New Park Flyer Series!!!

So to use a cliche...I put my money where my mouth has always been. If a vendor introduces reasonably accurate scale kits, I will do my best to encourage them to make more. BBX and Tomahawk order placed. It's great to see they are putting a little "Yank" back into the LOC!

Barry put a Yank 2" Astrobee kit together for me a few years ago. I haven't built it yet...too many ideas bouncing around in my head such as making a custom nozzle. But it is a prized reproduction from the golden years!

For the record, I think Park Flyer is a great name for this series. These rockets are LOC all the way, but in a size that can easily be flown on small fields...and then go really extreme (if you choose) when the conditions allow for it.

Cheers,
Michael

Yeah baby!

This thing looks like it can take a beating.

Looks like someone has figured out how to fill the niche left open by Estes vacating the market spot that used to be filled by the PSII builders kits. Way to go LOC! Great kick off campaign for the new ownership!

Flyfalcons said:

Yeah baby!

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Is there a 24mm MMA in the box?

How are these kits different than the ol' LOC standbys I have flown for years - Aura, Legacy, and Weasel? The specs are nearly identical, but the classic models say over 4000', while the, ahem, Park Flyer only claims 2000'. How is that possible?

I really like the packaging on that. I hate getting a package and having stuff inside that's damaged.

Buckeye said:

Is there a 24mm MMA in the box?

How are these kits different than the ol' LOC standbys I have flown for years - Aura, Legacy, and Weasel?

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read the first post , it's clear "........and slotted booster, these kits can take a beating! Looking for a 24mm motor mount? Simply add our MMA-1"

if you ever build a Legacy , you know the booster tube is not slotted.

The MMA is sold separately. I have some Estes orange adapters so I elected not to purchase the LOC version.

Yes, the foam inserts holding the parts in place are a great feature for shipping.

I am stoked to get mine in the mail. Need to go get a fresh bottle of Titebond. Love it!

Hey, Ryan - do you have an Estes 29mm screw-on motor retainer you can check against the motor tube in the kit you just received to see if they go together OK? If that works or can be made to work without too much aggravation I think I'm going to have to get me a couple of these.

Also, is any launch guide (lug or buttons) supplied?

Thanks.

See you on the 20th, hopefully - and have a good time Saturday over at TCR.

BEC said:

Hey, Ryan - do you have an Estes 29mm screw-on motor retainer you can check against the motor tube in the kit you just received to see if they go together ?

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The Estes fit perfectly on a LOC 29mm motor tube, once you sand the tube and also the inside of the retainer ( for give grip to the epoxy, not to fit) it's a little bit loose, but the JB will fill the space.

Q-Aero said:

if you ever build a Legacy , you know the booster tube is not slotted.

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The fin slots are a nice add. So is the recovery blanket. I'm talking about the basic size and materials. The BT looks like the nice, thick-walled, LOC 38mm cardboard. No mention is made of the fin stock or nose, so I'll assume they are the same as the classic 1.6" kits.

The Park Flyers are essentially LOC Auras for performance. Something is not right in either the specs or in the altitude simulation of the PFs. I will guess the latter.

Silly question- the lengths on the kits vary. Are they all single length tubes, or do any have multiple body tubes and a coupler?

I think y'all can see where I'm going with this....

Buckeye said:

The fin slots are a nice add. So is the recovery blanket. I'm talking about the basic size and materials. The BT looks like the nice, thick-walled, LOC 38mm cardboard. No mention is made of the fin stock or nose, so I'll assume they are the same as the classic 1.6" kits.

The Park Flyers are essentially LOC Auras for performance. Something is not right in either the specs or in the altitude simulation of the PFs. I will guess the latter.

View attachment 319839View attachment 319840

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I could be wrong but I seem to remember seeing some old adverts for the Aura as being a mach-buster on full H motors. Maybe that's where the 4k altitude originates from? I built an Aura a number of years ago and IIRC a lot of the G motors simmed to 2k or a little over...

Well, a few of the them seem to have payload sections, so I'd say that at least the longer ones have that option...

EXPjawa said:

Well, a few of the them seem to have payload sections, so I'd say that at least the longer ones have that option...

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we're gonna need a bigger park

DavidMcCann said:

Silly question- the lengths on the kits vary. Are they all single length tubes, or do any have multiple body tubes and a coupler?

