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I'd like see...

Mini Brutes...

Goonies...

Big Brutes...

Maxi-Brutes...

Pro-Series...

Scaled Series...NASA/Air Force & Military

And a C-rail tower launch pad to simulate the mover and tower used since the 60's.

Something for everyone except those with humungous wallets and rockets.

And bring back some kind of movie camera, plenty out there, in a kit and some electronics.

And HEAVIER Blast Plates w/o the stupid plastic center!!!!!!!!!
 
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Speaking of what the younger folks want.....

My 9 year old nephew wants a video camera rocket kit! He sees a lot of folks strapping a key chain camera on rockets and wants a kit. I know Estes had a couple of these early versions some years ago, but they are hard to come by and usually go for upwards of $100 on ebay. Surely with all the Chinese tech out there an affordable kit could be made.


Jerome
 
bobkrech said:
For the non-mailable motors, Estes should consider 6, 12 and/or 24 packs. The list price of an E and F motor is $11.50 and $13.50 respectively, and in a 2 pack the hazmat fee and regular shipping costs are $35.50 which is more than the cost of a pack of motors. I have to believe that in quantities of 6, 12 and/or 24, the list price could be reduced slightly as the number of packages are reduced but the shipping costs would not be effected. They would sell more and get rid of the bad PR they got from the previous contorted on-lime pricing scheme.

Bob
Click to expand...

JeromeK99 said:
Bob, we have to be realistic. As much as you and I would like bulk packs like this, "we" are such a small part of the overall customer base that it wouldn't make good sense. I think the real idea is for us to buy these motors from local hobby shops. Now the disappointing part of that is few LHS carry rockets and those that do, don't have much. Not to hijack this thread, but LHS are at fault for this. If you know your products, and stock them well, they will sell. I've been there. Estes would greatly anger what's left of their entire hobby supply chain if they offered big discounted bulk packs.

If you are looking for a good price, they are out there. For E & F motors I typically will order a dozen or so packs a year from https://www.acsupplyco.com taking advantage of their always 40% off discount and free shipping over $100. A dozen packs of assorted sizes brings the hazmat charge down to less than $1 a motor (a motor that is already 40% off retail).


As for questions for Estes I'd like to see more nosecones available separately or in packs. Everything else is relatively easy to come by.



Jerome
Click to expand...
I believe that supplying motors in bulk packs makes economic sense for Estes as they make more money selling at list price directly to the consumer than they do selling at the wholesale discount rate to distributors/vendors. And Estes sells all their products at wholesale discount rate to their distributors/vendors so they won't loose anything that way either. Many hobby stores carry Blast-off packs and all the other Estes motor bulk packs anyway, and I don't see Estes, the vendors or the consumers complaining. If you followed the original hubbub here on TRF when the >30 g E and F BP motors came out and required hazmat shipping, you will see just how much everyone was POed and confused about the hazmat charges, especially when Estes revised their website last year and botched the explanation of the shipping charges....... That didn't help sales, it hurt them.

Bob
 
JeromeK99 said:
Speaking of what the younger folks want.....

My 9 year old nephew wants a video camera rocket kit! He sees a lot of folks strapping a key chain camera on rockets and wants a kit. I know Estes had a couple of these early versions some years ago, but they are hard to come by and usually go for upwards of $100 on ebay. Surely with all the Chinese tech out there an affordable kit could be made.


Jerome
Click to expand...

Agreed.
And not just one kit, but one in each level of altitude.
Meaning...
500ft & under.
500' to 1000'
1000' to 2500'
2500' to 5000'
and over 5000'
This would give the rocket community a wide open range for whatever launch site they have access to.
From seeing their back yard to the top of the mountain they live next to.
And include a GPS Tracker, everything nicely tucked into a payload bay or nose cone.
And comes with an option gps hand tracker for us non smart phone users. (Guilty)
As simple as a screen with arrow pointing in the direction of the landed rocket would a heck of a nice thing.
Keep it lower tech and more affordable.
 
cvanc said:
Hmmmm... very interesting idea...
Click to expand...

Carl, you should buy Semroc. You know you want to do it. Jedi mind trick engaged.

Next you want to take your L3 rocket and make it a two stage with n10000 booster staging to the n5800. Now that would be an interesting recovery.


Mark Koelsch
Sent from my iPhone using Rocketry Forum
 
bobkrech said:
I believe that supplying motors in bulk packs makes economic sense for Estes as they make more money selling at list price directly to the consumer than they do selling at the wholesale discount rate to distributors/vendors. And Estes sells all their products at wholesale discount rate to their distributors/vendors so they won't loose anything that way either. Many hobby stores carry Blast-off packs and all the other Estes motor bulk packs anyway, and I don't see Estes, the vendors or the consumers complaining. If you followed the original hubbub here on TRF when the >30 g E and F BP motors came out and required hazmat shipping, you will see just how much everyone was POed and confused about the hazmat charges, especially when Estes revised their website last year and botched the explanation of the shipping charges....... That didn't help sales, it hurt them.

