Modified Estes Nova Payloader: The original build of this Nova Playloader 1986”version?. The Nova has over 165 flights as far back 1990 as I look through the flight logs. In 1990’ I built it just as it was kitted until 2002 when a home made sugar motor ejection charge burned through the shock cord at 1300 feet. Upon a brutal landing it busted 2 fins off and crushed the top end of the body tube and with so many flights I could not let it die. In 2002, through repair, I modified it flipping the fins around forward sweeping the fins and lengthen the rocket by 4 inches along with hours of wet sanding, new decals, and spin testing. The Nova is now a little heavier and is altitude is a hundred feet lower than its early days but wow this nova Playloader is going on 188 flights on homemade motors and commercial BP’s and it was only a $8.00 dollar rocket in 1990.