A-10 Glider from Sport Rocketry?

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JRThro

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Has anyone here built and flown the A-10 glider that was featured in "Sport Rocketry" a few years ago?

It's on my to-do list but I haven't gotten around to building one myself.
 
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Has anyone here built and flown the A-10 glider that was featured in "Sport Rocketry" a few years ago?

It's on my to-do list but I haven't gotten around to building one myself.

John:

Harvey Miller III and some other young rocketeer built and flew theirs at Rushing Park about three years ago. Sam Saenz also built one and really did
a superb job on the detailing (but didn't fly his; I think he only meant to display
his). Harvey's and the other rocketeer's A-10 flew extremely well that day;
they almost look like the real thing.
 
John:

Harvey Miller III and some other young rocketeer built and flew theirs at Rushing Park about three years ago. Sam Saenz also built one and really did
a superb job on the detailing (but didn't fly his; I think he only meant to display
his). Harvey's and the other rocketeer's A-10 flew extremely well that day;
they almost look like the real thing.
Dave, I may have seen Harvey's, because I have a vague recollection of seeing one at Rushing Park.
 
Dave, I may have seen Harvey's, because I have a vague recollection of seeing one at Rushing Park.

I know I took some 35 mm photos of those A-10's; maybe when I get the time
I'll dig them out (maybe still have the CD disk) and see if I can find them. Will
have to go through a pile of pics from over the past five years......:y:
 
I have a Warthog, and a few other members of SEARS fly them as well. B4-2 is the motor of choice. My first flight was awesome and the glider stayed up a long time. The balsa boom almost burned in half from the motor. I replaced it with a spruce boom covered with alum tape which has solved the problem. The string broke and the NC seperated from the pod. I replaced that with kevlar. The long booster is stable by itself. I tried to launch on a windy day, and it left the glider at the pad.

Russ Roberts
TRA 11925 L2
 
I have a Warthog, and a few other members of SEARS fly them as well. B4-2 is the motor of choice. My first flight was awesome and the glider stayed up a long time. The balsa boom almost burned in half from the motor. I replaced it with a spruce boom covered with alum tape which has solved the problem. The string broke and the NC seperated from the pod. I replaced that with kevlar. The long booster is stable by itself. I tried to launch on a windy day, and it left the glider at the pad.

Russ Roberts
TRA 11925 L2

Yes, the B4 has a longer burn time than the B6.
 
I could swear to seeing someone flying it (or a version of it) at MDRA's Red Glare launches...it is even shown flying in one of the Red Glare videos at the MDRA photo gallery.....maybe that person or someone that knows him can post here...



That would be Richard "Itchy Richie" Hickok with an original version and an upscale flying on E and F motors. He is also the guy with the flying pig and 2 sizes of Bender the robot.

Email me at [email protected] and I will put you in touch with Itchy.
 
I have two--the first one flew in June 2008--cadets of the Connecticut Wing Civil Air Patrol got to see it fly! It was the last day of a Rocketry competition between Squadrons--CATO does a lot of outreach activities.

The 2nd has a 2nd grey primer coat--I got CT National Guard decals for this one...
 
I have two--the first one flew in June 2008--cadets of the Connecticut Wing Civil Air Patrol got to see it fly! It was the last day of a Rocketry competition between Squadrons--CATO does a lot of outreach activities.

The 2nd has a 2nd grey primer coat--I got CT National Guard decals for this one...
How well dd the first one fly?
 
I'm the aforementioned Richard "Itchy Richie" Hickok & built 2 of the original size A-10 & the upscaled E & F powered one. All three had turned in impressive flights at times & less spectacular flights at other times.

My experiences include some of the things already mentioned:

The boom/ stick on booster pod is better replaced with spruce. The boom snapped on landing on the smaller one. The spruce boom on the big one started to erode E & F exhaust blast......I put tape on both sides & filled the void with epoxy & even that started to wear away after awhile. I've been wondering about a carbon fiber repalcement.

I've seen some painted & decaled ones that looked great, but I left mine unpainted except for shark's teeth & flourescent orange tips on wings & stabs. Otherwise, that nekkid balsa blends in with the dry grass colors.

Lately, my biggest problem has been the right delay. The big one will arc over & start heading down before separating if the delay's too long. I usually fly it on an E18-4, with the delay drilled out some. Even with drilling, sometimes it's still too long a delay. Then I'll drill the next one more, & it'll pop too soon. I want to try an altimeter.

A few weeks ago, at Red Glare 6, I tried the big one on an F24-4 for the first time, hoping to get more altitude in case delay seemed to long. When it left the pad, it veered to the right, cutting down on altitude, not getting that much glide & when it usually just smoothly glides to a landing, this time it came in at a greater angle & cart-wheeled a couple times on the ground. When I went retrive it, I found the fuselage broken apart just behind the canopy. One vertical stabilizer & part the horizontal one were broken off.....I looked for a couple minutes & gave up. When I went back out to the B rack to fly my next rocket, I notice some fluorecsent orange on the ground.....it's the missing stabilizer section.....it had ripped off on launch, prolly caught on the lead wires for igniters. Missing that stabilizer is likely why it veered so much to the right. It usually boosts straight as an arrow.

If you're thinking about building one, you should. They're cool looking & get a lot of admiration from the crowd & built & trimmed right, they give a good, realistic looking glide.

I'll see if I can dig up & get some club pics on.

-- Richard Hickok
 
>>>BTW, pic # 178, is that a cold powered model being launched?

It might be cold powered; I don't recognize him or the rocket....I don't think he'd be so calm with one launching that close him, otherwise.

If you watch the video by Bob Utley, at the very end of:

https://www.mdra-archive.org/photos/ESL105/ I noticed they show a few

seconds of video of the (bigger?) A-10 in flight ~ 38, 39 seconds into video.

-- Itchy Richie....btw, even though I'm somewhat of an impatient bastard, the name Itchy Richie was actually bestowed upon me after two bad cases of poison sumac I got recovering rockets at the field of a club I no longer fly with....that poison sumac was one of the biggest contributing factors.
 
Richard, thanks for chiming in here and passing along your experience with the A-10 gliders! Those are some nice pictures, and as Dave said, that one photo looks a lot like a real A-10 in flight.

I'm thinking of building a BT-60-sized one, just because I have that tubing on hand and I can get the balsa/wood I need at the Hobby Lobby down the street (which, here in Houston, means it's less than about 5 miles away).
 
Remember spruce when it's time for the booster pod.

--Richard

>>>Richard, thanks for chiming in here and passing along your experience with the A-10 gliders! Those are some nice pictures, and as Dave said, that one photo looks a lot like a real A-10 in flight.

I'm thinking of building a BT-60-sized one, just because I have that tubing on hand and I can get the balsa/wood I need at the Hobby Lobby down the street (which, here in Houston, means it's less than about 5 miles away).
__________________
 
The A10 flies quite well, once I got the issue with the angle of the engines fixed. Mine did a large half turn before landing. I am building new pop pods with more spacing to get the wood away from the engine exhaust.
 
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