Small Rocket Appreciation

LPR is my thing, and although I like high flying E powered rockets, I still enjoy launching my two smallest fliers, the Skydart and Star Trooper, pictured here. The Skydart has sentimental value as it was the first rocket I launched since becoming a BAR last year. After about five launches, the stresses the engines put on the engine hook tang was tearing the body tube in half, so I retired it to the shelf. After a while, I wanted to launch it more so I got some BT5 and rebuilt it. This time I added an engine block to reinforce the hook tang so hopefully it will last more than five launches now. I went out to a local park today and launched it on a 1/4A3-3T. It went maybe about 60', and it recovered normally although it suffered a minor Estes dent. It will fly again, probably on an A10-3T in a larger field.
I then launched the Star Trooper on a 1/4A3-3T. Being only 7" tall and very light this little guy went 200' or more. It's streamer deployed, but it came down on hard gravel and cracked a fin. Repairable and it'll fly again as well. This was only the third launch for the Star Trooper, and it looks good in flight. Those Centuri people made great rockets and this is an example of that.
The other picture is my Goblin which I finally got around to retrofitting. Late last summer it suffered fin damage due to hard landings and nosecone snap-back after only three launches on C and D engines. I felt that the streamer wasn't slowing it's descent enough, so I've fitted it with a 12" chute with a snap swivel and also an ejection baffle. I've added a length of kevlar cord to prevent nosecone snap-back (I hope). And I also painted a fin black, so now it looks like a real Goblin! I hope to launch it this week.

Thanks for the thread. My favorite one is my mini Der Red Max,love my moon mutt too. Fun going small now an then. Had a Mosquito,but the operative word is had. I think it is still up there.

Small rockets can be a lot of fun.

My first ever rocket as a kid was a Screamer (BT-5)... here's the rebuild as a BAR:



As you can see I also made a booster stretch version. I have scales all the way up to BT-60.

I'm focused on somewhat larger rockets these days but a small rocket earns its place on the shelf too!

Out of my small fleet this is my favorite, the Plasma Probe, it should be called the screaming demon. Always strait, stable perfect flights.

I would recommend this one to every one. It's lower body tube is 1 1/2" and upper 7/8" total length 18" on a C-6-5 it's a real sreamer.

I love my mini engine rockets.

The Mini Max is one of my current favorites. I go in stages....last year I was big into "D" power, this season I seem to be in mini brute mode

I can dig it man. Small rockets are cheaper to build, cheaper to launch and can be launched in more places. T motors are blast but Micromaxx are even cheaper and I can launch them on my little 2 acre homestead. Ten bucks worth of parts will build dozens of MMX rockets.

dugliss said:

The Skydart has sentimental value as it was the first rocket I launched since becoming a BAR last year.

Click to expand...

My avatar is of my Estes Yankee which was the first rocket I finished (not RTF or E2X) when I got into rocketry a year ago. As I posted in another thread I "set it free" on a C6-5 and it came back to me

Hard to beat the classic BT20-B (main body tube is 220mm or 8&5/8 inches long) rockets, Yankee, Wizard, and Viking have been around for a long time. With the adaptors you have a nice rocket that flys any T or 18mm motor you care to shove into it. Estes made so many others in the past, look up plans and dig through past catalogs and you have easy clone fodder with those alone.

Some of my favorite BT20 rockets.
2178 Hi-Flier 9"
2170 Star Dart 9"
2040 Stinger
2039 Space Racer 9"
2005 Javelin
1991 Blue Star
1990 Zipper
1986 Reliant
1956 Blazer
1949 Viking
1938 Laser
1937 Astro
1917 Zinger 7-1/4" BT-20E
1390 Aero Fin
1381 Yankee
1355 Spin Fin
1292 Wizard
0882 Ninja 7-1/4"BT-20E
0863 Estes Star Liner
0846 Eclipse
0818 Rogue
0817 Areo-Hi
0806 Pegasus
0805 Mini BOMARC
TK-45/0845 Beta
TK-3/0803 Mini-Bertha
K-53 Stinger
K-45 Beta
K-34/1234 Nighthawk
K-18/1218 X-Ray
K-11/1211 WAC Corporal

Been my favorite go to for a day I need to unwind at the field.

Smaller rockets are great for several reasons:

1) Smaller fields as long as you don't over engine them.
2) Less money invested usually if one is lost for whatever reason.
3) More portable...you can throw your whole launch setup (pad, launcher, engines, rockets, etc) into a single backpack and go flying.

In our local field (within walking distance), the winds have been down the short axis lately...so I find I really only have about 100-200 feet of recovery area. Small rockets work great in these kind of situations...usually from BT-20s to BT-50s, typically no longer than about 18 inches. BT-5s actually aren't so great unless you use 1/4As or they are really draggy...most of them just scream up there on a 1/2A or better (just lost a Screamer clone the other day on a 1/2A).

FC

I get a lot of milage out of my smaller rockets, and they take a lot less room to store.
At the schoolyard, my BT-5 and BT-20 diameter models go plenty high on A3-4t engines.

