Estes Flip Flyer

[Leo]

I purchased this rocket at NSL 2015 because kids and myself enjoy seeing helicopter recovery rockets.

This is an easy kit to build. No painting is required.

Here the parts out of the package...

and here the completed rocket.

She will fly soon...

Tip: Apply the decals before you completely assemble the rocket. I also did not glue the nose cone to the upper body tube, just fiction fitted in case the shock cord breaks and needs to be replaced. It makes life a bit easier.

 

[BABAR]

Looks interesting. I think the estes web site overestimated the build time:
A couple of hours of your time and you're off to the flying field with the dual recovery Flip Flyer! This time the rocket is the heli-blade recovery while the nose cone is the parachute! Hours of fun wiith this rocket!

Be interested in the flight report. Does the nose cone come down separately?

 

[Leo]

...
Be interested in the flight report. Does the nose cone come down separately?

Upper nose cone section comes down with 9" parachute.

 

[Leo]

I had two successful flights with the Estes Flip Flyer this morning.

Because the ejection charges occurred while the rocket was still pointing upward the rocket failed to "flip" during recovery as can be seen in the video

[YOUTUBE]sshIeFUf0LY[/YOUTUBE]

 

[BABAR]

Interesting rocket--- GREAT video, especially integrating the stills (or were those just video shots?)
Bet Estes would love to post some of those on their web site, you caught the apogee transition well.

Failure to flip confuses me from a physics standpoint, you'd think the "natural" tendency would be for the body tube to hang DOWN from the rotors. I HAVE seen the same thing however with the Estes Cosmic Cobra nose cone gyrocoptering "tip up", and have even seen some regular Rose A Roc type helicopters come down rotating inverted.

Thanks for sharing this one.

Tom

 

[Leo]

@Tom: Thanks! The pictures are stills...


Anyone else flying the Flip Flyer???

 

[Leo]

Had a fantastic day today so I flew the Flip Flyer twice.

On the first flight it pointed downward:

(Taken from my video)

Once it gets to spinning fast it comes down real slow. Very cool....

Oh... and the nose cone landed 2 feet from the launch pad

On the second recovery it pointed upward again. It all depends if the rocket tips over at apogee or not.

 

[ckjohnson]

I just got one of these today. I stopped by Hobby Lobby to pick up some motors and saw the Flip Flyer. I'm anxious to take it over to the park.

 

[pyrobob]

Thanks for posting this. I noticed this at Hobby Lobby a while back and thought it would be a great gift to my son from Santa .

 

[Cl(VII)]

We picked up one of these and my youngest and I put it together in a couple hours. Tenex7 (dichloromethane) is ideal for this build as there are a lot of plastic-plastic joints. We used some 5 min epoxy for the couple other joints. An adult could build this in about 20 min, but it took about 2 hours (and was more fun) helping my four year old build it. It flies great too, but we have only had point down ejections. I need to try a short delay and see the upright recovery.

 

[Leo]

...
It flies great too, but we have only had point down ejections.
...

I'm pretty sure it was designed to recover pointing downward.

 

[pyrobob]

We picked up one of these and my youngest and I put it together in a couple hours. Tenex7 (dichloromethane) is ideal for this build as there are a lot of plastic-plastic joints. We used some 5 min epoxy for the couple other joints. An adult could build this in about 20 min, but it took about 2 hours (and was more fun) helping my four year old build it. It flies great too, but we have only had point down ejections. I need to try a short delay and see the upright recovery.

Thanks for the tip. I'm terrible at gluing plastic joints together. I've had zero luck with "plastic cement" as is usually recommended (does this stuff even work??). Where do you find Tenex7?

 

[Leo]

The Flip Flyer has a small design fault that can cause the parachute to get stuck in the upper nose cone section:

This happened on half of my flights to date.

Due to the added nose cone weight it will come down fast and it can hurt if getting struck by it.

I now stuff the opening with wadding to block the parachute from getting stuck.

 

[K'Tesh]

Seems to me that a couple of small strips of chrome trim Monokote might be a good modification to this. You might get some interesting flashing going on with the decent.

