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Silverleaf

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Brian Teeling, of Teeling Technologies ?

In the mid 90's he made some kickbutt Firestarter type engines and "was" working on a massive - for the time - K2300.

I ask because I got to see an ancient I Firestarter launch when a friend popped in from Chicago for a day, his last motor by this Gent, and I was blown away by the fire/sparks and power. I swear, when he hit the button, I thought the world was ending, so much sound so much fire and so much fun. In case your wondering, twas my first I launch, so needles to say I am stoked !

If he's not in business anymore, besides the big companies like Aerotech and AMW, who else does engines of this caliber anymore ?

Or am I right to think that few small companies out there are able to produce these with all the regulations. Of course, thinking this last question through a bit more, I'm also betting that some folks are able to get engines like these due to where they live, and the guys showing up at local launches.

Anyways, just curious about the Firestarter brand motors.

Cheers,
 
AMW produces a couple sparky motors; Skidmark. They only have it in two loads, the K1000 and M2200. As far as I know, they do not plan to produce the motor in any other sizes.

Be very careful with sparky motors, they can and will start fires. to quote someone during the discussion of sparky motors I had, "People a just to stupid for these."

When I fire my first sparky, I plan to dowse the ground around the pad with water (mak sure I grab the can ;)). Then make sure sombody inspects the ground for any fires. I have seen wet grass smolder... not a good thing.

I hope rocketflite reintroduces their Silver Streak motors. I want to do a F101-0 to F101-8 stageing :)

Maybe put 7 F101's in my American Spirit.... That would just be too sweeet!
 
AMW motors are pretty cool, but as far as sparkies go, they are not the best IMHO. The best way to get sparky is to go the EX route. I have seen some awesome sparkies. They Dump sparks on the pad and spew out tons of smokey as they slowly raise up the rocket. Sparkies also have a signiture sound as they tend to have a crackle as they move away from you.

Are you sure the motor you are describing isnt a Jerry irving motor? I beleive he called his firestarter
 
Yea, the pics I've seen of AMW sparkies are mostly smoke and a bit of sparks... I'm with Ryan, I have seen some Awesome pics of EX sparky motors.
 
I believe that AMW sparkies used to be a lot more sparky... but.... the orignial formula did not pass DOT testing. Shock tests proved that it was sensative to shock. So I believe they had to tone down the TI.
 
Yeah, I hope the F104, G160 (that's the right desig. for G, right?) and H330 Silver Streaks do come back out. I know Greg Dyben, the Rocketflite owner, just relocated and is trying to get back on track with motor production. Anyone know the development on this?

From what I've seen, AMW skids aren't as sparky as they used to be, but they have more sparks than smoke. They're pretty fast, too. The older ones had more black smoke and were slower... yes, better sparks than the new ones, but the upped black smoke content is the biggest difference at least I notice from the old ones. www.mdrocketry.org and www.ddeville.com has some great pics of old skids in their older picture archives. Still the new skids are great for certed motors, tho...just a bit pricey.
 
that isnt what I have heard, I think they toned down on the sparks to reduce the chance of fire. I dont think AMW would want to be blamed for soemthing like that.

That is just my opinion though, I could be wrong
 
Originally posted by Ryan S.
that isnt what I have heard, I think they toned down on the sparks to reduce the chance of fire. I dont think AMW would want to be blamed for soemthing like that.

That is just my opinion though, I could be wrong

Yeah, that's what I was saying...i.e.:

Originally posted by marvSRG
From what I've seen, AMW skids aren't as sparky as they used to be.


But visually, in my opinion, the most noticeable difference from the old formula is the lighter smoke and upped speed. I know and notice that the sparks are less, but they're hard to miss no matter what:D I just think that visually the most notable difference is the less smoke and higher speed.

Compare https://www.mdra-archive.org/photos/ldrs19/Skid.mpg (old skid) to https://www.rocketryprojects.com/V2 Launch.mpg (new skid).

Do you notice sparks, speed or smoke as the biggest difference?
 
they are very fast, we posted at the same time, I was not trying to condradict you or anything
 
Are you sure the motor you are describing isnt a Jerry irving motor? I beleive he called his firestarter

From a few issues of the 1993 season of HPR - there are a couple pics of Teeling Technologies Firestarter's being launched, and even a pic of Brian standing beside one of the rockets getting ready to fly on a TT - J motor.

Brad, whom launched the I firestarter bought it from Brian at Black Rock that year.

