Kind of new to this

Hello Everyone,

I have been lurking for about a week or two now. There is a ton of information on this site.
I am a long time rocket flyer, exclusively Estes since I was young. Its been a bit of a break since then. I have always been willy nilly with my younger builds. I have always been interested in HPR and have done some minor research in the past. I am not a member of NAR and am looking to get my L1 this year. I am hoping to use my Loc Fantom for this.

Anyway enough about me. I am here to ask for suggestions. One person who intorduced me to model rocketry when I was younger was my older cousin. He has gone though a bit of a rough patch recently and I have shared pictures of my as received LOC and motor mounts, as well as my finished wizard. He has expressed interest in the hobby again if not just for the creative output. I am looking for suggestions for a rocket in the MPR or very low HPR range that could be launched at 1500ft or less altitude with no FAA waiver. I plan to give this as a gift for Christmas. hopefully not to expensive but hopefully wet the whistle and have some one share in the fun of HPR.

I also was curious is it possible to use multiple MMT adapter at the same time. As an example could I use a 38mm mmt with a 29mm adapter with a 24mm adapter within that and possible a 18mm adapter as long as it can still fly and reach minimum off the rail speed and more than 200ft or so. basically to make a small field or backyard flyer. I understand the heavier the rocket that larger the minimum motor needed.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

There are of course about a billion possibilities.

How about the North Coast Rocketry SA14 Archer? That's rated to 1300' on a G40. Lovely kit. I also like the Bounty Hunter and the Lance Delta.

Is there a particular style of rocket that you know he likes?

When I got back into rockets as an adult I first built a few Estes Pro Series II E2X kits (Ascender, Mammoth, Nike Smoke). They're relatively straight-forward builds similar to the Estes LPR kits but they use 29 mm motors. I'm currently in the process of trying ever-larger motors in my Smoke...I've got a G80 ready to go, weather permitting.

After that I went with a couple of kits from Public Missiles to get into HPR (Ariel and Endeavor). What sold me on them was their "Kwik Switch" motor mount system that allows for 29, 38, and 54 mm motors. The biggest drawback is the mounts are only about 13.5" long, which limits the casing length. They'll still take a CTI 29 mm 6-grain, a 38 mm 4-grain, and a 54 mm 3-grain which offers a lot of flexibility. Although I crashed my Ariel last month, my Endeavor is still my main workhorse.

Since then I've built stuff from Wildman, LOC Precision, and MAC Performance. They're all fine, but I really like MAC kits. I enjoyed building their Drago 4 and I now have a 54 mm Arcas and 3" MPR on my Christmas list. Something like their 54 mm Arcas with a 29 mm mount will fly on F and G motors from 500 to 2000 feet, and H and I motors can take it up to 2000 to 4500 feet (and net an L1 cert along the way).

neil_w said:

There are of course about a billion possibilities.

How about the North Coast Rocketry SA14 Archer? That's rated to 1300' on a G40. Lovely kit. I also like the Bounty Hunter and the Lance Delta.

Is there a particular style of rocket that you know he likes?

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Hello neil_w
I will take a look at these. I am not sure on style as I took more interest in rocketry after being introduced than he did. Just trying to be a good friend at this point and since he expressed interest recently I figured why not. I onow he likes scale kits of different things. He also likes the falcon and falcon heavy as well as other “space” type rockets.

muddymooose said:

When I got back into rockets as an adult I first built a few Estes Pro Series II E2X kits (Ascender, Mammoth, Nike Smoke). They're relatively straight-forward builds similar to the Estes LPR kits but they use 29 mm motors. I'm currently in the process of trying ever-larger motors in my Smoke...I've got a G80 ready to go, weather permitting.

After that I went with a couple of kits from Public Missiles to get into HPR (Ariel and Endeavor). What sold me on them was their "Kwik Switch" motor mount system that allows for 29, 38, and 54 mm motors. The biggest drawback is the mounts are only about 13.5" long, which limits the casing length. They'll still take a CTI 29 mm 6-grain, a 38 mm 4-grain, and a 54 mm 3-grain which offers a lot of flexibility. Although I crashed my Ariel last month, my Endeavor is still my main workhorse. Another big drawback of Public Missiles is their plastic "quantum tube" is not terribly resistant to temperature extremes.

Since then I've built stuff from Wildman, LOC Precision, and MAC Performance. They're all fine, but I really like MAC kits. I enjoyed building their Drago 4 and I now have a 54 mm Arcas and 3" MPR on my Christmas list. Something like their 54 mm Arcas with a 29 mm mount will fly on F and G motors from 500 to 2000 feet, and H and I motors can take it up to 2000 to 4500 feet (and net an L1 cert along the way).

Click to expand...

Hey muddy,

Nice approach. I got a loc fhantom and though to myself I need more practice woth hpr assembly techniques. That why I got a estes wizard and the prowler mainly for the launch pad for feild work without club launches. Epoxy is new to me for gluing but not to hard. 5 min is nice but a little to quick. 10-15 min would be nice. Im actually looking at getting a fiberglass kit from wildman just to try. Ive been paper tibes since I started. I am hoping to make the loc my work horse but who knows I got addicted to skinny high and fast in my early estes days. I like the wizard with a c motor. A mongoose 2 stage and the commanche 3 stage. However my adulthood kicks in and is like dude you want these back how about staying below 1000ft. I am up for anything and possibly buying 2 and doing a build together over about a week or so and then dragging him to a club launch somewhere between ny/pa/md area.

I have seen loc now has an interchangeable mmt. I almost want to surge and get the 7.5” V2. I like that model for some unexplainable reason. I guess i just like the crazy size of things.

My suggestion for him would be a Loc Onyx. The new version has through the wall fins. It's a shortish stubby rocket that flies great on 29mm G motors. It's cheap and fun and best of all, doesn't take up a lot of room.

dirkDIRK said:

Hello Everyone,
I also was curious is it possible to use multiple MMT adapter at the same time. As an example could I use a 38mm mmt with a 29mm adapter with a 24mm adapter within that and possible a 18mm adapter as long as it can still fly and reach minimum off the rail speed and more than 200ft or so. basically to make a small field or backyard flyer. I understand the heavier the rocket that larger the minimum motor needed.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Click to expand...

Yes, multiple (or nested) adapters are fine. My old LOC EZI-65 was made with a 54mm mount, but I rarely flew it on anything but a G80, or an H128, both of which are 29mm, and I did so by putting a 38-29 mm adapter in a 38-54mm adapter.

Personally I like some of the kits from Dyanstar and Sirius Rocketry. In the MPR area I think they have some style. Not your typical 3FNC stuff.

www.apogeerockets.com
www.siriusrocketry.com/

I have personally built the Orion and Lexxjet, and the SS Cestris and Interrogator.

Quite showy and fly well on D/E/F in most cases.

dirkDIRK said:

Hey muddy,

Nice approach. I got a loc fhantom and though to myself I need more practice woth hpr assembly techniques. That why I got a estes wizard and the prowler mainly for the launch pad for feild work without club launches. Epoxy is new to me for gluing but not to hard. 5 min is nice but a little to quick. 10-15 min would be nice. Im actually looking at getting a fiberglass kit from wildman just to try. Ive been paper tibes since I started. I am hoping to make the loc my work horse but who knows I got addicted to skinny high and fast in my early estes days. I like the wizard with a c motor. A mongoose 2 stage and the commanche 3 stage. However my adulthood kicks in and is like dude you want these back how about staying below 1000ft. I am up for anything and possibly buying 2 and doing a build together over about a week or so and then dragging him to a club launch somewhere between ny/pa/md area.

I have seen loc now has an interchangeable mmt. I almost want to surge and get the 7.5” V2. I like that model for some unexplainable reason. I guess i just like the crazy size of things.

Click to expand...

It sounds like you’re well on the way to the depths of rocketry addiction—just like the rest of us! Welcome to our “support group.”

Thanks everyone for the suggestions I will look into them all.

I was thinking a short fat one for myself as well.

BDB I most certainly am. It got out of hand quickly. Oh well live and let fly I say.