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Tree Retrival

Posted: Wed May 21, 2014 9:25 am
by Water Rocket Expert
Okay so I got my rocket stuck up in a prickle tree that is about 30 feet tall. How would you guys get it down. I thought about wearing safety glasses, jeans, and long sleeves and then just climbing, but it's such a dense tree. And it also has the ServoChron in it. Do you guys think it will go bad from the rain. I mean, it is concealed in the release chamber thingy. It's been there for 3 weeks now. Any ideas of how to get it down would help!

Thanks

P.S. I'm also saving up to buy the apprentice 15e RC plane by E-Flite. Hopefully I can post some cool Arial video when I get it. I have slowed down on rockets because I'm saving for that plane.

Re: Tree Retrival

Posted: Fri May 23, 2014 8:08 am
by bugwubber
Water Rocket Expert wrote:Okay so I got my rocket stuck up in a prickle tree that is about 30 feet tall. How would you guys get it down. I thought about wearing safety glasses, jeans, and long sleeves and then just climbing, but it's such a dense tree. And it also has the ServoChron in it. Do you guys think it will go bad from the rain. I mean, it is concealed in the release chamber thingy. It's been there for 3 weeks now. Any ideas of how to get it down would help!

Thanks

P.S. I'm also saving up to buy the apprentice 15e RC plane by E-Flite. Hopefully I can post some cool Arial video when I get it. I have slowed down on rockets because I'm saving for that plane.
Sorry to hear you have a rocket eating tree too!
Here's how I got my rc airplane down:

[youtube][/youtube]

The rocket was just a small bottle with a tennis ball taped on the front. Used a bowfishing spool and tied the kine to the rocket. Even if you miss, you can shake the tree by pulling on the line.

Could probably do the same with a fishing pole and a practice weight.

I had a rocket stay up in a tree for 10months before it came down. And the parachute line was only adhered with hot melt glue.

Good luck!

Re: Tree Retrival

Posted: Sat May 24, 2014 11:19 pm
by U.S. Water Rockets1
Water Rocket Expert wrote:Okay so I got my rocket stuck up in a prickle tree that is about 30 feet tall. How would you guys get it down. I thought about wearing safety glasses, jeans, and long sleeves and then just climbing, but it's such a dense tree. And it also has the ServoChron in it. Do you guys think it will go bad from the rain. I mean, it is concealed in the release chamber thingy. It's been there for 3 weeks now. Any ideas of how to get it down would help!

Thanks

P.S. I'm also saving up to buy the apprentice 15e RC plane by E-Flite. Hopefully I can post some cool Arial video when I get it. I have slowed down on rockets because I'm saving for that plane.
We usually tie a string to a rock or metal bit and toss it into the tree branch near the rocket. We let the weight fall to the ground and tie a strong rope to it and pull the rope over the branch with the string. Once the rope is in place we shake the tree until the rocket comes down. Sometimes you can just bend the branch down and grab the rocket, depending on how high it is. It's not fun, but it works.

Good luck getting it back.

Re: Tree Retrival

Posted: Sat May 24, 2014 11:26 pm
by U.S. Water Rockets1
bugwubber wrote:
Water Rocket Expert wrote:Okay so I got my rocket stuck up in a prickle tree that is about 30 feet tall. How would you guys get it down. I thought about wearing safety glasses, jeans, and long sleeves and then just climbing, but it's such a dense tree. And it also has the ServoChron in it. Do you guys think it will go bad from the rain. I mean, it is concealed in the release chamber thingy. It's been there for 3 weeks now. Any ideas of how to get it down would help!

Thanks

P.S. I'm also saving up to buy the apprentice 15e RC plane by E-Flite. Hopefully I can post some cool Arial video when I get it. I have slowed down on rockets because I'm saving for that plane.
Sorry to hear you have a rocket eating tree too!
Here's how I got my rc airplane down:

[youtube][/youtube]

The rocket was just a small bottle with a tennis ball taped on the front. Used a bowfishing spool and tied the kine to the rocket. Even if you miss, you can shake the tree by pulling on the line.

