View Single Post
  #1  
Old 10-11-2005, 11:18 AM
ghrocketman's Avatar
ghrocketman ghrocketman is offline
President, MAYHEM AGITATORS, Inc.
 
Join Date: Jul 2005
Location: Nunya Bizznuss, Michigan
Posts: 13,443
Question Delay charges: new vs. old

This weekend I had the opportunity to launch several rockets in my backyard and decided to use some of my old "collectable/ no-longer-certified" engines, as well as some new Estes production.
Old engines used:
2 Estes 1/4 A3-4T (1974 production)
2 Estes 1/2 A3-4T (1976 production)
1 Estes A5-4 (1971 production)
1 Centuri A5-4 (1967 production)
2 Estes B6-4 (1977 production)
1 Estes A8-3 (1977 production)
1 Centuri B14-7 (1972 production)
1 Estes B14-5 (1976 production)
1 Estes B4-6 (production unknown, but OLD)
1 Cox 18mm D8-3 (1971 production; in my Mars Lander)
1 Estes D11-9 (early 80's production)
1 FSI D18-6 (1975 production)

New engines used:
2 Estes A8-3
3 Estes B6-4
1 Estes C6-7
1 Estes C5-3 (In my Mars Lander ! )
1 Estes B6-0

All engines except the FSI D18-6 performed as designed....fired perfectly !
The FSI D18 resulted in the expected kaboom CATO....luckily it was expected and in a rocket that was borderline worthless.

One thing that I noted was that I would guess all the old/decertified/collectible engines except the D11-9 produced about 10 TIMES the tracking delay smoke as the modern ones.
The old engines (after firing) had a much more prominent "sulfury" smell to them also.
I had not launched any of my old engines in a LONG time and decided to check out this "lack of delay smoke" discussion that I have seen several times on discussion boards.
Anybody know what the deal is with this ?
I suspect it is a reduction in sulfur content in the delay element but I'm not sure....I hope it is not the result of some sort of manufacturer cave-in toward the mamby-pamby environmentalists.
__________________
When in doubt, WHACK the GAS and DITCH the brake !!!

Yes, there is such a thing as NORMAL
, if you have to ask what is "NORMAL" , you probably aren't !

Failure may not be an OPTION, but it is ALWAYS a POSSIBILITY.
ALL systems are GO for MAYHEM, CHAOS, and HAVOC !
Reply With Quote