A great American, Mr. Creosote was.
We'd lost so many rockets, drifting away under canopy or just flat Bermuda Triangulating ('where the hell did that thing go?') on us, I started building them bigger to fly lower and descend faster once the parachute was open.
But as I always do, I got carried away. Mr. Creosote, Thor's Candycane and ÜberTubester Chixulubster were all built too heavy for a C6-3 motor, the biggest motor with the shortest delay their little 18mm motor mounts would support.
Not that it stopped me from launching them many, many times. Mr. Creosote probably flew more missions than any Lobster to date. Maybe excepting Thor's Candycane.
Anyway, on a C6-3, these rockets kind of claw their way to apogee, often tipping sharply coming off the rod because they have inadequate airspeed for the fins to keep them vertical. Last time I flew Mr. Creosote and Thor's Candycane, they both threw the laundry out but didn't get a canopy before impact. Luckily, impact was tall grass and they both survived, but there was no margin for error with these dudes.
What's a Lobster to do?
Composite motors. They're more expensive, to be sure, but they have a lot more whoop-ass in their cans.
For future construction, though, I'm still primarily black powder. The Great Pumpkin Rides Again gets plenty of air (big as he is) on a D12 black powder Estes motor that costs about a third as much as a D10 composite.
I say that, but I also used to say I'd stick to C motors or smaller for budgetary reasons. And that's still the majority of the fleet, but it's hard to resist a few extra Newton seconds...
Anyway, I figured Mr. Creosote had flown at least 30 times on C6 motors, let's show what he does on that and then show a composite motor for contrast. But the difference was bigger than usual: he kind of climbed upwind an tipped as he went, arching over and plowing full speed into the ground before the recovery charge blew.
Mr. Creosote is no more; he is demised. An ex-rocket, bereft of life he rests in peace...he has shuffled off his mortal coil and joined the bleeding choir invisible...
Sorry, he's a Monty Python sort of rocket, even in death.
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