Definitely a bad batch of engines... we just lost our Baby Bertha too! It lawndarted into a small patch of woods and when we recovered (destroyed on impact) it found the engine exactly as the one above with the ejection charge ceramic still intact. Definitely done with that box!

I'm going to make a little video clip of both engines in my hand at the same time, flipping it over to show that they are spent but still hold the ejection charge... just to prove that I'm not doing the ol' take a pic of a spent motor on one side then a new motor on the other trick!

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Daniel Runyon Net

That was my first thought when I looked at the pics in David Hash's build thread. There's lots of annular radius around that motor tube. It can easily take a 29mm tube (and the EconoJets that go with). Not that it needs it all the time, but having the option to motor up on calm days/big fields is a nice enhancement.

Doug

Would you please post the motor code and/or date of manufacture for the rest of us? Might save someone else's model.

I give my motors a benediction (a cross acrossed the end cap with an Xacto knife...).

C

I don't know what's what but there is one group of figures that is encircled and says A050306 and just to the left and below that there is (in green print) AD/MF/60505. It's an Estes Eductor Bulk Pack of C6-5's.

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Daniel Runyon Net

Heh, heh. Doug said "annular radius".
No, I have no idea what it means, but it sounds dirty. "Don't worry, Mr. Eichelberger. We'll have you out of here as soon as we sandblast your annular radius to get rid of that buildup."
I need a nap.

__________________
Bill Eichelberger
NAR 79563

http://wallyum.blogspot.com/

I miss being SAM 0058

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

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

Ready to fly: Estes - Solar Sailer II Semroc - Earmark, Groonie Der V 1/2

"I don't know what's what but there is one group of figures that is encircled and says A050306 and just to the left and below that there is (in green print) AD/MF/60505. It's an Estes Eductor Bulk Pack of C6-5's."
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Thanks dwrunyon! The A050306 is the batch number and can be useful. I have several post-a-note type stickers that I write when rocketeers report a problem with a motor. Years ago, I just marked motors that I knew were problems with red marker. Turns out now that some of them are/were collectable!

Bill,

You don't write, you don't call, and you don't send restraining orders. Perhaps you need to have a sandblasting of your annular radius to get rid of that buildup.
Post pictures.

(no annular radius entities were harmed in making this post).

Chas "recovering from NARCON" Russell

P.S. Bill, Summit Very Pale Ale out of Minneapolis...

Cool. Was there an organized beerlofting this year? Was the hotel understanding about a bunch of rocket geeks overtaking the conversation pit in the lobby and turning it into a bar? I'd like to have been there, but my Cosmik Debris flights made it almost worth missing.
Well, the first flight.......

__________________
Bill Eichelberger
NAR 79563

http://wallyum.blogspot.com/

I miss being SAM 0058

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

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

Ready to fly: Estes - Solar Sailer II Semroc - Earmark, Groonie Der V 1/2

Lost and found, then lost and found again!

First we lost our NSA Starship during my bout with failed ejections... then we found it sometime later completely unharmed. Last week we flew it again and it became our first treed rocket that we couldn't get down with a long limb... it was way up in the top of a decent sized Oak. Today we went to fly again and that thing was on the ground under the tree! It had to have fallen through a lot of limbs and leaves to make it all the way down!

All that was there was the body, and the shock cord was chewed through... my guess is a squirrel. It's gotten rained on and the body decorations are pretty rough, but we can get another nose for it and fly it some more!

Today was probably our best launching day as far as pure flight goes... there was NO wind and they flew higher than ever before, and landed pretty close... the Mercury Redstone made the closest landing to the pad we've ever had... almost right into my hands where I was still standing from the launch!



Sure, it's not a classic, but it was mine and my son's first rocket, so they mean a lot to us... that one is number 2 of 3!

First Club Launch / Rocket Resurrection!

Tomorrow will be my first launch at a club... I joined SoAR tonight and am taking a small set of rockets to launch. But the one I wish to mention now is very special! It is a 25 year old Star Dart that I have restored (as well as I can) from some VERY rough shape... it was broken in the middle, had some serious globs of wadding petrified deep in its body and a fat stick stuck in there too... looks like the builder had been trying to get the wadding out.

All of the fins were broken off, and one was missing altogether. I reattached the three and cut a new one for the forth.

The end was also rolled open a bit and has been CA'd (which is also how the body was healed in the middle).

I got this from the fellow who does our tire/brakes/oil. I was getting my wife's van serviced and he spotted my Estes catalog and asked if I was into rockets... told me that he had been in a highschool rocket club that our town once had which was headed by the ROTC guy (we no longer have that either). He said that I could have all his old rocket stuff that he could find, which was mostly just misc parts and papers, and an old launch pad and some catalogs. The catalogs were from 81/82, and this rocket was the only thing left of his actual rockets... he had not touched any of this stuff since that time! He told me that he had gotten into rockets when his mother took him to Huntsville's space and rocket center and he bought one... then he ordered a bunch more from Estes... he still had the backings from them in the Operations box he gave me.

It will get its first flight in 25 or so years tomorrow.

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Daniel Runyon Net

Daniel,

Interesting looking bird. Which company is it from?


All I could track down was this more recent Star Dart from Estes:

http://www.oldrocketplans.com/estes/est2170/est2170.htm


Good luck on that flight!


Cheers,

__________________
Jay Goemmer
"Centuri Guy"/"Tau Zero"
YORF Member 28
Semroc SAM #0029
NAR 86131


"I think about organizing things all the time. Never seems to happen. I find something that piques my interest and I'm off on a quest. Or a Centuri. "

--Bill Eichelberger, 02/22/2022


“Centuri fret buzz in an updated form.”
Bill “Wallyum” Eichelberger re: Estes Flutter-By
03 Sept 2014