Bob
Click to expand...

Hey... miracles can happen I suppose. I for one will be one of the first in line to buys bulk packs if they happen. But somehow I doubt the direct price from Estes will beat 40% off of retail to consumers. Bulk packs make great economic sense for us, the consumer, not so much for Estes. Why would they sell at a deep discount to a relatively small captive audience? You don't go into business to be nice. You do it to make money. I seriously doubt the small number of us would make up for the loss of profit. We really have no alternative for D-F BP motors.

Everybody is entitled to an opinion. The facts are still the facts though....


Jerome
 
JeromeK99 said:
Speaking of what the younger folks want.....

My 9 year old nephew wants a video camera rocket kit! He sees a lot of folks strapping a key chain camera on rockets and wants a kit. I know Estes had a couple of these early versions some years ago, but they are hard to come by and usually go for upwards of $100 on ebay. Surely with all the Chinese tech out there an affordable kit could be made.


Jerome
Click to expand...

It really shouldn't be too much trouble to pull the guts out of a keychain video cam, install it one side of a plastic payload module, and put an adapted version of the Estes Altimeter in the other side, to create a useful and still compact info-module which would fit a BT-50 or 55.
 
I'd like to see more builder kits built for the 29mm E and F black powder motors. Most of the PSII builder kits were designed with composite motors in mind, and they are too heavy for the black powder motors. A 3" kit light enough for the BP motors would be cool.
 
JStarStar said:
It really shouldn't be too much trouble to pull the guts out of a keychain video cam, install it one side of a plastic payload module, and put an adapted version of the Estes Altimeter in the other side, to create a useful and still compact info-module which would fit a BT-50 or 55.
Click to expand...

Would you want the lense / ccd pointing down, out, up, or be configurable? Maybe pointing out with an optional mirror/shroud combo that can be snapped in place to capture an image pointing either down the rocket towards the fins, or up towards the nose. (Or maybe just down, and if the user wants "up" the install the payload "upside-down")
 
ThirstyBarbarian said:
I'd like to see more builder kits built for the 29mm E and F black powder motors. Most of the PSII builder kits were designed with composite motors in mind, and they are too heavy for the black powder motors. A 3" kit light enough for the BP motors would be cool.
Click to expand...

one word: Clusters :p

A clustered leviathan or argent might be fun. (You've already done a der 'max project, or I would have suggested that.)

I'm seriously thinking about clusters right now. I have one based on 29mm in OR - so far I've only simmed it with loads that fit 3x 40-120 cases (and a couple of the 29mm DMS loads just to see what I could do with it at Snow Ranch.) Now I'll have to try out the E and F black powder motors in the sim when I get home.)

Anyone have a reasonably accurate .ork files for the Leviathan, Argent, or any of the other PSII kits lying around somewhere? I've got one for my Ventris already.
 
I love to see some of the older rockets come back. Have a retro section and bring back a handful each year then cycle to a new retro batch the following year. I am sure I would snag up each one as well as most of these rocket nuts here.

Or do more models of current and past history rockets.
 
rbelknap said:
one word: Clusters :p

A clustered leviathan or argent might be fun. (You've already done a der 'max project, or I would have suggested that.)

I'm seriously thinking about clusters right now. I have one based on 29mm in OR - so far I've only simmed it with loads that fit 3x 40-120 cases (and a couple of the 29mm DMS loads just to see what I could do with it at Snow Ranch.) Now I'll have to try out the E and F black powder motors in the sim when I get home.)

Anyone have a reasonably accurate .ork files for the Leviathan, Argent, or any of the other PSII kits lying around somewhere? I've got one for my Ventris already.
Click to expand...

You are right on track with this. I had thought about it awhile back, but you can quickly get into HPR range with clusters exceeding the fuel mass for model rocketry. But now I have my Level 1 and can go to cluster heaven! I'm wishing I had built the pod rocket with motor mounts in the pods, but I wasn't planning to get into HPR just yet.

Does Estes make any cluster kits? I know they don't for the larger motors, but how about for 18mm or 24mm? That might be another suggestion to bring to them.
 
I hope your friend is well and you had a nice visit Woody. Can you share any rocketry related news ?
 
JeromeK99 said:
Speaking of what the younger folks want.....

My 9 year old nephew wants a video camera rocket kit! He sees a lot of folks strapping a key chain camera on rockets and wants a kit. I know Estes had a couple of these early versions some years ago, but they are hard to come by and usually go for upwards of $100 on ebay. Surely with all the Chinese tech out there an affordable kit could be made.


Jerome
Click to expand...

I second this request. I just got a rocket "Scrambler" with a clear payload bay, and as a result, I'm beginning to think about something simple that could be plugged into my laptop to see what the rocket sees.... (and share the experience with others, family, prospective members, etc.)
 

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