Estes Phoenix clone

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mo2872

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With all the OOP kits of the Phoenix being outrageously priced, I decided to give a clone a go. Made a few upgrades, since more power......ply CR’s from Rocketarium, cut the fins from 1/8” ply from Hobby Lobby, and it will have a Kevlar harness and home cut lightweight rip stop parasheet. My math may have been off when cutting body tubes.....seems a little long.
 

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Nice. I've been wanting to redo mine for a long time. One tip, If you built it per the instructions with the lower centering ring the full 3 inches up inside the body tube it leave the lover part of the tube unsupported. Those large rear fins like to fold the lower body tube in when they land.

The best solution is to run the lower fin tabs TTW all the way to the motor tub. Short of doing that, Add a tube coupler to the last 3 inches of the body tube for some support. And of course, Plywood fins means more nose weight will be required.
 
With all the OOP kits of the Phoenix being outrageously priced, I decided to give a clone a go. Made a few upgrades, since more power......ply CR’s from Rocketarium, cut the fins from 1/8” ply from Hobby Lobby, and it will have a Kevlar harness and home cut lightweight rip stop parasheet. My math may have been off when cutting body tubes.....seems a little long.
Are those card board fin alignment guides home made? If so nice job.
 
Did see those on the Apogee site but it would cost me another $30.00 to have it shipped to Canada and then add the exchange on top of that. Will draw the plan out on autocad, print this out on a sheet and spray glue it to some good cardboard stock and try cut my own.
 
I did attempted that with a fiberglass kit I have under construction, but used foam board from the Hobby Lobby. It worked "ok". Well enough to keep the fins standing in their slots while the epoxy dried. It was not pretty, and was a one-and-done attempt. Good luck to you!
 
I think it's the nose that's throwing it off, it's too long.

🤷, it's the PNC-80K/71035 one from Rocketarium.... https://www.rocketarium.com/Build/Nose-Cones/NC-80k

I was kind of wondering if my fins were off scale, since the tube length was off as well. Printed the fin pattern provided on another thread, so who knows! I suppose in the end, it can be a "stand way off scale"......:headspinning:
 
All dolled up. Stickershock decals are amazing. Ordered a set for this project, and a Der V3 rehab project(built this one around 1989 or so....strip and paint and new decals....). My first order with Stickershock.......definitely won’t be my last! Clear coated and ready to fly!
 

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I think it's the nose that's throwing it off, it's too long.
AS far as i can tell, no one makes a scale nose cone for the phoenix. Most kits use an ogive NC but if you look at actual scale plans for the real thing, its not an ogive so to get the correct profile you’d have to turn your own. The LaunchPad kit instructions show how to approximate the correct profile with an ogive NC and a small conical cardboard “hat” for the tip. Turning a correct NC for my Mad Cow Phoenix has been on my to-do list for a couple of years. You had the courage to forge ahead with a nice looking rocket at the end of the day while i’m still looking at a bag of parts. Great rocket!
 
One of the sexiest missiles ever made. I think you did it proud. Great looking model.

Andrew
 
Did see those on the Apogee site but it would cost me another $30.00 to have it shipped to Canada and then add the exchange on top of that. Will draw the plan out on autocad, print this out on a sheet and spray glue it to some good cardboard stock and try cut my own.

No need to crank up Autocad. Payloadbay.com has a nifty tool for nearly instantly printing out one to fit your rocket:

https://www.payloadbay.com/page-Tools.html
Input body tube OD, number of fins and thickness of fins and print. Spray mount printout to suitable template material and cut it out.
 
I got sick of looking at over $100 PLUS for OOP kits....soooo I decided to make my own. I found out that the nose cone from another OOP kit (Red Flare) was the EXACT same nose cone in shape and size, (except it was black plastic, not white plastic) for both the Phoenix and the DER V3 models. It was more of an Ah - Ha moment as I was staring at the Red Flare model (which was sitting directly next to my 30 yr old Der V3), and noticed that they had identical nose cones.

I extracted what was needed to make three DER V3 and three Phoenix kits, (including purchasing all the Red Flare kits I could get my hands on). The Phoenix kits utilize two BT80 tubes (not cut down so it is taller than the original by @ six inches tip to tail), However - I included the capability of a D or E engine mount to make up for it.

I currently have two of the Der V3 and a Phoenix kit Named - Franken "****" Stein kits on Ebay at cost. figured why not. Got one Phoenix sold and some interest in the other). Just getting looks on the Der V3's.

Not attempting to spam, just telling my story, I do not care if you look or not. If I don't sell them I'll just keep them for myself knowing that I won't be paying through the nose to someone else.

I am also creating Franken kits (with directions) for the elusive Ram Jet (approx. three of them) and am testing the build portion now. It's been a complete chore trying to find complete directions for this one.

Anyway, thanks for reading.

Sinbin
 
One tip, If you built it per the instructions with the lower centering ring the full 3 inches up inside the body tube it leave the lover part of the tube unsupported.
It’s never good to leave the lover part of the tube unsupported......

Beautiful job on the rocket, by the way. Always nice to see a rocket model of an air to air missile sitting next to a propane tank.
 
Finally gave the Phoenix a maiden…….and it will have to live up to its name, and rise from the ashes!!!! Too much delay equals crumpled body tube……but, I had the coupler and tube on hand to effect repairs. F39 next time!
 

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E12……….6……..doh……..a -4 would have been fine. 🤷, my bad.
 
E12……….6……..doh……..a -4 would have been fine. 🤷, my bad.


How heavy is the rocket. I've flown my Estes Phoenix on the E12-6 a few rimes when I was out of E12-4's. The delay was a bit late but it still popped the chute a couple hundred feet off the ground. Looking at my records, mine weights in at 13.1oz without motor.
 
How heavy is the rocket. I've flown my Estes Phoenix on the E12-6 a few rimes when I was out of E12-4's. The delay was a bit late but it still popped the chute a couple hundred feet off the ground. Looking at my records, mine weights in at 13.1oz without motor.

16.5 with motor……cocked a bit, so that robbed it of some height.
 
16.5 with motor……cocked a bit, so that robbed it of some height.

Yeah, the Phoenix likes to weather cock. If you have an E30-7 laying around, try that. I've found that it is just about perfect in mine. Tons of punch to avoid weather cocking and right at about 750ft apogee. The delay is a touch long but it has tons of altitude and I've never had a zipper with it. The E30-4 is too short of a delay.
 
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