jongoff09
New Member
This weekend, my wife and I launched a Boosted Bertha for our first two-stage launch. Launched with a C6-0 in the booster and a B6-4 in the sustainer. The launch went perfectly until the parachute failed to deploy. The RSO/LCO (same person on this very small club launch) said that believed the wadding was packed too tightly to push the parachute out. The nosecone popped off, but the parachute was just hanging over the edge of the body tube needing only a tiny tug to all fall out after I picked up the rocket.
Thanks to the nosecone providing some drag and a soft grass after rain the night before, the rocket sustained no damage at all from the fall. What I did find, though, is that the sustainer’s motor mount was pushed into the rocket slightly from the blast of the booster ejection and lighting the sustainer. I had re-glued the sustainer’s motor mount after the initial build because I felt it needed it, and I thought it was super solid after that so I was incredibly surprised to find anything wrong with it.
The sustainer’s motor mount is still very tight in the body, but I’m wondering if we should go ahead and replace it? I’m also wondering now if the booster was too tight and that caused excess pressure on the sustainer motor mount? It is vented so that seems unlikely to me, but I can’t figure anything else that would be an issue. Any thoughts?
I attached video of the launch, (maybe, still learning this platform) I stopped recording after the camera lost visual shortly after booster ejection, but we could still easily see the entire flight with our eyes. There was a very slight wind that we accounted for with the angle of the rod and we got it almost perfect as the rocket went straight up. The picture is of the sustainer motor mount where you can see the ring of glue where it originally was.
Thanks to the nosecone providing some drag and a soft grass after rain the night before, the rocket sustained no damage at all from the fall. What I did find, though, is that the sustainer’s motor mount was pushed into the rocket slightly from the blast of the booster ejection and lighting the sustainer. I had re-glued the sustainer’s motor mount after the initial build because I felt it needed it, and I thought it was super solid after that so I was incredibly surprised to find anything wrong with it.
The sustainer’s motor mount is still very tight in the body, but I’m wondering if we should go ahead and replace it? I’m also wondering now if the booster was too tight and that caused excess pressure on the sustainer motor mount? It is vented so that seems unlikely to me, but I can’t figure anything else that would be an issue. Any thoughts?
I attached video of the launch, (maybe, still learning this platform) I stopped recording after the camera lost visual shortly after booster ejection, but we could still easily see the entire flight with our eyes. There was a very slight wind that we accounted for with the angle of the rod and we got it almost perfect as the rocket went straight up. The picture is of the sustainer motor mount where you can see the ring of glue where it originally was.