On this forum, Blackshire got me thinking about other ways to fly smaller and more economically.
I rarely buy A8-3s anymore. A three pack of A8-3s is $10.29 (current Estes retail). A four pack of A3-4t engines is also $10.29.
For curiosity, I weighed a 13mm A10-3 engine in 5/20 adapter against an A8-3.
The 13mm engine (in the adapter) weighed less!

Four engines for the same price as three, with pretty much the same performance.

Yep, the mini-engine stuff is a lot of fun. I recently cloned a Mini-Bertha and an Aero-Hi. I haven't launched the Bertha yet, but the Aero-Hi looks really sharp and is a great flyer. My Mini Max has taken a beating, but keeps coming back for more.

I also built a 13mm two-stager based on the Estes Courier. I call it the Missile Command, and it had a its first flight last week. An A10-0T staged to an A10-3T gave me about as nice a 2 stage flight as I'd ever want.

Recently I attended a sport launch with a 5000ft waiver. I was the only one there flying micro maxx models. A couple of the guys there, die-hard HPR guys, were amazed at my tiny birds. It was nice that they could appreciated the work that goes into doing a decent job with something that small

LW Bercini said:

Recently I attended a sport launch with a 5000ft waiver. I was the only one there flying micro maxx models. A couple of the guys there, die-hard HPR guys, were amazed at my tiny birds. It was nice that they could appreciated the work that goes into doing a good job with something that small

Click to expand...

I have found it much harder to build small than big. By time I finished my MMX Orbital Transport I had pulled out all of my hair and was talking to myself.



BTW those are some nice micros LW.

I have a real soft spot for classic Estes "Mini Brutes."

https://www.rocketryforum.com/showthread.php?28184-Mini-Brute-Mania!

MarkII said:

I have a real soft spot for classic Estes "Mini Brutes."

https://www.rocketryforum.com/showthread.php?28184-Mini-Brute-Mania!

Click to expand...

Yep I have fond memories of the original Mini Brutes. As a kid it was a line that I could afford to build and fly.

I definitely agree with this; small rockets can be fun. Most of my rockets are BT-55 and BT-60, but I do have some BT-50 and BT-20 rockets. I still have never flown an engine smaller than a B.
Maybe we should put Small Rocket Appreciation Day on the TRF calendar.

Just looking at those micro rockets and I think, "wow, those look really hard to build". For me, flying HP rockets is a 2 hour drive one way. I like the giant roar but my wallet sure may disagree with the hobby. One of these days I'll probably pick up some MMX rockets so I can sit down in a chair and peacefully build without having to mix a pint of epoxy, break out the router, etc.... I love rockets in all their sizes! Right now I'm just into big stuff. In a different time or place, I could just as easily be into the micro rockets. I feel fortunate with our club, it's very family oriented and I've never seen any of the HPR folks look down on the LPR flyers. That makes me happy!

I just received my order from BMS that included some tubes and nosecones for a WAC Corporal (my first ever rocket), mini-brutes & a mini-Thor.
I'm not patient or steady enough for MMX builds, but I may try some clones in the future. (Right now my globs of glue would cover 1/2 the model)

I'm on 4 acres here and rockets in the back yard don't get complaints from the neighbors. I occasionally lose one to the upper level winds, but I chalk that up to planting the seed in who ever finds it.

They are cheap, and fun. Fireworks are funner, but you only launch them once

Marc_G said:

Small rockets can be a lot of fun.

My first ever rocket as a kid was a Screamer (BT-5)... too!

Click to expand...

Screamer was my first rocket as well. Was a bratty little kid bored out of his mind at relatives' house in summer. Mom got me a rocket to keep me busy. I wish she was still around to see the crazy rockets I build now. She was a science teacher, she'd love it.

I like standard engine A,B,C rockets cuz they are fun, the parts and motors are inexpensive, and I can fly them at the local park and (usually!) get them back. I have tried micromaxx, they have all the above advantages but I am more engineer than craftsman, and the itty bitty parts are to much for my main strength and awkwardness technique.

Love flying and Clustering 13mm T motors almost as much as I've fallen completely for Micro Maxx 6mm motors

Both offer all kinds of room to let the Imagination go and flyable on and in some pretty small areas.

JPVegh said:

I have found it much harder to build small than big. By time I finished my MMX Orbital Transport I had pulled out all of my hair and was talking to myself.

View attachment 86117
.

Click to expand...

Is that your face on the Intergalactic Man in Space?

I started out with the Aero-Hi, then moved on to other 13mm T motor rockets, since I could get 4 motors for the price of 3, and being a kid with little money, that was a big selling point. I didn't get in to 18mm motors until my first BAR phase and I had more money

LW Bercini said:

Is that your face on the Intergalactic Man in Space?

Click to expand...

Yep, that's me. It's actually a scratch build based on Estes Spaceman plans. I went with the ring tail instead of the balsa box to save weight and I turned the nosecone to look a little more like my head. The "t-shirt" is a nod towards the original design.