Ye Olde Rocket Forum - View Single Post - Do old black powder motors really perform better than new ones?

Quote:

Originally Posted by BEC

Funny you should mention that. I was out yesterday trying out the mini rail and the new C5-3s and had an A10-0T from 1996 CATO in the first stage of my current Checkmate. This is the second CATO this poor model has experienced in only seven flights. The other A10-0T that CATO'd in this model was made in 2019(!!). But I have had another of these old ones let go like that.

That said, in general I've had no issues with Estes motors all the way back to the early 1970s.

To the best of my knowledge, I've only had 2 C5-3's from the bad batch (I got smart and didn't fly the 3rd one), some D12's and a couple A10's CATO. That doesn't count the old Estes E15 because I think i only ever had one flight that didn't cato! The A10's were roman candles. The C5's were immediate rocket dissassembers without moving off the pad at all. The D12's and E15's disassembled about 20 ft off the pad to the best of my recollection. One of my D12's was an immediate disassembly on the pad.