How often do you have some amount of damage?

[LW Bercini]

If you were to estimate, what percentage of your flights result in some degree of damage? I'm not talking about the typical dings and dents, but damage that is significant enough that unless you do some kind of repair, you cannot safely fly it again. This includes not only structural damage, but also boogered up recovery devices.

As a low/mid/L1 flyer, I think I experience some level of damage approximately 20% of the time. I fly on sod farms so I can just imagine it is far worse for people who fly on dry lake beds!

What about you? What kind of rockets do you fly, in what kind of field, and approximately what percentage of your flights experience this degree of damage?

 

[neil_w]

Maybe I've been lucky but over the course of about 40 flights (estimated) in the past few years I've had 3 incidents of damage:
1) Burned a shock cord on my Astron Elliptic II when I over stuffed the tube and it failed to completely eject.
2) Popped a fin on the same Elliptic II on landing
3) Broke a fin on the APRO Lander II on landing (somewhat afraid to fly that one again, I must confess).

I fly mostly on a farm where landings are soft unless you get unlucky and hit the road or one of the few buildings around.

 

[dr wogz]

So far, for me, about 2%...

I fly LPR, MPR, and L1 (MPR & LPR being the main flights). I typically fly once a month, and do about 4-6 flights per outing. Our field is half corn and half hay (tall -ish grass). When the corn isn't out, it's dirt.. and snow in the winter (or frozen dirt / grass)

I had a Cato on an MPR AMRAAM at NY power last year (flew 2.5 days, with about 4 flights per day)
I had my Seaworf 'shred' on an I435 earlier this year.
I've singed a few chutes, but nothing that would render them "useless". Although I did break / shred the standard chute that came with my Mega Mosquito..
I think I've broken the odd fin over the past 10 years.. yes, I think I've broken 3 fin off my MPR flights over the past dozen or so years..

 

[Cabernut]

I've been tracking only failed flights which is just below 10%, so adding flights that were successful but needed repair before reflight, I would guestimate that to be about 20%.

 

[les]

Excluding lost rockets (those that were never found), looking at nearly 400 flights, I've probably had to repair before flying again about 20~ 25 rockets (broken shock cord, zipper, cracked fin, etc).
So a smidge over 5%.

 

[Bat-mite]

I don't know because I am not a real stat-taker, but I seem to vary from perfect flight to cato/lawn dart, with little in between. If I do everything right, I get no damage. But if something goes wrong, it almost always ends in a destroyed rocket. That's if I don't lose it.

 

[Nytrunner]

I've had a couple small zippers, but just got my first sever damage last Sunday.

Main charge fired, shear pin broke, nose stayed on my Argent. I have a crunched baffle/coupler with creased boost tube, cracked nosecone, and some payload tube smush.

I think I can get it back together with some work.

 

[solid_fuel]

Not counting unrecoverable or water landings not all that often. 1 out of every dozen or so flights I have to repair something. I fly primarily on farm and long grass fields.

 

[mccordmw]

I've only lost two rockets over the years. One drifted into the trees and was never seen again. Another was a MIRV; the darts were lost in the tall grass.

Other than that, I've never taken any real damage beyond scratches and paint chips which happen almost every flight.

 

[rstaff3]

I'd say close to 10%. Almost every launch results in one or two items that need some repair or touch up. Not all actually would preclude flying the rocket but are more than cosmetic. An example that pops to mind is a small crack in a fin root that, while the fin appears sturdy, should be addressed before it lands hard the next time.

 

[RocketFeller]

With low power I would guess somewhere around 15-20% of flights.

With mid and high power it is much lower, closer to 5%. That said, low-and-slow is a good description of most of my flights.


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[qquake2k]

I fly mostly MPR and L1, but don't keep stats. My flights are mostly low and slow, obviously. I have to say, I've been fairly lucky over the last 8 or so years as a BAR. I've only had two lawn darts, and a handful of broken fins. But the two lawn darts were pretty spectacular!

[video=youtube;mMY6w5zxXL4]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMY6w5zxXL4[/video]

[video=youtube;JZzZ8T8HDf8]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZzZ8T8HDf8[/video]

 

[dixontj93060]

Scuffs - 50%, dings/chips - 25%, repairs required - <10% (but all my flights are high power).

From the Ether...

 

[chrisudy]

Most of my damage is hangar rash. I’d say between 2% and 5% of my flights have minor/cosmetic damage. Maybe 1% of flights require repair afterwards.


