Christmas Ornament MMX Conversion.

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Micromeister

Micro Craftman/ClusterNut
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Sorry this post is so late! Been having awful problems with my internet provider for more then a month. Last 5 weeks I haven't been able to do anything other then read.
Anyway at Narhams annual Christmas Party our members had a great time and were rewarded with some outstanding food, Rafffle and best of all some Give-Aways from our favorite vendors.
One of these Great Little Freebee's was an Metallic Purple Rocket Ornament made by Estes. This rocket ornament came with a Not Intended for flying lable. Well; now that sounds like a challange. The Ornament dimensions are OD of .725", OA Length 5.25" and a Fin/Wing Span 2.5". Which seems more then sufficent for a rear ejection Micro Maxx to BT-5 Centering Ring Pod.
After some minor plastic removal of the rear closure plate I noticed one of the internal support pins that would need to be removed before a minium length ejection pod. The internal body tube ended up being BT-5+ 1-3/4" long, into which I white glued a 1-1/4" length of BT-5. As a bulkhead & pod stop a 1/4" balsa disc which it wedged 1/8" into the foreward end of the BT-5+ tube. after dry fitting the forward bulk head the inside face was clad with 2 layers of .020" Stainless Steel Adhesive backed tape then epoxied in place with 36" of 100lb Kevlar shockline.

Fashioning the Rear Ejection Pod started with the motor tube a T-2+ Tube cut 1-3/4" long. Fiber BT-5 to T2+ Centering rings were epoxy located 1/4" from the aft end and at 1" leaving space for a 1/2" x 12" yellow teflon streamer attached to the T2+ motor tube with 1/2" mylar tape.
our Shockline is also tied around the Motor tube under the forward centering ring. A 3/16" piece of T2 body tube is glued into the motor tube allowing 1/4" of motor to extend from the rear of the T2+ motor tube allowing both internal and external tape motor retension. the only other thing needed was to add a single MMX launch lug to the aft end centered between the Fin/wings aligned with the provided Tree hanger lug.

I really expected this model would need some additional nose weight but swing testing proved it is stable without adding anything.
Final EWt; is 14.6g adding a MMX-II motor and tape our LOWt; is 15.7g Should be a fine flying addition to the MMX Fleet.

Our December Sport launch was cancelled due to nasty winter weather so looks like I won't get to fly this new addition until Feburary.
It's great to be back up and running..YEAH!

MM 423_Estes Christmas Ornament_MMX Rear Eject Conv._12-04-16.jpg
 
Interesting how different the 2015 birds are from 2016. Glad someone did it!

I've been looking at my spare Big Daddy and thinking "upscale"
 
You beat me to it! I opened my Estes box in December, saw it and immediately thought "Heyyyy!" and then promptly shoved the box back in the garage and forget about it.

Let us know how it flies!
 
Very cool! I still have mine sitting on my workbench while I decide what to do with them. I took one of the tree, and a few to play with. Thinking they might be fun little sustainers...Have you ever staged a mmx from a 13mm booster?
 
Very cool. I have a green one that I was trying to convert to a 13mm rear-eject, but couldn't quite get everything to fit or get it balanced without a lot of nose weight.
 
how high would one of these Estes ornamants go on a MicroMaxx engine?

With a lift off mass of 15.7g this ornament model should get somewhere between 70 & 100feet. Really depends on the frontal area and model aero. Not much we can do with the .725" OD But the Metallic finish is pretty slick already, my plan is to add a coat of Nu-Finish Polymer for a little extra slipperiness. Should be a fine flying Micro Rocket.

As I mentioned in Post #1; The ID of this ornament will support BT-5+ (.585") OD. Using this as the Inner body tube it is possible to use a Standard BT-5 as a rear ejection motor tube. It would require a drag out streamer of Teflon Tape along with at least 36" of 100lb kevlar epoxied to a nose plug an yes you'll need about 12-15g of nose weight. Using an A10-3T I doubt the extra nose weight would make to much difference in the overall altitude.
 
I went the rear-eject BT-5 route with mine. Balanced it for a 1/2A and it stabilized instantly in a swing test. I'm thinking about 200ft on the 1/2A and 100ft or so on a 1/4A. Fun little quick PMC, didn't require too much effort. Weather permitting I'll bring it to the Feb. launch.
 
Flight Update:
At the clubs Feburary 18, 2017 Sport launch had a chance to fly the Estes Christmas Ornament. Alas it wasn't as good a flight as expected. I will indeed have to add a bit of nose weight to this model as it started tumbling about 5ft above the Launch rod. Landed fine with no damage but not the flight I was looking for.

The club at two other Ornaments flying on 13mm 1/4 & 1/2A mini motors that fly well to about 60ft.

While I'm at it , a few of the other Micro's flown Saturday. Fun flying all day long.

MM 423Lp01a_EstesChristmasOrnanent On-Pad_02-18-17.jpg

MM 423Lp01b_EstesChristmasOrnament CountDown_02-18-17.jpg

MM 423Lp01c_EstesChristmasOrnament 1stFlt LiftOff_02-18-17.jpg

MM 369Lp02a_MM Guardian OnPad 2ndFlt_02-18-17.jpg

MM 369Lp02c_MM Guradian LiftOff 2ndFlt_02-18-17.jpg

MM 418Lp02a_260 USAF SpaceBooster OnPad Flt 2_02-18-17.jpg

MM 418Lp02b_260 USAF SpaceBooster Nanobeam LiftOff_02-18-17.jpg

MM 420Lp01a_MM Sonda IIb On-Pad 1st Flt(41.5 Scale)(ASP)_02-18-17.jpg

MM 420Lp01c_MM Sonda IIb @ Ignition 1st Flt_02-18-17.jpg
 
Stiff breeze aside, it was a great rocket day for February! Mine was the 1/2A one, it flew great on the way up...but burned/broke the shock cord and make a shiny lawn dart while the rear pod fluttered now. I was impressed by the night straight stable boost of a christmas ornament.
 
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