it,s heading towards the pond-noooooooooooooooo

[Rob Fisher]

I was launching my praetor on the 4th for my family & the kids to see, when on about the 6th launch the wind picked up & carried her into the pond! I quickly ran in & got her out in seconds & she dried nicely in the sun with no damage. The only problem is, is the spent motor swelled up in the engine tube and I cannot remove it-even with pliers! anyone have an experience like this? I love this rocket & really want to launch it again & again.

 

[rstaff3]

Hmmm, can you ream out the nozzle with a dremel and then start peeling the inside of the motor tube?

 

[rabidsheeep]

might take awhlie, but dremmel or drill a hole in the middle, and file that out and then when the nozzle is gone you can unravel the engine from the inside beucase estes ones are rolled

 

[DaSquriel]

easy to fix ok so the motors stuck right all you have to do is get a half inch pice of dowel and shove the motor out lol well good luck!

 

[hokkyokusei]

I just had this exact same problem. I crushed the nozzle end of the motor, got a good grip and kept twisting. Eventually came out and brought a layer of paper from the inside of the motor mount with it.

 

[ymj365]

My daughter's E2X Wacky Wiggler (about half plastic) went down in the lake recently and had this problem (it spent about an hour in the water all told, before we got it back).

The nozzle had softened up on its own, and came out really easily on my fingertip. After we got home, I used a longnose pliers to pull the rest of the engine out. Unfortunately, the motor mount tube and engine lock came out as well. Friction fitting an engine with tape will work fine for future flights.

The suggestions of unrolling the engine casing from the inside out would probably be better than just pulling, though if it has a chance to dry, it'll probably still pull out all or part of the motor mount.

 

[Rob Fisher]

I decided to give the motor a try today, and to my surprise, it popped right out as if nothing happened! I guess if you just let the rocket sit for about 4 days, the motor will shrink back to normal & come right out. Alright!!!!!!! my precious Praetor will fly another day!

 

[airforce]

Rob,
I would suggest waiting about 4 days for it to totally dry then it should pull right out like nothing happened....

 

[Rob Fisher]

sounds like a good idea to me!

 

[ymj365]

Hmmm... four days, huh? Oh well... I'll try that next time (hopefully will never have to, but Murphy is likely to visit again, so probably will).

 

[slim_t]

ponds......, great for fishing, bad for rockets.
Glad yours fixed so easy. My one incident with the pond resulted in a new motor mount, but that's still better than the one hanging from the tree.

Probably helped alot that you got her out so fast. Mine required a pretty good boat trip.

Tim