Estes Lynx, time to do a build

[JumpJet]

Did you remember to put the clay nose weight in the cone?


John Boren

 

[HHaase]

Yep, had the clay in there. It was purely a wind issue. It didn't start to arc over until it cleared the height of the trees, when the wind started pushing. Even then It wasn't too bad considering the surface area of the wings. The lens of a gopro is a bit deceiving due to the fish eye effect. But man, this sucker sure drifts on a chute!

 

[JumpJet]

This kit went into production before the 9" chute was available. I would switch to a 9" chute instead of the 12" one in the kit, plus it would be easier to pack as well.

John Boren

 

[HHaase]

Probably not a bad idea, it is a tight pack to get the kit chute in there.

 

[GlenP]

Nearly done with assembly, need to add the little dowels. Fun building this kit with help from son. I out on the air scoops first, then the fins, it was a little easier to work with those without the fins in the way. Still thinking about a color scheme, yours is really cool, nice job.

Yours might be sensitive to wind because of where you placed the forward fins, canards. The instructions are vague, they say to mark the tube at two inches from the front, but this is where I think you should place them behind the mark, not in front of the mark. Line up the leading edge of the canard fin two inches from the front of the tube, don't place the trailing edge of the fin at the two inch mark. This might impact c.p. location and weathervaning slightly, but the wind is probably driving this more than a small shift in those little fins could make.

 

[HHaase]

Well, shoot, I think you're right! May just be why I flew parabolic. Might have to look into locating them further back.

 

[GlenP]

Those small fins are such a small percentage of the total fin area, it might not make much difference. I just finished the sister kit, the Scorpion. Trying to decide on a paint scheme for both. I might go with Air Force and Navy, like Thunderbirds for one and Blue Angels for the other. Although I was wondering how they would look in the blue yellow colors of a classic PT-19, might take some artistic liberty there. Then again the solid black and lime green would be much easier.

 

[HHaase]

I haven't had a chance to pick up a scorpion yet, but is it just me or do they have exactly the same balsa fin sheet... just assembled different.

-Hans

 

[tab28682]

Having an urge to build this one as a boost glider....either stock kit size for free flight, or an upscaled version for RC..... No reasoning could not be made to glide with all that wing area.

 

[GlenP]

Fin sheets are not identical, but they do have some similarities. Vertical rudder is larger on the scorpion. I made a slight goof, but like the results. When I was sanding the bevel for the wing tips, I sanded two left sides. Luckily the canards are the same size, so I sanded two right sides so I would have a matching bevel correct pair for the wing tips. This meant that my canards now had bevels, so I angled them in dihedral to balance and oppose the wing anhedral and kind of like the visual effect. I almost think the Lynx kit would look nice with dihedral canards to balance the anhedral of the upper wing.

I really like these sci-fi kits Estes has been coming out with, I just ordered an asteroid hunter on sale, when I was looking at the catalog on line my son noticed it and asked can we get that one next? So of course I had to oblige, we have fun working on these together.

 

[swatkat]

I just got one of these too. Can't wait.

 

[GlenP]

Finally had a chance to spray some paint on these, it has been the rainy and windy season, and I have to paint outdoors. I put on some sanding sealer and sanded that down, this is the first coat of color. I plan to add the stock decals, black on the yellow, white on the red, should look pretty cool.



====update=====
those display stands are printed on cardstock, the templates are available in the Cardstock forum
https://www.rocketryforum.com/showthread.php?26616-Project-Paper&p=1532817#post1532817
BT5 and BT20 sizes available, print on 65 or 110 lb cardstock. You could just print them on a color paper and use the back side if you don't like the simulated plume.

===update===
After sanding and a second coat most of the balsa grain is gone, I am going to call it good enough, pretty much ready for decals. I used some acrylic paint from my son's paint-by-number kit and a thin art brush to paint the canopy windows, adds a nice touch:

 

[SCooke123]

Nice looking rocket!!! Good luck on next flight!

 

[TRFfan]

Nice! This build makes me want to get one now.

 

[GlenP]

scorpion with decals

 

[Marc_G]

Beautiful! I like the contrast between nosecone and the blue canopy.

 

[GlenP]

Thanks! I like the contrast of the yellow and black decals. Here is his brother, also nice contrast between the red and white decals.

Finally got these two kits done! I started these builds a long time ago they have been waiting for a break in the rain to get painted for a long time. Not sure when I will get a break in the weather to fly them.

 

[Banzai88]

Very nice work. Should be a pleasure to fly!

 

[JJSR]

I just finished my 18mm version of the Lynx, had an old nose cone from an Estes Interceptor laying around so I used that. Still need to paint her, thinking florescent red or a Navy blue? (don't know yet)

 

[GlenP]

Nice looking upscale!

Now I remember the part about the 12-inch chute, there is just no way I can pack that into the tube. I changed to a homemade streamer, fairly long, and rigged up an extrachute string from the shock cord near the nose to the rear end of the rocket so that the body will be suspended close to horizontally to create more drag in the descent. Waiting for a good weather day to fly them.

 

[HHaase]

Got a few more flights done with mine as well. I gotta tell you, this isn't my favorite flying rocket. Going down a chute size helped with the drift, and also helped with the excessive arcing over. Unfortunately, the winglets just love to pop off on impact if it's moving too fast on the way down. Lost one on the last flight, so I'll need to make some parts before flying again.

-Hans

 

[GlenP]

Lost the rudder on the Lynx and a winglet on the Scorpion, but should not be too hard to repair. I used streamers in both, pretty fun fliers.

 

[Flyfalcons]

Glen, I need to see how the vid turned out of your flights. They flew really well! I'll try to post them soon. Sorry I had to leave after your Saturn flew, wasn't able to stay for the Soyuz.

 

[GlenP]

No problem, thanks for filming all the others. The modification I made to the Soyuz needs a little work. Since I cut the balsa coupler in half to add a dowel built up interstage, there is not as long of a shoulder to hold the heavy nose in place. You can see in the launch photo if you zoom in, the nose portion above the interstage is crooked. LUckily they stayed together, but it was not an arrow straight ascent, it more like a Boot-scoot boogie, what the corkscrew rocket does. I need to add some length to that balsa shoulder to keep the heavy nose on straight. That was a great launch, I hope to make it out to the next one.

 

[soopirV]

I bought the Lynx and Scorpion kits for my 10 year old, these might be a little challenging, he built both the Crossfire and Amazon in the TandemX kit himself. so far he did the motor mount for the Lynx, very helpful to see your build thread here.

When cutting the air intakes, not sure if it would help to poke holes along the line with a needle or other awl type of tool through the paper and the tube, then connect the dots with the knife. You can lightly sand the edges of the tube to smooth it out, and tack it down in a few spots, let dry, then give it a generous fillet of glue to make the seam look smooth. that looks like one of the more challenging parts of the build.

My 8 year old picked out the Scorpion from a vendor at a launch, was a tough build since he wanted to do the bulk of it! Came out ok, not as nice as HHaase's, of course! I like the tip about perfing the tube prior to cutting- that would've made it a lot easier for sure.

 

[Amsterdam]

Nice flights glen! Great looking rockets too.

Heres the damage mine took, canard fin popped off at ejection.

 

[TangoJuliet]

Very nice models. I've got this kit in my build stash here at work, but I may wait to build it at home where I have a few more tools at my disposal. My "Away Kit" at work is best suited for the simplest of builds. After reading the various build posts, I think deviating from Estes steps is in order... The intakes will get added first, before the wings.

JJSR - How did your upscale fly? I really like the way that looks in the bigger size.