I've done some searching online, and found that Brian might have left the hobby in 96 to persue other interests.

Sad too, because the I rocked !

Cheers,
 
Firestarters were the first sparky high power motors (they had some in F and G sizes too.) They were originally marketed by U.S. Rockets, but apparently the actual manufacturing of the motors was done by Brian Teeling and possibly others. After leaving USR, Brian made and sold them for a short time in the early 90's, under the Teeling Technologies brand.

Kosdon used to make a sparky motor, which I believe was evolved into the AMW Skidmark motors. (AMW started out as Kosdon East.)

In the mid 90's there was a promising manufacturer starting up called APS. They had a "Spitfire" sparky motor and a "Redeye" red-flame motor. They had full page ads in High Power Rocketry, and were taking orders, but as far as I can tell they went out of business before they ever got into full production. I don't know if they ran out of funding, or the proprietors had a falling out, or what.

All of the above were APCP motors. They were all pretty much alike, dark smoke with yellowish or orange sparks, lots of crackling and popping noise.

In the mid 90's there was another company, RocketFlite, which made large BP motors (F through I). They had some sparkies called Silver Streaks which were incredibly awesome and extremely popular. The Silver Streaks were very different from any of the APCP sparky motors -- a thick shower of brilliant white sparks, very impressive even in bright sunlight. Now and then these motors show up in the ROL auctions and always sell for ridiculous quantities of cash.

Apparently the former manufacturer is trying to obtain funding for a new facility and may eventually bring these motors back into production.
 
Ray,

Thank you for the history lesson. Excellent !
They were all pretty much alike, dark smoke with yellowish or orange sparks, lots of crackling and popping noise.
Thats pretty much what this I Firestarter motor was, orange with a ton of snapping and popping. 8)

So since we're on the older motors kick, do you remember the "Gumby" engines that were popular out west ?

In most of the reports from the early 90's in HPR, there is a mention of Gumby motors - and the statement - " we don't know who Gumby is, but we're sure glad these motors keep showing up at these launches"

Thanks again Ray. 8)
 
Originally posted by Ryan S.
they are very fast, we posted at the same time, I was not trying to condradict you or anything

Oh ok I gotcha. You were replying to Doug's statement. I didn't think you were trying to contradict anything anyways. I was just putting in my opinion on the new skid stuff, and at any rate, I created a pretty cool video comparison as a result of that (pretty cool if I do say so myself:)). However, I will say that you can't see the sparks very well from the video of the new skid I posted, which kinda put out my statement that the sparks were still very visible in the new motors, but pics of that flight and other new skidmark pics show otherwise. I think that the sparks just didn't show up very well in the video. At any rate, the video definately shows a very distinct difference in smoke amount and burn rate in comparison to old skid M's. But I don't really care one way or the other...I love skids regardless:D!!!!
 
That's not quite true.... The guys from AMW ( Not Paul & will remain nameless) Came to our launch & flew a couple of Demo Skidmarks;
1 was a 3 grain L 2800 or so & the other was I believe a 5 Grain 75mm M motor ( which I missed ).

I'm sure there will be others to follow...

JD



Originally posted by n3tjm
AMW produces a couple sparky motors; Skidmark. They only have it in two loads, the K1000 and M2200. As far as I know, they do not plan to produce the motor in any other sizes.

Be very careful with sparky motors, they can and will start fires. to quote someone during the discussion of sparky motors I had, "People a just to stupid for these."

When I fire my first sparky, I plan to dowse the ground around the pad with water (mak sure I grab the can ;)). Then make sure sombody inspects the ground for any fires. I have seen wet grass smolder... not a good thing.

I hope rocketflite reintroduces their Silver Streak motors. I want to do a F101-0 to F101-8 stageing :)

Maybe put 7 F101's in my American Spirit.... That would just be too sweeet!
 
Originally posted by Silverleaf
Ray,


So since we're on the older motors kick, do you remember the "Gumby" engines that were popular out west ?

In most of the reports from the early 90's in HPR, there is a mention of Gumby motors - and the statement - " we don't know who Gumby is, but we're sure glad these motors keep showing up at these launches"


Gumby really did not want his name to be known but the motors were great.
I was told he actually screened the Ti machine turnings he used to be about 1/2 the nozzle throat. Different size Ti for each motor! Time consuming but the effect was the best pops and booms of any of the sparky motors. We used quite a number of them here in AZ and at Lucerne.
He has gone to other hobbies now and is not making motors anymore.

Mark
 
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