Construction Rating: | starstarstarstarstar_border |
Flight Rating: | starstarstarstar_borderstar_border |
Overall Rating: | starstarstarstarstar_border |
Length: | 24.88 inches |
Manufacturer: | Estes |
Skill Level: | 4 |
Style: | Scale |
Brief:
This is a good, clean, single staged rocket which uses an 18" plastic
parachute for recovery.
Construction:
There is a single body tube, with three fins. The construction is very simple,
and the design is very basic.
The construction was fairly simple with an overall basic design. The Estes instructions were very thorough, and I was not confused at any point. The only problem I had was with the fit of the coupling between the body tube and the payload area. I had to cut off one layer of the red paper in order to fit the two pieces together, but otherwise there were no problems. I didn't use the 'antenna' that were provided, as it would just add extra drag.
Finishing:
I just finished this rocket with conventional spray paint. A couple coats of
primer, then a few each of gloss black and white to their corresponding
regions. The finishing near the tail fins was difficult as the gloss white had
to extend partly between the fins. I think it might be easier to paint the fins
first and the body tube separately and then epoxy them together, to get the
best finish.
Construction Rating: 4 out of 5
Flight:
The recommended motor was a D12-5, but Estes has unfortunately discontinued
this size. I have to go to the C11-5 and D12-3. The C11-5's were great. I got
many great flights with this size, which were all visible with a clear sky.
When I launched the D12-3 the rocket went almost out of sight, but I forgot to
put wadding in and the parachute partially got scorched. Even though there was
almost nothing slowing the rockets decent it was perfectly intact when it
landed about 50ft. away from the launch site in a pile of snow. I decided that
the rocket could handle an E9-6, so I launched one of with that as well. I lost
site of it as it passed through some clouds at about 1200 ft, but then saw it
about 20 seconds later passing through them, safely floating down. It landed
about 100 ft. away from the launch site (0-5mph of wind). All the flights were
perfectly straight and extremely predictable, this is a great rocket.
Recovery:
The only problem is this rocket doesn't need a parachute so large. I cut a 2
inch hole in the top of the parachute to help it descend faster, but it still
took well over 2 minutes on the D12-3. The shock cord bent the body tube at the
top on the D12-3, so I didn't use any more D's on it. I think you could almost
recover this thing without any recovery system at all.
Flight Rating: 3 out of 5
Summary:
This rocket was easy to build, flew great, almost too great, as I lost it on my
last launch of the day. Only con is that there aren't too many engines you can
use standard on this thing, and the D12-3 is not recommended. I'm going to try
an Aerotech E30 on this, I don't know what it will do with almost triple the
force of the Estes D's. Just don't launch this with a delay time of less than 3
seconds.
Overall Rating: 4 out of 5
Brief: This model is a scale model of a Canadian Atmospheric Research Vehicle. It has a single Estes parachute. Construction was fairly easy, except for one part. In making the motor mount, I made some mistake (can't remember) and had to rip the mount out. I would suggest being careful in making the mount especially when this model is the first friction fit kit you have ...
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