Phoenix Rocketry's BH-2000

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Johnnie

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During the days of North Coast Rocketry, there was a popular rocket called the Brighthawk. Estes came along, and North Coast was soon marketed on another level. The previous owner of North Coast went on to start Phoenix Rocketry, and his first kit was the BH-2000. In short, it was the Brighthawk, with all the latest advancements in High Power incorporated into it's design. Sadly enough, on Jan 15th of this year Phoenix Rocketry has gone out of business...but I managed to get one of the last Brighthawks he had left.

...So I have started construction on the Brighthawk. I will try to post pics of the Brighthawk, and any flight pics that I can obtain. I am trying to keep the rocket as stock as possible. I have a bad habit of wanting to put a bigger motor mount, and stretch an otherwise beautiful rocket.

Here is a pic of Tom Montemayor's Brighthawk, that prompted me to seek out the BH-2000 in the 1st place...I am concidering the outboard advantages here...
 
Yep...she's a great looking bird. Nice launch pic.
 
I will not hash this out as a build thread but I will post a couple of pics of the parts before they become the vehicle...

Pic1 contains the instruction manual partial view of main tubes, and the misc parts bag. The bag contains motor tubes, laser cut fins,centering rings and bulkheads. Heck Matt Steele of Phoenix Rocketry was nice enough to throw in a parachute even though the contents say that it is not included.

Johnnie
 
The second pic has a dry fit of the tubes...this thing is 58" tall! A lot of rocket for the money.
 
Yup that looks like a nice one. I look forward to future installments! Please consider compiling the info you generate into a review for EMRR.
 
stones says:

Yep...she's a great looking bird

Amen, can't wait to see this bird in the sky...

rstaff3 says:

Please consider compiling the info you generate into a review for EMRR.

Oh I plan to alright, I was very impressed that the sticker sheet came with the old NCR logo...kinda feels like a piece of history.

Here is the Ninfinger link to the 1992 NCR catalog which contains the Brighthawk. There a lot of rockets in here that would be great to clone...

https://www.ninfinger.org/~sven/rockets/catalogs/ncr92/92ncrcat.html

This link here has the debut of the Brighthawk in it:

https://www.ninfinger.org/~sven/rockets/catalogs/ncr86/86ncrcat.html
 
Originally posted by Johnnierkt
Here is a pic of Tom Montemayor's Brighthawk, that prompted me to seek out the BH-2000 in the 1st place...I am concidering the outboard advantages here...

How can I get my hands on a high res version of this picture?

This is very nice.

Also, it is news to me that Pheonix closed thier business... okay, so please submit your review to EMRR as an OOP. Loving what you have so far.

Nick
 
A couple of small updates:

I had a little free time today to build, and I went all the way thru and finished just short of the outer fillets.

Here is a dry pic of the Brighthawk
 
Currently the rocket is weighing in at 1 pound 10 ounces. I figure flight ready, this rocket will weigh right at 2.5 pounds give or take. Should I end up building to hefty for the motor, then (2) G64's in the outboards should do the trick.
 
Hey Johnnie

That is one classic bird. Is this a Southern Thunder 2005 unvieling or will I see it fly on 4/9?

See you soon.

Your friend

IRV
 
Coming up on 3 years since I last posted on this build...guess what? It still is not done!!!

It seems somewhere along the line I have canabolized the kit, so the payload coupler is missing :mad: man I hate when I do that...

Never the less, I just ordered a new 29/40-120 case and G64 for this rocket, and I will soon place an order for a coupler so I can finish and paint this n-e-a-utiful rocket.

Johnnie

Pic 1: The BH-2000 as it remains today

Pic 2: Yellowed fillets

Pic 3: Booster without the outboards populated...yet.

View attachment BH-2000 121407.JPG

View attachment BH-2000 121407 2.JPG

View attachment BH-2000 121407 3.JPG
 
I built a BH-2000 a while back and modified it to fly on a three 29mm cluster. It has gone up one time on three Aerotech G64-10 motors. I was able to get all three motors to light at the same time and the rocket took off straight as an arrow. With the added boost of the extra two motors the 10 second delay was right on the money and the rocket had a good recovery.

I built it so three AT I200W motors would fit and would love to fly it on those motors but I've never sat down and tried to figure out if the 14 second delay is long enough.

It's a nice sturdy kit that was very easy to build. I got it during an auction and I think I paid about $60.00 for it. It would actually make a nice Level 1 rocket since it won't go very high with all the drag from the outboard boosters.

Sorry no pictures...

Andrew Grippo
 
3 I200's?!? Zoweey, that is one powerful reload...hopefully there would be no outboard seperation event on boost?

Currently I have this one slated for a central G64, but I would like to hit it on a few H-class Redlines.

Thank you for the history on your own BrightHawk.

Johnnie
 
Coming up on 3 years since I last posted on this build...guess what? It still is not done!!!

That's nothing. I've got a NCR BrightHawk that I bought in 1990 that is *still* unassembled! :surprised:
 
That's nothing. I've got a NCR BrightHawk that I bought in 1990 that is *still* unassembled! :surprised:

What are you waiting on man...you can't take it with you, build it and then fly it like you stole it!

I would like to have another one myself, to build in some nice modifications...maybe I will try to upscale this one...maybe 3" central and two 2.56" outboards...only one size up, but I could use 54mm motor mounts then.

Johnnie
 
If this rocket is OOP, how about some plans and/or scans for us cloners? :pirate:
 
I would like to get Matt Steele's permission, as he posts under the name of "manofsteele" at the Rocketry Planet.

I can scan these, and print them in .pdf format and send them via email if you are interested.

Johnnie
 
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