Surefire Rockets

[SteveA]

Has anyone any experience with these? I need to purchase about 20 rockets for a Boy Scout rocketry class and was looking at these. They're reasonably priced and make it affordable for the scouts, but was wondering about quality and construction ease.

Thanks
Steve

 

[RoyAtl]

They are a spin-off of HobbyLinc. Based in an eastern suburb of Atlanta. Uses Estes parts, or at least did at the beginning a few years ago. The only problem in their early kits was they often put the grain on their precut fins the wrong way, otherwise they are fine. As I recall the instructions were wordier than Estes instructions.

 

[dlazarus6660]

Have you checked fliskits?

https://www.fliskits.com/

 

[Salvage-1]

I bought a load of "Thing-a-ma-jigs" from Fliskits fot a Girl Scout class. Jim @ Fliskits also has some real nice educational material, including a cut away BP motor 'kit'.
He works with you on 'educational' prices, and the kits are excellent.

Highly recommended

 

[BEC]

I bought one just to answer that question - a Black Widow - and built it to the point it's ready for sealer and paint. It's OK and should fly fine. Nothing remarkable comes to mind about it, but it's at home and I'm not. Reminds me more of Starlight parts than Estes.

My favorite rocket for kids say 6th grade on up is the Balsa Machining School Rocket. $5.25 each in any quantity you want. TTW fins, handles wind very well, streamer recovery. For an extra buck you can get a payload section (but you have to ask - it's not on the web site).

Not affiliated, just a satisfied customer.

That said, you can't go wrong with Jim Flis' neat offerings either.

 

[ClusterNut]

Have you checked fliskits?

https://www.fliskits.com/

Jim does a lot of work with schools, scouts, etc. His experience shows in some of the entry level kits he has. Be sure to check. In fact, drop him an email and ask for some suggestions.

Mike

 

[SteveA]

I'm leaning more towards the Flis offering. I have four, potentially five, different classes this spring and I try to offer each group a different rocket. This way, we don't have a ton of the same rockets. The Thing-A-Ma-Jig definitely fits the bill as different on multiple levels and I like the ease of construction aspect. I encourage my classes to enter their rockets into the county fair and the junior fair. If I can get all of them to enter them, we'll have 56 entries not including the numbers from a fifth class. I'm stoked. Last year we had 26 out of the 30 entries at the county fair and those who judged rocketry were shocked by the number of entries. This year if we can do it, it would blow them away.

Thanks everyone for your time, comments, and suggestions. It was extremely helpful.

Steve

 

[BEC]

You definitely want one of FlisKits' cutaway motor kits, too. It's a great tool for explaining how a motor works and big enough to actually see. Mine's about worn out between classes and launches now.

 

[belfert]

I did a rocket project with a Boy Scout troop some years ago. I bought kits from Pratt Hobbies and they worked out well. I think it was the Super Six kit. Doug has a bulk pack of 13 for the price of 12 that comes out to $4.16 each before shipping. He even includes some spare parts if they get lost/broken.

 

[JPVegh]

I've built a few Surefires and they are fine rockets.

The Balsa Machining Service School rocket is another great choice, they are tough and well desgned.

 

[Zonie]

The Semroc Stellar Spartan is a good solid easy build with a shoulder at the bottom that assists with fin placement. It is a classic Centuri design, that basically is a balsa fin Screaming Eagle. Lots of fin edge on the BT, so less likely to break in "handling" and the boys WILL play with them. It's 14 bucks though.

The BMS "School Rocket" is a really good value in bulk (Since all the parts come in bulk on multiple orders) with pre-slotted fins, but I have not built this kit yet. The instructions are visual (good) and BMS uses good parts, so it should be a good one. The only thing I would pay attention to is to get the boys to put the centering rings on properly so the fins fit through the slots, but this design should be an easy build.for 5 Bucks, these are a great deal. I plan to use these next time.

I haven't done the Fliskits for a group, but Jim's kits tend to be good quality too, so you probably cannot go wrong with those.

In my experience, depending on the age, for cubs, I pre-assembled the motor mounts and pre-glued the launch lugs to speed up the build (Had only one meeting to build). This was using the Estes "Generic E2X" kit that has a white BT. The boys used markers and stickers to decorate the rockets. This kit has a plastic fin can, same one as the skywriter and other Estes kits. Solid little kit, but cost's a bit more.

I did this last year in our Troop, and was not happy with the Estes bulk pack offerings at Hobby Lobby. The Spaceloft (Plastic fins) were skinny and hard to work with (13mm motors) and the Wizards were a bit flimsy, as the fins have a small root edge. We bought them with the 40% coupon. Won't do that again. Wasn't worth the savings. If I had to choose between those two kits, the Wizards were actually easier to build despite the spacelofts having plastic fin cans. The best way to build wizards is to put the longest edge along the BT, and forget about the parachute, use streamers and A motors if you want them to get them back. I also recommend only one age group at a time, and no more than 4 scouts per adult. The younglings tend to start playing with the parts and getting off the task...

 

[shreadvector]

I don;t know how long ago I pointed it out and he said he would eventually fix it, but the cut-away motor has a serious error. The nozzle on a black powder motor does *NOT* look like the nozzle he has on that model and the centerbore does not look like what he has either.


That nozzle looks like an Enerjet or other composite propellant motor nozzle.

The average person might not know the difference (or care), but I cannot personally use something for educational purposes that is in error. That is a result of being subjected to teachers who taught errors to students and a lifetime of interacting with adults who were obviously students of similar teachers and who vigorously defend their erroneous pseudo-facts.

You definitely want one of FlisKits' cutaway motor kits, too. It's a great tool for explaining how a motor works and big enough to actually see. Mine's about worn out between classes and launches now.

 

[dave carver]

I did a rocket project with a Boy Scout troop some years ago. I bought kits from Pratt Hobbies and they worked out well. I think it was the Super Six kit. Doug has a bulk pack of 13 for the price of 12 that comes out to $4.16 each before shipping. He even includes some spare parts if they get lost/broken.

Same here, small Discovery Center rocket class. You have to do a little more work on the Super Six but it's an excelent flier and a really nice addition to a collection. I have 2

 

[SteveA]

I like the Polaris for its length and the price is right.:grin: