JStarStar
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Jun 5, 2009
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OK, I have a Centuri Saturn V I got from my grandmother for Christmas 1969 that I finally built in 1994. I installed the single-motor 24mm mount, and I flew it a handful of times on the E15's available then, but the model has basically sat on my mantel for the last 15 years.
With the 40th anniversary of Apollo 11 coming up, I'd like to fly the old bird another time or two this summer.
Luckily, none of the E15's I ever flew it on in the 1990s ever experienced the dreaded "E15 blowout." As I recall, the Saturn V flights on E15s were OK, but still very low -- probably 200 feet at most. Since then of course, due to those blowouts, the E15 has gone to the engine graveyard, replaced by the E9.
I have a Maxi V-2 which is pretty similar in size and weight to the Saturn V, and the Estes E9 barely gets it off the pad -- maybe 100 feet in the air, struggling every inch, with ejection probably 20 feet off the ground -- so using an E9 is not an option (since it's way overweight).
Since the later Estes editions were based on (and similar to) the Centuri kit, what are the single-use motors people have had the best success with their Estes models? Aerotech E15s and E30s? How about the F's?
I'm not looking to set any altitude records -- in fact, I'd rather not send it miles high, since this is somewhat of a museum piece -- what I mainly want is a nice, stable launch that gets off the pad fast enough to be stable and high enough to get the chutes open.
With the 40th anniversary of Apollo 11 coming up, I'd like to fly the old bird another time or two this summer.
Luckily, none of the E15's I ever flew it on in the 1990s ever experienced the dreaded "E15 blowout." As I recall, the Saturn V flights on E15s were OK, but still very low -- probably 200 feet at most. Since then of course, due to those blowouts, the E15 has gone to the engine graveyard, replaced by the E9.
I have a Maxi V-2 which is pretty similar in size and weight to the Saturn V, and the Estes E9 barely gets it off the pad -- maybe 100 feet in the air, struggling every inch, with ejection probably 20 feet off the ground -- so using an E9 is not an option (since it's way overweight).
Since the later Estes editions were based on (and similar to) the Centuri kit, what are the single-use motors people have had the best success with their Estes models? Aerotech E15s and E30s? How about the F's?
I'm not looking to set any altitude records -- in fact, I'd rather not send it miles high, since this is somewhat of a museum piece -- what I mainly want is a nice, stable launch that gets off the pad fast enough to be stable and high enough to get the chutes open.
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