quickly decided to cannibalize my 24x70mm spike for use in my Generic.
As soon as I got the stuck C6-3 free, I ripped the spike off the rack and snapped the two glued-together casings apart. I sanded one of them down, removed its nozzle, cut the Generic’s tube (a pretty rough job, I admit) and got it nice and snug in there. Next I put a little glue on the casing and slid it a fraction of an inch into place.
I slid the other body tube segment on, glued it in place, glued the forward lug back on (it had also snapped off during motor removal), and packed it for recovery. The CG is pretty close to the joint, which is pretty far back, but I had loaded it with a C6-7 and no wadding, so that’s basically worst-case scenario. I can put some strengthening near the other set of crimps in the tube if need be (I left them alone because they’re not as bad) or cut it again to lighten the casing-turned-coupler.
I think I’m pretty creative with my use of spent casings but I don’t think I’ve used one as an inetegral airframe component before. This is a first.
First things first, though: removing that soaked motor! It was more of a job than the D12-5 that drowned in my Hi-Flier XL, with the paper casing collapsing into a dense, hard pack that was very difficult to get a grip on with my pliers. Like dog barf that was welded in.
My relentless attack on the casing ended up splitting the body tube seam, so as my mind was mostly idle while picking scorched and damp paper out of the mount, I started thinking about what I was going to do about the ruined tube. I couldn’t just fly it that way. It was structurally unsound, and probably wouldn’t survive the pressure of ejection even if it somehow managed to remain rigid. I’d need something to stiffen the tube and make it airtight, like a coupler or sleeve.
It’s a BT-50 kit, with a 24mm inner diameter. Too bad I didn’t have any spent motor casings around, that would have made things easy. Cut the nozzle out, either remove the shock cord mount or cut the tube, glue the casing in place, and put the rocket back together. If only I had a spent D12 lying around.
Or a C11.
A D12 or a C11….
C11….
THAT’S IT!
I had static fired a couple of C11-7s to make the spike for my Estes Goblin. With that thing out of commission and unlikely to fly again until I can next get out to TRASD or ROC, I quickly decided to cannibalize my 24x70mm spike for use in my Generic.
As soon as I got the stuck C6-3 free, I ripped the spike off the rack and snapped the two glued-together casings apart. I sanded one of them down, removed its nozzle, cut the Generic’s tube (a pretty rough job, I admit) and got it nice and snug in there. Next I put a little glue on the casing and slid it a fraction of an inch into place.
I slid the other body tube segment on, glued it in place, glued the forward lug back on (it had also snapped off during motor removal), and packed it for recovery. The CG is pretty close to the joint, which is pretty far back, but I had loaded it with a C6-7 and no wadding, so that’s basically worst-case scenario. I can put some strengthening near the other set of crimps in the tube if need be (I left them alone because they’re not as bad) or cut it again to lighten the casing-turned-coupler.
I think I’m pretty creative with my use of spent casings but I don’t think I’ve used one as an inetegral airframe component before. This is a first.
Last edited: