In Praise of LPR

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Pic of Avatar please! :)
I love sci-fi looking rockets, especially "Dieselpunk" ("Flash Gordon" and "Buck Rogers") type rockets.

I have begged the new owners of Estes to bring back the "Galactic Pirates" rockets from the early 1980's. I hope they consider my request!

I love the Galactic Pirate "Patrol Cruiser Excalibur".View attachment 474037
Don’t forget the More Rockets repro of the Dragon Ship 7,
http://morerockets.com/Reproduction-Rockets/Reproduction-Model-Rocket-Kits/Dragon-Ship-7
 
While you wait for Estes to bring it back, you can currently get a reproduction of the kit at,
Or save some money and clone it:
Space Cruiser Excalibur (spacemodeling.org)
Don't forget the companion:
Dragon Ship 7 (spacemodeling.org)
Fins (if you're lazy like me and don't want to trace from templates):
Semroc Laser-Cut Fins Patrol Cruiser™ 3/32 Balsa Sheet SEM-FES-1339 * (erockets.biz)
Semroc Laser-Cut Fins Dragon Ship™ (Sheet A/B) 3/32 Balsa SEM-FES-1345 * (erockets.biz)
 
I've been flying all three for a while. I tend to oscillate between focusing on one of the three size categories every few years. Recently, I've been mostly LPR, but have been helping a good friend who is currently mostly HPR.

I have seen, at times, HPR guys look down on the rest of the fliers, but most often those individuals are fairly new to HPR and seem to think that it has to be their way or nothing. Most often, they either crash a bunch of HPR's and give up on the hobby or they fly a good bit and then go back to flying everything and respecting everything. Not 100% true all the time, but it seems to be typical from what I've seen.

The downside is that the very-very few HPR-only guys that do 'make fun of' LPR and MPR guys tend to be loud and intimidating to new people and that is a bad look for all of us.

Sandy.
 

This is AWESOME! Pre-cut fin sets (the fins are the hard part) to make my own Galactic Pirates clones!

Thanks!
 
(This is adapted from a post I made in a different forum.)

I think people being into mid-power rocketry (MPR) and high-power rocketry (HPR) is great! That is awesome! Go for it!

I am just saying that, there is no shame in having lots of fun, and learning lots of stuff, easily and affordably, in low power rocketry (LPR).

I am a born-again-rocketeer (BAR) loving me some LPR right now!

I haven’t really gotten into MPR or HPR. The cost and time barriers are a little big for me right now.

Also, I enjoy the rocketry hobby from a math and science standpoint, which can all be done with inexpensive, LPR rockets. I enjoy helping young people get into the hobby and teaching them math and science along the way. Again, that works fine with LPR. When a kid asks how high the rocket will go and you say, "hey, we can use this protractor, a drinking straw, a piece of string, an eraser, and a little basic trigonometry, to find out", and the kid gets excited, that is way cool.

I am also enjoying the modeling aspect of the hobby, which works fine with LPR rockets.

I enjoy clustering and staging, which, again, works fine with LPR rockets.

When I say I am a BAR, I mean it literally. I am a kid again, in a grown up’s body, enjoying building and flying the Estes-type rockets that I loved as a kid.

I enjoy kit bashing - easy to do with LPR.

I still haven’t mastered LPR. I need to build my Estes Executioner and my Double D Squared. Once I do that, I will assess whether I want to try MPR. I am having a lot of fun just being a kid again!

Yes, I am still mastering LPR and I am not even close to done. There is lots of fun to have, and things to learn, in LPR. You don't have to feel like you are not "measuring up", or anything like that, just because you are in your late 50's and still into LPR.

Besides, as anyone in their late 50's will tell you, dignity is highly overrated.
I appreciate this post greatly. Though I enjoy experimenting with exotic recoveries and ring fins, every one of your paragraphs rings true to me (although I'm in my 70's).

Today I will go to Dahl Playfield and launch a few rockets with my very old friend Harvey, who sadly can no longer drive. The rockets will go up to a modest altitude, we will recover them, then go have a beer.

DSC00325.jpg
From left to right, scratch built Bigamist, kit bashed Big Bertha, the Monogamist, and kit bashed Generic E2X with payload bay.
 
I appreciate this post greatly. Though I enjoy experimenting with exotic recoveries and ring fins, every one of your paragraphs rings true to me (although I'm in my 70's).

Today I will go to Dahl Playfield and launch a few rockets with my very old friend Harvey, who sadly can no longer drive. The rockets will go up to a modest altitude, we will recover them, then go have a beer.

View attachment 474815
From left to right, scratch built Bigamist, kit bashed Big Bertha, the Monogamist, and kit bashed Generic E2X with payload bay.
So when can we expect the cluster, aka Polygamist?

somewhere I remember reading that a man, when asked what the opposite of polygamy was, his reply was “monotony.”
 
So when can we expect the cluster, aka Polygamist?

somewhere I remember reading that a man, when asked what the opposite of polygamy was, his reply was “monotony.”
I built but never launched an insane model called the Prontosuarus for a cluster of E's. I still have all the parts for it. But I've moved on since my misspent youth. I strictly limit myself to what can be safely recovered in a 500' x 500' play field.

DSC00326.jpg
Prontosaurus fin can, circa 1982
 
The Executioner is MPR though... :D

Anyway that one line in my signature says it all. I brought my Orbital Transport to an MDRA launch, one of the premier HPR clubs in the country, and the LCO got all excited to see it fly and as it came back under parachute/glider wings, he said that line that I took to heart - "They don't need to be big to be cool."
People say flying an “E” powered rocket, whether that be a black powder E engine, a BP cluster that equals E power, or an AP E engine, is mid power rocketry. So be it! When I launch my first E powered rocket I will be an MPR guy!

Full disclosure: I have Estes E engines in my engine box. I have rockets that will take an E engine. If have never pushed the button(s) to ignite an E engine. I think I will just lose the rocket and not get it back, so I just use D’s.

The Executioner is heavy, however, so when I get it built, an E should not send it too far into the clouds, correct?
 
People say flying an “E” powered rocket, whether that be a black powder E engine, a BP cluster that equals E power, or an AP E engine, is mid power rocketry. So be it! When I launch my first E powered rocket I will be an MPR guy!

Full disclosure: I have Estes E engines in my engine box. I have rockets that will take an E engine. If have never pushed the button(s) to ignite an E engine. I think I will just lose the rocket and not get it back, so I just use D’s.

The Executioner is heavy, however, so when I get it built, an E should not send it too far into the clouds, correct?
Probably about 700-800 ft or so, by the optimistic Estes math. You’ll want about 4 seconds on the delay.

Estes MPR isn’t really all that different from Estes LPR, a lot of their more powerful rockets use tubes of similar size and/or quality, similar internal components, and many if not all of the same materials. In other words, they’re not built up like you may get with, say, a LOC/Precision Onyx.

https://www.apogeerockets.com/Rocket_Kits/Skill_Level_3_Kits/Onyx
In fact, some of their rockets can be flown in both categories. The Mean Machine, for example.
 
Like Master Jedi Obi-Wan Kenobi says: "Once you press the button on a Estes E motor, you have taken your first step into a much larger world."

As for clustering many black powder D and E motors into silly oddrocs, Master Jedi Obi-Wan Kenobi says " The Oddroc Cantina, you will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy. We must be cautious."

Hey mom, I just built a canted, tractor, three E motor, clustered tapeworm oddroc. The local park is right out so I need a ride to the high power field way outside the city.
 
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