Aerotech ejection charge

I flew my Wildman Vindicator Jr, this past Saturday with MMMSC in Berwick Maine with an Aerotech I357T-M. I was using a Perfectflight altimeter for dual deploy - drogue parachute at apogee and main parachute at 400 ft. The flight was great, everything worked well and I recovered the rocket on the field with no damage; it reached a max height of 2331 ft. Last night, I took apart the motor casing to clean everything and noticed that the motor ejection charge did not ignite. The delay burned through but the black powder was untouched. This is a first for me.

The opening in the forward closure that allows the delay to ignite the black powder was clear both before and after the launch. This motor comes with the red plastic cap that seals the forward closure and I used the cap. I did do one thing differently this time. In all of my previous high power flights with Aerotech motors, I have inserted a small piece of Estes wadding above the black powder as a way of packing it down. I did not do that this time. It seemed that there was sufficient black powder that it would pack down once I placed the red cap on, and so I did not use any wadding to pack the black powder.

My normal protocol is to prep the motor the night before and keep in it the house in an upright position. It is kept that way in route to the launch and is only horizontal while inserting it into the rocket, and laying on the ground as I lower the launch rail.

I did contact Aerotech to see what suggestions they have, but have not heard back yet (I'm not asking for a refund since the flight worked well and there was no damage to anything). If I get a response form Aerotech, I'll post it here.

Any ideas?

Thanks.

Claude

I usually shake the motor a few times after putting the red cap on to try and help make sure the BP is on contact with the delay charge.

I heard back from Aerotech:

---

Hi Claude,

It Happens... the Black Powder moves away from delay element at delay burn out and does not ignite the powder, there isn't any flame projection typically, so no flame comes in contact with the Black Powder....that's the simple explanation........K

Karl Baumann
Warranty & Tech Support
RCS/Aerotech Inc.

---

I guess I should have known that. I make sure to shake it a pack it down from now on.

Thinking more about this:

'It Happens'

is probably not the best response from a tech support person. A better response would have been: 'I'm sorry that happened. This is how to prevent it in the future.' or even better: 'We are working to prevent that from happening with our reloads.'

I'm new to CTI but I agree that they seem to be more reliable. Although I'll probably continue to use both.