I think y'all can see where I'm going with this....

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The Sandhawk has multiple tubes and a coupler. The booster tube is 17" long. The instructions mention bulkplates, but none are provided with the kit. The coupler is 4" long. I am hoping to keep mine light enough for D motors, so I will be building the booster as one piece and popping the nose with motor eject. A Chute Release will be utilized when going with bigger motors, though I think mine will mostly fly on 24mm D12, E12, and E20W motors.

Dry fit of the Sandhawk next to my fiberglass Frenzy on dual deploy. The slots in the body tube have a near perfect fit. We'll see how they fit after I fill and sand the fins.

BEC said:

Hey, Ryan - do you have an Estes 29mm screw-on motor retainer you can check against the motor tube in the kit you just received to see if they go together OK? If that works or can be made to work without too much aggravation I think I'm going to have to get me a couple of these.

Also, is any launch guide (lug or buttons) supplied?

Thanks.

See you on the 20th, hopefully - and have a good time Saturday over at TCR.

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The kit comes with a 4" long piece of 1/4" launch lug material. The kit recommends placing it against a fin, which is fine, but my personal preference is two shorter pieces spread further apart. So that's what I'll probably do here.

The Estes retainer fits perfectly on the motor mount tube. The screw-on piece is slightly oversized for the booster tube. I may sand the ridges off it for this build.

DavidMcCann said:

we're gonna need a bigger park

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LOL - Torrey Farm is probably big enough to be a state park...

Chute release with the supplied nylon parachute does fit.

The boosters are a standard 17" for the way we set up production. Add the cone length of 8" and anything over the 25" height is getting a payload. And that includes a bulkhead and eye screw. You can certainly skip the bulkhead to save weight and deploy out the cone, or set up for a dual deploy for an extremist. The height difference on the product key is simply that we didn't intend for these to go past the G motor size and depending on the G, is right around 2500'. I have all the Rocksim files completed, but our webpage is being funny about letting us put these in the downloads section. I hope to have them up soon so ya'll can see what's in them!

I can see adding a few of these to my (already way-to-big) build pile... They look great!

LOC said:

The boosters are a standard 17" for the way we set up production. Add the cone length of 8" and anything over the 25" height is getting a payload. And that includes a bulkhead and eye screw. You can certainly skip the bulkhead to save weight and deploy out the cone, or set up for a dual deploy for an extremist. The height difference on the product key is simply that we didn't intend for these to go past the G motor size and depending on the G, is right around 2500'. I have all the Rocksim files completed, but our webpage is being funny about letting us put these in the downloads section. I hope to have them up soon so ya'll can see what's in them!

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You may want to check the batch that is going out now, as my Sandhawk did not have the bulkhead and eye bolt.

We'll double check that asap. Thanks for the heads up!

Flyfalcons said:

You may want to check the batch that is going out now, as my Sandhawk did not have the bulkhead and eye bolt.

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The instructions recommend mounting the shock cord to the motor tube. Since I'm popping the nose for recovery, that would only leave about three feet of the six-foot elastic cord exposed. So, I'm mounting it sandwiched between the coupler and body tubes. I sanded a flat spot in the coupler and tied a knot in the cord to help anchor it down.

chrisudy said:

I can see adding a few of these to my (already way-to-big) build pile... They look great!

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I can relate!

Cheers,
Michael

Received 3 Sandhawks today, the one I opened had a bulkhead. They were well packed and seem like a quick fun build. I bought these for building with elementary students with Estes experience and are ready to try something new. I think they are going to be perfect for that and, I hope, get some kids interested in attending a club launch to fly an F or G motor.

I received my IGSY yesterday and was very pleased with the quality and packaging. I plan to build mine stock with the exception of using Kevlar for the shock cord. I will use the payload bay for my tracker and an altimeter pretty much the way I set up my Aurabee. I never really got a chance to stretch the legs of my Aurabee due to a hard landing that stressed cracked the root fillet. I did not want to repair the rocket because I did not want to mess up the finish. I'm so glad LOC came out with these. I always planned on scratching a few sounding rockets out of LOC's 38mm tube. So stoked.

I was just cruising the LOC website. Apparently they still have some COOL SPOOLS in the Closeout section, for those of you that might want to add one to your next order.