It's a shame, three beautiful rockets gone in the same day. At least your Aquarius made it out alive, that would have been a heart breaker.

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www.wooshrocketry.org NAR Sec. 558
Look us up on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/guytogo75?feature=mhee
unstable by design

when I saw your ventris sitting on the pad I was thinking, oh no, tell me that wasn't a single use motor...well Estes customer service is pretty darn good (though my Jayhawk will never be the same). have you ever considered RMS motors?
Rex

The next flight was something of a mystery. It was the first flight for my FSI Echo clone on a C11-0/C11-7 combo.



The C11-0 was bought several years ago from Hobbylinc when Estes reintroduced them. The C11-7 has been around forever. To say I was a little nervous is putting it mildly. Things started off normally, but then they did all day, eh?



Then things got confusing. The C11-0 appeared to CATO just about as it cleared the rod. The motor hit the blast deflector and through the lens I could see the booster pass.



The sustainer lit and continued a successful flight. Altitude was a mystery because I was looking for it gutted on the ground, but someone had managed to track it while all hell broke loose at the pad. (That was the nice thing about my flights today. ALL eyes were on my birds after the Rascal exploded. )

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Bill Eichelberger
NAR 79563

http://wallyum.blogspot.com/

I miss being SAM 0058

Build floor: Estes - Low Boom SST Semroc - Marauder, Shrike, SST Shuttle

In paint: Canaroc - Starfighter Scorpion Centuri - Mini Dactyl Estes - F-22 Air Superiority Fighter, Multi-Roc, Solar Sailer II, Xarconian Cruiser Semroc - Cyber III

Ready to fly: Estes - Solar Sailer II Semroc - Earmark

At this point I probably should have just gone home and retired to B6-4 Field for the rest of my flying days. Nope. I'd driven 2.5 hours to fly and I was going to fly if it killed every rocket in my car. HA! It didn't come close. I brought way more than I could fly.
The new Estes Solar Warrior was next. I loaded it with an E9-4 and a small nylon chute.







The flight was perfect, but I'd greatly underestimated the winds. It windcocked fairly hard, but nowhere near hard enough to account for the drift. We lost sight of it and I went looking for it, but never saw a thing. None of the colors stood out well enough to spot on the ground and we only had something of an idea how far it had drifted.

Next was my Viking II upscale on another E9-4. Flight itself was perfect, nice and high with a heavy windcock. At ejection the parachute tangled with the shock cord and never pulled itself free. It landed hard on its side, which would have been find if not for the asphalt.







Sprung a tube fin and gouged two of the fintips pretty badly, but it will fly again.

__________________
Bill Eichelberger
NAR 79563

http://wallyum.blogspot.com/

I miss being SAM 0058

Build floor: Estes - Low Boom SST Semroc - Marauder, Shrike, SST Shuttle

In paint: Canaroc - Starfighter Scorpion Centuri - Mini Dactyl Estes - F-22 Air Superiority Fighter, Multi-Roc, Solar Sailer II, Xarconian Cruiser Semroc - Cyber III

Ready to fly: Estes - Solar Sailer II Semroc - Earmark

Nope, still wasn't ready to admit defeat. The last flight of the day would be the Tau Zero Scram Jet upscale that Jay sent me a few years back.



It wiggled off the pad, which wasn't terribly surprising as every one I've ever flown in any size did the same thing. Decent height for a C6-5 flight, but it came in over the asphalt again.





It landed hard and popped a fin, then got dragged across the asphalt by the parachute. The fin will glue back easily, but I'm pretty sure the racing stripes on the bottom of the scram jet tubes is permanent.

__________________
Bill Eichelberger
NAR 79563

http://wallyum.blogspot.com/

I miss being SAM 0058

Build floor: Estes - Low Boom SST Semroc - Marauder, Shrike, SST Shuttle

In paint: Canaroc - Starfighter Scorpion Centuri - Mini Dactyl Estes - F-22 Air Superiority Fighter, Multi-Roc, Solar Sailer II, Xarconian Cruiser Semroc - Cyber III

Ready to fly: Estes - Solar Sailer II Semroc - Earmark

Millions of motors travel cross country every year in plain old 18-wheeler trailers. They get hotter than a quad sphere'd tomcat in summer and colder than a female sorceress' ventral protrusions in a cast iron support structure in winter. You'd really have to make an effort to store them improperly for that to cause a cato.

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I love sanding.

These would have been in my car for the whole NARAM in 2011 when the tip of my QModeling Rogue nose cone melted and my Maxi Streak decal burned. Plus the fact that they were likely ten years old if they were a day.

__________________
Bill Eichelberger
NAR 79563

http://wallyum.blogspot.com/

I miss being SAM 0058

Build floor: Estes - Low Boom SST Semroc - Marauder, Shrike, SST Shuttle

In paint: Canaroc - Starfighter Scorpion Centuri - Mini Dactyl Estes - F-22 Air Superiority Fighter, Multi-Roc, Solar Sailer II, Xarconian Cruiser Semroc - Cyber III

Ready to fly: Estes - Solar Sailer II Semroc - Earmark

I'm disappointed that you didn't notice my temperature calibrations.

If it is due to temp cycling, the other motor in the pack (or any E9's in the same range box) would likely have suffered the same results. You mentioned the other motor didn't cato. Age shouldn't be an issue in and of itself. I've flown motors that were 30+ years old and others have flown older ones.

Have you ever opened up and climbed into a big rig trailer right after it spent the whole day in direct sunlight in 100 degree weather? I'm taking a wild guess by thinking your nose cone and decal were in direct sunlight (ants) shining through curved glass (magnifying glass).

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I love sanding.

I got the first one. The second one completely lost me. (But I was cooking all day, so I was unusually distracted.)



I still have a couple of the C11-0s and E9-8s. Not sure I'm up to sacrificing any other birds for a while.

__________________
Bill Eichelberger
NAR 79563

http://wallyum.blogspot.com/

I miss being SAM 0058

Build floor: Estes - Low Boom SST Semroc - Marauder, Shrike, SST Shuttle

In paint: Canaroc - Starfighter Scorpion Centuri - Mini Dactyl Estes - F-22 Air Superiority Fighter, Multi-Roc, Solar Sailer II, Xarconian Cruiser Semroc - Cyber III

Ready to fly: Estes - Solar Sailer II Semroc - Earmark

I see a quick and dirty C11 to E9 two stager in the B6-4 field's future!

__________________
I love sanding.