A8-3 Ejection Charge
 

Anyone else here had problems with almost non-existent ejection charges on A8-3's?

My wife teaches 5th grade class, and I did a launch with them today and out of 18 rockets (Estes make and take) and 36 launches, over 20 failed to eject the parachute. I was using motors from two bulk packs. For the high school physics class (8 rockets, 16 launches) later this afternoon, I had 6 ejection charge failures. I did not even have to be looking at them, as I could plainly hear the weak charge, more of a poof than a pop. I pulled out an old Alpha I had with me and also had a failure to pop the chute out.

I also had one motor during the high school launch that just took the rocket off the launch rod where it fell on the ground, but this one had a good ejection charge as it popped the chute out on the ground. On that one the nozzle had instant erosion to more than double the normal diameter.

Date code on the motors?

I don't fly many A8-3s but don't recall having had this particular issue with them....

A210321
A210421

Goodness….almost brand new motors. It might be worth an email to Estes’ customer service address (service@estesrockets.com), if for no other reason than to let them know.

I will be doing that this afternoon.

Yes, I bought both bulk packs last month at Hobby Lobby

Wouldn't hurt to file a MESS report for those A8-3's.

Ditto.....
http://www.motorcato.org/

Wow--talk about careening from one guard rail to the opposite-side one (and beyond)! For several years, Estes--and Estes-made, Apogee Components Medalist competition-grade brand--13 mm motors had loud, frequently model-damaging "shotgun" ejection charges; now, at least some (that particular production run, at minimum) 18 mm Estes A8-3 motors have effectively *no* ejection charges at all...

A report of a weak ejection charge on YORF is not like Estes "careening from one guard rail to the other." How you exaggerate...

This weekend we're hosting a Cub Scout pack. I will witness ~60-80 A8-3 powered flights. I'll let you all know what the outcome was.