Could probably do the same with a fishing pole and a practice weight.

I had a rocket stay up in a tree for 10months before it came down. And the parachute line was only adhered with hot melt glue.

Good luck!
Many years ago when we were making our first attempts at the world record we had an FTC rocket get caught in a pine tree and we used a commercial water rocket toy to pull the string into the tree. The toy had all these safety devices in it to prevent it from being fired if the rocket was not nearly vertical, so we have to remove all those mechanisms in order to have a system that we could aim at the correct angle. What a pain!

In the end we gave up on that system because it always takes many attempts to get a good shot to the right branch, and we found that it would take several minutes between attempts because the rescue rocket device took a long time to reset.

We tried the fishing pole idea too, but our rockets always get stuck in a wooded area where there is no room to cast a pole. We have to toss it instead.

Re: Tree Retrival

Posted: Wed May 28, 2014 3:07 pm
by bugwubber
U.S. Water Rockets1 wrote:
bugwubber wrote:
Water Rocket Expert wrote:Okay so I got my rocket stuck up in a prickle tree that is about 30 feet tall. How would you guys get it down. I thought about wearing safety glasses, jeans, and long sleeves and then just climbing, but it's such a dense tree. And it also has the ServoChron in it. Do you guys think it will go bad from the rain. I mean, it is concealed in the release chamber thingy. It's been there for 3 weeks now. Any ideas of how to get it down would help!

Thanks

P.S. I'm also saving up to buy the apprentice 15e RC plane by E-Flite. Hopefully I can post some cool Arial video when I get it. I have slowed down on rockets because I'm saving for that plane.
Sorry to hear you have a rocket eating tree too!
Here's how I got my rc airplane down:

[youtube][/youtube]

The rocket was just a small bottle with a tennis ball taped on the front. Used a bowfishing spool and tied the kine to the rocket. Even if you miss, you can shake the tree by pulling on the line.

Could probably do the same with a fishing pole and a practice weight.

I had a rocket stay up in a tree for 10months before it came down. And the parachute line was only adhered with hot melt glue.

Good luck!
Many years ago when we were making our first attempts at the world record we had an FTC rocket get caught in a pine tree and we used a commercial water rocket toy to pull the string into the tree. The toy had all these safety devices in it to prevent it from being fired if the rocket was not nearly vertical, so we have to remove all those mechanisms in order to have a system that we could aim at the correct angle. What a pain!

In the end we gave up on that system because it always takes many attempts to get a good shot to the right branch, and we found that it would take several minutes between attempts because the rescue rocket device took a long time to reset.

We tried the fishing pole idea too, but our rockets always get stuck in a wooded area where there is no room to cast a pole. We have to toss it instead.
Lets see, before resorting to the water rocket with bowfishing line, I tried throwing a weighted sandbag tied to string, climbing, and using a ladder to get to a lower branch and then throwing the sandbag. But that plane must have been 50 feet or so agl and my throws weren't coming anywhere close to the branch. If I lived out in the country, I probably would have just loaded up my bow with a fishing arrow and went to town. So that's when I started thinking about the handheld launcher. The face shield was a must btw. I forgot to put it down only once!

WRE Had any luck getting it down?

Re: Tree Retrival

Posted: Sat May 31, 2014 7:45 am
by Jamie5335
Hello Water Rocket Expert,

As a matter of fact I haven't really had a rocket get stuck in a tree (I did once but it was around 3 feet of the ground and a close shave!!).

However I have had a kite stuck in a tree many times! We use a combination of a chimney sweeper pole and another stunt kite to get it down.

By using the other stunt kite as a battering ram, we dislodged it enough so that the chimney sweeper (basically a long bendy poll resting on other branches) with a hock on the end could pull it down.

Hope that helps, Jamie B.