 

[Kruegon]

My son has one. Two flights so far. The first, the chute jammed into the upper section and the main body came down pointed up.

The second, the chute came out fine and the main body came down point first. And slammed into the ground at high speed. And yes it was spinning. Crushed the body tube at the fin can. Totally not impressed so far.

 

[Donaldsrockets]

I flew mine twice on Saturday night with no problems. However, I will probably stuff a piece or two of wadding into the forward section to prevent the chute from being ejected into it.

I did have this happen with the Estes Python 4 ASRAAM which also had a hollow forward section. Stuffing the forward section with some wadding fixed the problem.

I will definitely say I don't think it quite reached the 900 feet advertised on the package on a C6-5. To me it looked more like 700 feet but it definitely performed better than I thought it would considering all the plastic pieces on it.

 

[Art Upton]

The Flip Flyer has a small design fault that can cause the parachute to get stuck in the upper nose cone section:

Here is my modification that makes it recover all in one piece like a contest Helicopter rocket. It was simple, use a Kevlar cord in a Lariat loop that goes past the engine to the nose section. I secured the cord just by threading the green cap over it resting in the yellow threads you see in the pic. I used a short section of cord at the top with a bunge in it, you dont really need that, just make the cord longer if you want.

 

[swatkat]

My friend had one go completely unstable at the last SARG launch. Completely stock. C6-3 motor. Did two flips on the way up... I don't think that's what they had in mind when they named it.

 

[Donaldsrockets]

My friend had one go completely unstable at the last SARG launch. Completely stock. C6-3 motor. Did two flips on the way up... I don't think that's what they had in mind when they named it.

Interesting

Do you know if he added the provided nose weight? That's the only issue I can think of unless he used an older motor with a so-called poopy clay nozzle.

Mine flew perfectly on a C6-5 with no issues.

 

[Initiator001]

Here is my modification that makes it recover all in one piece like a contest Helicopter rocket. It was simple, use a Kevlar cord in a Lariat loop that goes past the engine to the nose section. I secured the cord just by threading the green cap over it resting in the yellow threads you see in the pic. I used a short section of cord at the top with a bunge in it, you dont really need that, just make the cord longer if you want.

I did a similar modification which ended up improving the 'hang time' of the model.

 

[JumpJet]

The Flip Flyer has a small design fault that can cause the parachute to get stuck in the upper nose cone section:

I had this same problem during the testing of this model. I started by feeling up the nose section with wadding. I then switched over to gluing the thick walled Green Ring inside the upper tube. This prevented the parachute from getting stuck in the top tube 85% of the time. If you prep the chute with wadding like you normally do, insert the chute and then add a couple more pieces of wadding on top of the chute I believe you will find the chute almost never gets stuck in the top tube.

I never had a production model go unstable.


John Boren

 

[swatkat]

Interesting

Do you know if he added the provided nose weight? That's the only issue I can think of unless he used an older motor with a so-called poopy clay nozzle.

Mine flew perfectly on a C6-5 with no issues.

I'm pretty sure it had no nose weight, but I'll ask again at the launch this weekend.
They were new motors from a bulk pack that we ordered the week before from Hobbylinc. But I will make a correction, the launch report shows it was a C6-5 and not a C6-3.
Bill W. C6-5 Flip Flyer Estes

 

[spacecenturion]

Hi, I have a feasibility question. Would the flip flyer work if you add a Booster-55 to it? The treads are the same, and the Booster-55 does fit on the end of it, I have one here that I tried it on. BTW, the Booster-60 does not fit in case anyone was wondering. The only issue is you would have to add a different sets of launch lugs with a bit of a standoff to clear the BT55 sized retainer ring. Before I go modifying anything, would there be any danger of making this type of rocket go higher, or would adding that kind of weight at the tail end through off the stability? I'm not too worried about the nose cone being lost from that height, I was thinking of doing one of the Kevlar string mods listed earlier to bring everything down in one piece. Any thoughts on this? Thanks.

