Estes Long Tom

One more for today. I built this Estes Long Tom kit last fall, this is my first multi-staged rocket (despite lots of single-staged ones).


I fitted it with an ejection baffle, per the original Centuri design. I didn't go so far as to adopt the gap staging, so the engines will still taped and friction fitted. The only other deviation from standard is the single red fin set, inspired by my D-Region Tomahawk. It also occurred to me that adding some red to the booster will make it easier to find later. I'm hoping for a successful first flight later this spring.

Well you certainly have a beautiful fleet of rockets to fly "...later this spring." You better start collecting some woosh generators for those puppies. Got a field scouted out yet ?

Thank you, I've been through a bit of a building spurt lately, and well, I guess this is the result. Here in western NY, its pretty damn cold and no one seems to want to chase rockets through the snow. There's a local club that I've launched with, so finding a field isn't an issue. Rather, being patient enough for one launch a month - in the warmer part of the year only - is a little tougher. I may investigate if its feasible (or allowed) to use a local school's athletic fields on weekends when there's no club event...

Looks great. I really like those old Centuri designs—particularly with those classic Centuri fin shapes. I notice a lot of folks vary the paint scheme a bit.

You should put that in the Long Tom gallery. The Centuri designs like company.

Yeah, I figured you were somewhere where winter is "build season". The school field is a good idea; approaching someone on the faculty (science teacher ?) rather than administration might improve the chances for a favorable response. Maybe an old fashioned show-n-tell to get in the door.

Well, my father is a bus driver and the garage is right next to the fields. I think he might be able to ask his boss who to talk to. I've launched in the winter before, but it tends to get windy this time of year, and they always drift downwind into deeper snow it would seem. The local club did have a New Years day launch, but the weather was pretty poor that day. I do envy you guys that can fly year round, my nephew launches at Moffett Field with LUNAR and has a nice long flying season.

foamy said:

Looks great. I really like those old Centuri designs—particularly with those classic Centuri fin shapes. I notice a lot of folks vary the paint scheme a bit.

You should put that in the Long Tom gallery. The Centuri designs like company.

Click to expand...

Where would I find that? I'm still trying to figure out where stuff is on this site...

EXPjawa said:

Where would I find that? I'm still trying to figure out where stuff is on this site...

Click to expand...

https://www.rocketryforum.com/showt...4-or-5064)-Gallery&highlight=Long+tom+gallery

Its a cool looking rocket - I have done two, maybe three of them (cant remember), keep the power low when you launch unless you have a lot of space around you - I have lost two of them, upper stage went so high we never got it back dues to launching with highest power.