Fliskits Spitfire - Beer Can Version - Build Thread - FINISHED

kcobbva said:

Hey Mushtang! Finally sitting down opening my kit. Time to sit back and start on Page 1 of this thread and slowly read everything. Thanks again for such a thorough build thread.

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Post pictures!!!

And don't deviate from the printed instructions.

Mushtang said:

Post pictures!!!

And don't deviate from the printed instructions.

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Except for my idea of marking which line is which on the CR's

Funny! So I have decided to do copper with rivets. Bought and painted primer on a bunch of craft gems today and started talking to a neighbor with my wife. My wife turned on our new water system zone near our side garden to see coverage. I was watching it and then looked down the hill to find it spraying the gems full force. Didn't even know we had a head down there. Thankfully they had dried enough. Got all the bad things out before even starting a build thread!! Knock on wood.

I know it doesn't matter (at all), but I'm trying to figure out who would low-rate this thread (it's sitting at 3 stars right now). To start with, almost anything about the Spitfire is great, but apart from that you can't really do a better build thread than Mushtang did here.

Again, I know how utterly unimportant this is, but sometimes I scratch my head at people.

neil_w said:

I know it doesn't matter (at all), but I'm trying to figure out who would low-rate this thread (it's sitting at 3 stars right now). To start with, almost anything about the Spitfire is great, but apart from that you can't really do a better build thread than Mushtang did here.

Again, I know how utterly unimportant this is, but sometimes I scratch my head at people.

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I couldn't agree more! This is an outstanding thread. I'm going to do one just to keep track of what I'm doing; but you hit the nail on the head. ALL of Mushtangs build threads are rock solid!

neil_w said:

...you can't really do a better build thread than Mushtang did here.

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kcobbva said:

I couldn't agree more! This is an outstanding thread. I'm going to do one just to keep track of what I'm doing; but you hit the nail on the head. ALL of Mushtangs build threads are rock solid!

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Thanks for the compliments! It was a fun thread to post, and a fun kit to build. I had a lot of help with it too, I couldn't edit those wraps myself so that was a huge help!!!

Six months after finishing this rocket I finally get to take it on it's first flight. Today the rocketry club here in Georgia which is called Southern Area Rocketry (SoAR) had a launch about an hour from my house. So I packed up a half dozen rockets and drove out with my son to launch them. It was a very windy morning and the field wasn't as big as I expected, but people were launching rockets and not losing any so I decided to risk it.

My son and I packed the dog barf into the stuffer tube. There's not a lot of room in this one for the dog barf, shock cord, and parachute. I was a little worried that the parachute wouldn't eject properly.


Here it sits on the pad, waiting for me to back away so the range officer can send it on it's way.


It flew beautifully and came down without any damage. I think the chute may not have completely opened but that's okay, it just meant that on this windy day it wasn't carried even further away.

I even managed to get some video of the flight and recovery.

[YOUTUBE]CMmtaP0ffZw[/YOUTUBE]

Nice flight. Now it is officially a "rocket" :smile:

Very nice Mushtang!! Glad it finally got to go up!! I bet it was a real hit at the launch

kcobbva said:

I bet it was a real hit at the launch

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Yep! There were several people that told me they liked it, told me I did a good job with it, etc. Someone even asked me if it was real beer cans. I didn't expect that since the segments are significantly smaller than actual cans, but it was still a compliment.

A couple of people recognized it as the ACME Spitfire but nobody said anything about these forums.

And then I got the very strange question that I get asked at every flight someone sees my other Spitfire, "does it fly straight?" Strange that they'd expect it to zig zag, but I can understand it I suppose.

Congrats on the launch! I love the comments that this design still get

AWESOME flight Mushtang!!! That is a such a cool looking rocket! love your beer can design!

Congratulations! I really, really need to build one of these!