Mosquito Information Please...

Mosquitos are tons of fun to build and fly. during bygone years our Scout troop had and annual Mosquito built and fly weekend. We ordered direct from Estes at around 1.25each for 50 to 100 kits. FUN, Fun Fun. Several of my Marine Assistant SM's used to Hand paint theirs in Camouflage colors and stick A10-3t in them assuming they would not be coming back. Which was actually not the case. We got about 90% returns flying from a 100acre sports field.

Mosquitos are not Tumble recovery they are in fact Feather Weight recovery and do come in ballistic but very slowly. To be honest I only know of ONE Estes kit that is actually Tumble recovery which is "The Scout" Kit K-1, 1201 or Scout-II #1959.

I still have a bunch I use for Photo sizing and a number converted to MMX power with Rear Ejection pods with streamers. 1/8A.5-1 to A10-3T They are a blast to fly and Try to recover.

Micromeister said:

Mosquitos are not Tumble recovery they are in fact Feather Weight recovery and do come in ballistic but very slowly.
To be honest I only know of ONE Estes kit that is actually Tumble recovery which is "The Scout" Kit K-1, 1201 or Scout-II #1959.

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Estes says they are tumble recovery now. They should know, they designed the rocket.
What about the Estes Sprite or Fliskits Tumbleweed?
Boy, you sure have a LOT of rockets!

The face card on the package was created by someone in marketing and is in error. The mosquito has not been redesigned. it still is recovered by featherweight recovery meaning the motor ejects and the model is stable and points downward and continues to fly stable until it hits the ground but it is as light as a feather so it does not cause damage or injury.

Tumble recovery requires the rocket to be unstable and tumble. The mosquito is not unstable with the motor and without the motor. It does not tumble.

The Estes Sprite is tumble recovery. The Estes Birdie is featherweight recovery, just like the Mosquito.

maccordabc said:

Estes says they are tumble recovery now. They should know, they designed the rocket.
What about the Estes Sprite or Fliskits Tumbleweed?
Boy, you sure have a LOT of rockets!

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shreadvector said:

The face card on the package was created by someone in marketing and is in error.

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Did you take the time to call and ask Estes about this before posting?

I don't think any Estes kits have been officially described as using 'featherweight recovery' for some years, possibly because 'featherweight recovery' essentially means, "no recovery system at all except we don't think the rocket is heavy enough to hurt anybody and hopefully nobody will get hit by the free-falling motor casing."

The Mosquito, like the Streak, comes in ballistic after ejection, but only weighs like a quarter-ounce.

In my last Semroc order, I grabbed a couple of BNC-20A to make some Streak semi-clones. (A true clone would use BT-10 tube and the BNC-10A nose.) I figure they ought to make good back yard launchers on 1/2As

maccordabc said:

Estes says they are tumble recovery now. They should know, they designed the rocket.
What about the Estes Sprite or Fliskits Tumbleweed?
Boy, you sure have a LOT of rockets!

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Yes your right; I do have a bunch of Rockets... When you've been flying for nearly 50yrs you tend to have a few collect LOL! with over 300 standard and MPR rockets in the flyable fleet I'm out of storage room which is one of the reasons I've started building and flying Micro Maxx models which I now have over 200 different to choose from.

They (Estes) may have designed the model and sold it for several decades...that doesn't mean those who update the packaging know the difference between a rocket and a widget of any sort. Mosquitos from the original to Todays addition to the mega Mosquito kits ARE featherweight recovery. They do NOT tumble at all PERIOD end of discussion. Flew the Mega Mosquito "bonus" standard Mosquito kit last weekend and it like all the others that have come before it is simply a Featherweight ballistic nose down "incoming" recovery. As with many of my other Mosquito's this one will be retro-fitted with a rear ejection MMX pod and Teflon stream for future flights.

As we were speaking about Estes models I can't comment on the tumbleweed as I haven't seen or flown it. Have to say ALL the Sprite's that I've seen over the years have been nose-blow with some of the up-scale versions streamer or small Chute recovery. As mentioned earlier the only REAL CG Shifting Tumble Recovery model I know of for a Fact is Estes or Semroc's Scout or Scout-II, Even the Scout-III is nose blow recovery. That is not to say there are no other Tumble recovery models out there made by other companies...That was not the question.

bradycros said:

The Estes face card has text that claims the rocket tumbles.

See: "Lightweight Model Tumbles Safely Back to Earth"

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Estes is wrong. Fred (ShreadVector) and John (Micromeister) are right.

A rocket which is stable with the engine in place becomes even MORE stable when the engine is ejected, hence the effect of the ejection charge itself "launching" a much lighter and still stable rocket in whatever direction the rocket is heading at the time of ejection.

Thus this rocket as built actually gets "launched" twice with each flight, first off the pad, and the second from it's own ejection charge. Newton in action, with the forcible ejection of the motor mass in one direction and the NC, body, and fins in the other.

Thoughts:
Idea of "nose blow" recovery (just a loose nose cone and a shock cord) might actually be useful in this rocket, as just blowing out the nose will, if not make the rocket definitely unstable WILL definitely make it aerodynamically catywampus and prevent it from achieving any significant distance from the second "launch event." It MIGHT prevent the engine from ejecting (not sure how reliable it would be to try to BOTH blow out the cone AND eject the engine), the engine if retained would make the rocket heavier but probably still not enough to cause damage from a TRUE tumble recovery. The added weight of the retained engine would also make it likely fall closer to the pad.
Problems with this approach include "zippering" from the shock cord (although you could attach it just at the forward end of the body tube with "trifold" mount) and not much room for wadding and shock cord. Would like burn through a Kevlar shock cord in one or two flight.

I've flown mine once, lost it, the gym teacher at the school found it a few days later and handed it over to one of my siblings, as one of them had told them about it. There is no tracking, unless you can cover the entire field and airspace with high speed cameras. I need to do a mmx conversion and bring it out of retirement one of these days.

Micromeister said:

Yes your right; I do have a bunch of Rockets... When you've been flying for nearly 50yrs you tend to have a few collect LOL! with over 300 standard and MPR rockets in the flyable fleet I'm out of storage room which is one of the reasons I've started building and flying Micro Maxx models which I now have over 200 different to choose from.

They (Estes) may have designed the model and sold it for several decades...that doesn't mean those who update the packaging know the difference between a rocket and a widget of any sort. Mosquitos from the original to Todays addition to the mega Mosquito kits ARE featherweight recovery. They do NOT tumble at all PERIOD end of discussion. Flew the Mega Mosquito "bonus" standard Mosquito kit last weekend and it like all the others that have come before it is simply a Featherweight ballistic nose down "incoming" recovery. As with many of my other Mosquito's this one will be retro-fitted with a rear ejection MMX pod and Teflon stream for future flights.

As we were speaking about Estes models I can't comment on the tumbleweed as I haven't seen or flown it. Have to say ALL the Sprite's that I've seen over the years have been nose-blow with some of the up-scale versions streamer or small Chute recovery. As mentioned earlier the only REAL CG Shifting Tumble Recovery model I know of for a Fact is Estes or Semroc's Scout or Scout-II, Even the Scout-III is nose blow recovery. That is not to say there are no other Tumble recovery models out there made by other companies...That was not the question.

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The original Astron Sprite (ring fin model for Series III 'shorty' motors) was true tumble -- the motor shifted backwards and was caught by a motor hook to shift the CG backwards.

The Tumbleweed is essentially the Sprite retooled for current 13mm motors, and uses true tumble recovery.

Micromeister said:

Have to say ALL the Sprite's that I've seen over the years have been nose-blow with some of the up-scale versions streamer or small Chute recovery.

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