 

[PhlAsh]

I knocked mine out in a little over 45 minutes. Flew once on a B6-4 (not so good, but not terrible) and twice on a C6-3. Both flights resulted in a flip at about 50' (agl) and a standing landing. Has SpaceX called you yet John?!?

 

[LithosphereRocketry]

I now stuff the opening with wadding to block the parachute from getting stuck.

My brother and I built one with the coupler the other way round to try to fix that... We'll see how it goes, it hasn't flown yet.

On a semirelated side note, I'm thinking of kitbashing one of these into a multistager at some point, with the parachuting part replaced with a normal rocket.

 

[Scott_650]

My Flip Flyer was a Fathers Day present - quick, fun little build. I've launched mine 5-6 times, worked great each time. Love the modification idea - the seperate chute for the nose cone is my least favorite aspect of the design.

 

[RickGr4]

Two flights with no issues. First was with a B6, second was with a C6. Flight with the B6 was a shade weak. Flight with the C6 seemed just right.

Trying to recall if I downsized the parachute when I built it. I believe that I did.

Hoping to fly it again this weekend...

 

[Kirk G]

Two flights with no issues. First was with a B6, second was with a C6. Flight with the B6 was a shade weak. Flight with the C6 seemed just right.

Trying to recall if I downsized the parachute when I built it. I believe that I did.

Hoping to fly it again this weekend...

I am beginning to toy with the idea of trying to "build" this kit.
Getting those Spring-itch blues wanting to get something built or in the air.
How "challenging" is this rocket. I find I get annoyed if it's too simple or doesn't require anything but "snap-together"...

 

[RickGr4]

Truth be told, the only reason I have a Flip Flyer is because I contacted Estes support in regards to my concerns about the design of Sky Twister. The Sky Twister launch set had a great deal to do with me getting back into this great hobby. I told Estes that I thought Sky Twister did not have enough room in the body for the helicopter blades, parachute and wading. I ended up loosing two Sky Twisters so Estes offered to send me a Flip Flyer. I messed up when building the Flip Flyer that Estes sent me so I converted it to parachute recovery then went to Hub Hobby and bought another Flip Flyer because I was so upset that I screwed up on the first one. I built the second one correctly.

So I have an "official" Flip Flyer (yes I did downsize the parachute when I built it) and I have a "modified" Flip Flyer which I hope to fly this weekend.

Flip Flyer is a typical E2X rocket. Pretty easy to assemble. Can't remember why I messed up on the first one... LOL

I am beginning to toy with the idea of trying to "build" this kit.
Getting those Spring-itch blues wanting to get something built or in the air.
How "challenging" is this rocket. I find I get annoyed if it's too simple or doesn't require anything but "snap-together"...

 

[Kirk G]

Truth be told, the only reason I have a Flip Flyer is because I contacted Estes support in regards to my concerns about the design of Sky Twister. The Sky Twister launch set had a great deal to do with me getting back into this great hobby. I told Estes that I thought Sky Twister did not have enough room in the body for the helicopter blades, parachute and wading. I ended up loosing two Sky Twisters so Estes offered to send me a Flip Flyer. I messed up when building the Flip Flyer that Estes sent me so I converted it to parachute recovery then went to Hub Hobby and bought another Flip Flyer because I was so upset that I screwed up on the first one. I built the second one correctly.

So I have an "official" Flip Flyer (yes I did downsize the parachute when I built it) and I have a "modified" Flip Flyer which I hope to fly this weekend.

Flip Flyer is a typical E2X rocket. Pretty easy to assemble. Can't remember why I messed up on the first one... LOL

If you should remember how or why you screwed up the first flip flyer assembly, I would appreciate the heads up so I don't repeat the mistake.
I will be looking for one on the cheap this weekend, since it is my birthday, and I would like to get an easy build in before the launch season begins.
Of course, that assumes that we WILL have a field to fly in this year (currently in doubt)...

Do they sell the flip flyer at Hobby Lobby? I can't find one very cheap on ebay...they all come in at the same price level... $15.19