G80-10T Rocket Launch at Bob Evans’ Farms

The G80 rocket that my brother Levi got me for Christmas a couple years ago only had 2 flights on it last year. Last weekend (07/18/15) on my birthday, I bought 2 more G80-10T engines for the rocket at the hobby shop in Centerville, OH. The engines were $26.99 a piece, but getting them cheaper online was becoming next to impossible.

Today (07/25/15) Rachel, James, his friend Logan and I went down to see my brothers and their families in Gallipolis. While there I wanted to launch our rocket again, as Bob Evans farm have a small R/C airport runway in the middle of some 100+ acres. A perfect place for a rocket that reaches heights of over 2,000 feet!

My sister-in-law Sherry, her kids Cassidy and Riley, plus the 4 of us headed from their house to the airfield. The weather was perfect, a bit warm, but perfect. We had a slight breeze so we adjusted the launcher slightly to compensate for the wind. Even a little breeze at 2k feet can really carry a large rocket!

Our 4 previous launches were using Estes engines bought from Hobby Lobby and an online discount retailer. All 4 of those engines were perfect. The first 2 launches were at Bob Evans, the other 2 were at Miami Trace schools in Washington Court House where my sister teaches. However the 2 for today’s launch were purchased at a brick-n-mortar hobby store, so the quality should have been even better. See the photos, videos, and captions below for what happened…

The (low res/quality) video above is a slow-motion video Riley shot, so you may need to skip ahead to around :43 seconds to see the launch.

Our rocket launched, stopped, started, stopped, and did the same thing a several more times in rapid succession before firing to the ground. Something was obviously wrong with the engine and it nearly blew up the rocket, and caught fire on the ground!

The photos below are from the crime scene immediately after the attack…

The higher quality video below shows the launch of our 2nd attempt with the duct tape clad G80 rocket. This video kicks into slow-motion mode once the rocket nears its full height.

It was a great day for a rocket launch, but also a sad one. James and I did spend nearly 1 month on building, painting, sanding, painting, sanding this rocket. To see it sputter, explode, and catch fire due to a bad engine was a tough thing to swallow, especially after I decided to stick with Estes because they were ‘better quality’ engines. Frustrating.

I did contact Estes when we were back home, and they have agreed to send us a new rocket and engine. Still a bummer.