TOPIC: Lighting Rapiers on the Flying Field

Thanks, both, for the tips. There's no problem with the electrical connection on my widget, and the filament was glowing bright red hot - but I just could not get the motor to ignite. I think that the scraping trick should make the difference.. and will be hoping to give it another go shortly. I had been thinking about using match heads, and am glad to read that I was on the right lines.

hi all, I trust that you will all be looking forward to resuming flying as the restrictions ease. Here in Wales, we've been allowed out a little and I was keen to get and try my ignitor with Rapiers and some of the new Tendera motors that Roger kindly sent to me.
Unfortunately, I have still not been able to get it to work.. Despite a wire glowing bright red, the motor isn't lighting. I sacrificed an old motor and ground out the propellant, sprinkled some into the exhaust port of a second motor, gently pressed it home - and although this ignition charge merrily burnt its way in, I am still yet to achieve a successful ignition. Perhaps it's the Welsh air...

Well, that is annoying. I retested some Tendera motors using my rig recently and performance was maintained. I must say I had no trouble igniting them although on this occasion I was using some black powder fuse that Piotr sent me. This was so the logging of thrust wasn't started prematurely by prodding around in the exhaust with the nichrome loop I use.
Later today I'll do some electrical tests and add the voltage specs etc for my system.
I used electric ignition all day last September at Old Warden and had no problems starting. (One German colleague described my igniter as" sieht aus wie Hofbau." Farmyard engineering! I explained I'm just a lad from a Yorkshire farm.)
I note that there's several 100 degs temperature difference between dull red and white hot. I tend to run mine as hot as it can stand.

Hi David,

As Terry has said, this is both frustrating and puzzling. I suspect your Rapiers are duff. I propose we approach this in a scientific fashion and (a) I send you a box of TSP L-2 motors for you to try out and (b) you send me a couple of your Rapier motors and I try to ignite the blighters.

I'll sort this out with a personal email later today.

Added later:

I had quite forgotten I had sent David some TSPL-2 motors earlier this year. That these don't light is very surprising. Perhaps Terry is right and you need to turn up the voltage?

I'll try the igniter you sent me in due course (when my head is clear) and report back.

Thanks both, for your replies. There's a bit of a clue in Terry's reply, in that I have run my ignitor at a bright(ish) red, rather than very bright red hot - later today I will give that a go. I've always kept in mind that the cord zapper types used AA alkaline batteries, which can't be producing enough current to make things white hot. That said, I yesterday tried using the propellant from a sacrificed Rapier as a primer, and this ignited instantly - but then failed to ignite the actual motor.
Roger, thanks for the offer, but yes, you did send me some of the Tendera motors, and I'm finding the same problem, so there's no need to send more - but I will send you a couple of my Rapiers to see if you can get them to light. (will reply by PM). I must be doing something wrong, but it is a bit of a puzzle! Cheers..

Here's an interesting color/temperature chart I found.

I'm charging the battery on my farmer's Jetex igniter. I'll post a picture of the glowing element soon.

From memory mine is at the white end of the range.