Why you *really* need to watch how you tighten your Pro38 reload!
:: 2010/05/23

By Chris Courtois


In 2010, I was performing my big comeback in rocketry. Obviously, being the new guy once again, I wanted to launch as many times as I could in my first flight day.

I finally reached my goal, having launched already four times before the clock hit 5pm! However, in the heat of the moment I definitely did something very wrong. I was scrambling to get my fifth launch of the day ready and I was working on a tent floor which had some stray pieces of grass on it. What I'm somewhat convinced happened is, without noticing, I accidentally let a piece of this grass slip into the casing's threading, thus contaminating the airtight seal of the pro38. Let's put it this way: the motor wasn't forgiving. Not to me and especially not my rocket!

Here's a picture of what happens seconds after igniting a Pro38 you didn't screw in properly: