Apogee Star Lift Mega Lander Build

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It is not worse than the QCC cause you do not have to fill any of your glue points on the wood legs.
 
Well I finally got to launch this kit. Went up twice. Both times on G53FJ's. First flight went to 805 ft and the second went about 40 feet higher. First flight was perfect. Lander flew and landed flawlessly. The "Penetrator" landed just a few feet away. Second flight was a bit windier and the lander tipped, but again the "Penetrator" was only a few feet away. This is a great kit and Everyone at the launch loved it.

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Now the debate is on about flying this on a bigger motor. This rocket is a joy to watch fly and I don't think I will try to go over 1000 ft with it.
 
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I absolutely hated building the QCC Explorer. The only reason I did, was because it was a birthday present from my nephew. It's definitely not a kit I would ever buy for myself. So I guess it's still "worse".
That's the kit you sent me Jim when I was recovering fro my hip replacement.I have built model balsa airplanes so the intakes where not that big of PITA.Each took me around 45min.I thought of you Jim on everyone.LOL.
 
That's the kit you sent me Jim when I was recovering fro my hip replacement.I have built model balsa airplanes so the intakes where not that big of PITA.Each took me around 45min.I thought of you Jim on everyone.LOL.

I've always said, Carl, you're more of a craftsman than I am. You're like a watchmaker, I'm like a stone breaker.
 
I've always said, Carl, you're more of a craftsman than I am. You're like a watchmaker, I'm like a stone breaker.

Thanks Jim,but it's really the other way around.Anyway RocketGeekInFl did a great job on his build!
 
Getting close to finished now. Next thing I did was rig up all the rubber bands. There are six in total. Three for the articulating feet at the ends of the legs, three for the legs themselves and three for the locking levers. I had tested these joints all along the way during the build process with a test band so I know they are all functioning properly and that the gluing of the dowels did not cause any of the joints to seize up. The band for the feet is the trickiest of all. There is a small piece that is installed during the construction of the legs that is in the top frame of the legs in between the two outer pieces that make up the legs. This is a pin like structure for looping the band around on one side and then there is a notch in the foot side. All the other bands attach to notches on each end. You will see from the pic of the locking lever the paint problem that is bothering me. I am going to have to figure out how to fix that without messing with the integrity of the movement in the parts.

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Then to test everything I released my temporary band holding the legs to the tube and the legs swung out and locked.

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I released all the bands and will store the kit with the bands released. I did get more bands in case one breaks at the field during prep. The kit only comes with enough bands to rig and have an extra.

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After wiping the tubes down with a tack cloth I set out to apply the decals. These decals are high quality printed vinyl. Apogee prints these in house on a special vinyl printer and Tim says during the video that they are one of the most expensive parts of the kit, so don't mess it up, cause they are expensive to replace. 30 minutes to print one sheet. To show what attention to detail Apogee provides they included another set of the decals that go just above the black band on the lower tube. Whatever is used to cut the decals was not aligned properly when the main sheet was cut and these got messed up a bit. They sent me another set on a smaller sheet. The video instructions walk through applying each of the decals. They are precision cut to fit in between many of the parts on the tubes.

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I did the graphics for it, was something the wrong size?
 
I did the graphics for it, was something the wrong size?

Not at all. Everything was great and sized perfectly. The issue was one of the wraps was not cut properly. Most likely misaligned during the score cutting process. There was a properly cut one included with the main sheet that had the bad cut decal in it.
 
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