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[MClark]

When I read the subject I was not thinking damage to the rocket. I was thinking outside objects, car windows, roofs, forest fires....

M

 

[tomsteve]

i dont keep track of how often, but have realized damage is always caused my me. could have been not attaching fins properly, packing recovery too quickly and not doing it right, improper motor/delay selection......................

 

[jimn]

I don't keep records, but I would guess about 10%.

 

[Buckeye]

If you were to estimate, what percentage of your flights result in some degree of damage? I'm not talking about the typical dings and dents, but damage that is significant enough that unless you do some kind of repair, you cannot safely fly it again. This includes not only structural damage, but also boogered up recovery devices.

As a low/mid/L1 flyer, I think I experience some level of damage approximately 40% of the time. I fly on sod farms so I can just imagine it is far worse for people who fly on dry lake beds!

What about you? What kind of rockets do you fly, in what kind of field, and approximately what percentage of your flights experience this degree of damage?

Dude. 40%? On sod? No other response, including mine, is even close to your figure. Judging by your membership numbers, you have been around the block for a while. What gives?

 

[solid_fuel]

what do you mean by boogered up recovery device? tangled chute lines? or tears in the chute?

 

[solid_fuel]

if I don't need to fix it with glue or more severe methods I don't really count it as damage

 

[LW Bercini]

what do you mean by boogered up recovery device? tangled chute lines? or tears in the chute?

"significant enough that unless you do some kind of repair, you cannot safely fly it again."

 

[LW Bercini]

Dude. 40%? On sod? No other response, including mine, is even close to your figure.

Typo. I fixed. That aside, I think much of what goes wrong with mine is directly related to the complexity of my designs. I find the standard 3 or 4 fins and nose cone designs quite boring. My rockets, by nature of their planform complexity, contain more potential failure points.

 

[dr wogz]

My rockets, by nature of their planform complexity, contain more potential failure points.

I'd be curious to see some of these!

 

[neil_w]

I'd be curious to see some of these!

I was curious too so I did a bit of searching on TRF for previously published pictures, figured I might as well copy it down here. Hope I am not being presumptuous by doing so. LW does some lovely work and it deserves to be seen.

https://www.rocketryforum.com/showthread.php?127175-Apparition-Build-Thread (best of the bunch IMHO)
https://www.rocketryforum.com/showthread.php?125388-One-down-more-to-go
https://www.rocketryforum.com/showthread.php?125768-Another-one-rolls-off-the-bench
https://www.rocketryforum.com/showthread.php?125784-The-last-of-the-new-builds
https://www.rocketryforum.com/showthread.php?29667-Scratch-design-quot-Starshine-quot
https://www.rocketryforum.com/showthread.php?57069-The-Fractal
https://www.rocketryforum.com/showthread.php?57049-MPR-Fantasy-Scale-AGM-625-quot-Basilisk-quot (never saw a finished picture of this one:rant

 

[Peartree]

Like others have mentioned, it depends on what you call “damage.” Damaged or mangled parachutes or streamers don’t count at all if the rocket is okay. Shoot, core samples don’t count if repairs (beyond retying shock cords). But with cracked fins or worse I’d guess I’m somewhere around 10-20 percent depending on the day.


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[LW Bercini]

I was curious too so I did a bit of searching on TRF for previously published pictures, figured I might as well copy it down here. Hope I am not being presumptuous by doing so. LW does some lovely work and it deserves to be seen.

Thank you, sir. I'm not a very prolific builder. Also, I don't post pics of my builds much. Back in 2015, I made a honest attempt to post more, but life got in the way.

I have 3 original designs on the bench right now, and will post pics as I finish them. But since retiring and getting involved with the local theater group, I've been spending more time on making props than on making rockets.

 

[neil_w]

I have 3 original designs on the bench right now, and will post pics as I finish them.

Cool. Wouldn’t mind seeing a pic of the finished AGM Basilisk if you have any.

 

[Nytrunner]

But since retiring and getting involved with the local theater group, I've been spending more time on making props than on making rockets.

Could you convince them to use more props that happen to be long skinny and airborne?

 

[LW Bercini]

Could you convince them to use more props that happen to be long skinny and airborne?

Or...new spin on old favorites, e.g., "Beauty and the Beast in SPAAAAAAAAACCCE!"

 

[dr wogz]

Thanks for digging them up Neil..

Pretty cool!! I can see why some might get tangled up & such..