Here's the carnage after my Quest Magnum launch a few months back.
On the far left you can see the two engine cluster mount, still tethered by the Kevlar line.
Moving to the right is the Quest kit parachute, a clean break, torn in half! Five of the six shroud lines were still attached.
The fins and body tube are fine. This model is my favorite Quest kit, well worth repairing.
The parachute is an easy replacement. The engine mount took a little more work.
At the top you can see some black from the ejection charge blowing back through the ends of the crescent centering rings.
The Kevlar line is dirty, but still very strong.
I have a few marked sticks to apply a line of glue for the forward centering rings.
Glue drops are applied to the end and the stick turned inside the body tube until I get a fair sized bead. Not too much glue, you don't want the glue to shrink and "Coke bottle" the body tube.
Here I slid in the mount but not far enough to hit the glue bead already in place.
More glue was applied around the end for the lower ring contact.
When I can (if the glue isn't setting up too quickly) I turn the mount right before it is in its final position. This spreads out the glue bead evenly for an internal fillet.
What happened to cause the damage?
ReplyDeleteHi Jim,
DeleteTough to say, I've never had an engine mount blow out the back before. Maybe some strong ejection charges?
There was some evidence from both ends. The parachute popped in two and the engine mount blew out.
Oof! At least there's no body damage!
ReplyDelete