repairing an Aurora Borealis

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ben_ullman

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Ok I racked up 9 straigh C5-3 flights on my Borealis this Sunday. The thing finally bit the dust. The chute was a little reefed and it hit nose first and crumpled the ejection tubes.

One guy suggested plastruct tubing but I was afraid it would melt. Any suggestions. I did these all within 2.5 hours. Most of the motors were still quite hot when i pulled them out. I flew a total of a G impulse that day. My goal was H but i didn't get there :p

Ben
 
Ben,

oh! So *that's* what happened to your Borealis... :) Bummer though :(

Do you have any pictures.

I would not recommend the Plastruc for several reasons:
  • Too heavy
  • Too flexible (the top of the rocket will flex)
  • Too small an inside diameter
    • Will either cause the engine to eject or
    • blow the mid section (I doubt that you would get enough gas to pass to blow the nose cone)

I invite you to review this photo essay from a repair that I did on one of mine back a while ago. You may get some tips from that.

Drop me a note and I will send out a pack of BT-2 tubes to aid in the repair. :)

jim
 
You flew a rocket on commercially-made motors?!?! :jaw:

MarkII
 
thanks for the link Jim! I ill snap some pics of the damage.

https://www.rocketryforum.com/showthread.php?t=4752&highlight=borealis

that is the origional thread. I pretty much have the exact problem you did. Crunched a little of the upper BT-20 also.

Let me mention this, chute didn't come out of the tube on flight 4(just the cone came off) and the thing smacked the ground and all 3 off the tube fin assemblies snapped clean off. A friend had some CA and accelerator and i glued all 3 back on and got 5 more flights on it :)

Going to take some pics!

Ben
 
I have failed thee rocket gods :(

Ben

p.s. guess whos ordering MMX motors and a Fliskits Tres? ;)
Good for you! Come on over from the dark side, if only for a little while... :D

You'll find Flistopia to be a happy place, #6, errr, I mean, Ben.

MarkII
 
Last edited:
Good for you! Come on over from the dark side, if only for a little while... :D

MarkII

I figured since I can start launching at the local park now (again) I might aswell get some models going again. Its kind of interesting. After flying MMX-N (soon to be O) I kind of enjoy the easy to prep care free models.

Oh, did I mention the Borealis used onnly 2 peices of wading through all 9 flights?! Somehow they stuck in the tube and I just left them. Only had one little burn mark on the chute!

hahaha I like the Edit!! lmao

Ben
 
My Borealis was in the garage and I think one of my cats stepped on it. He crunched the tubes pretty good about 2 inches from the base. I'll look at your suggested repair procedure Jim. Thanks. It only had 2 flights on it when it got crunched. :(

Then again I might just request a replacement for Christmas.
 
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