Astron Nighthawk Mare!!!

[nukemmcssret]

Hello I am trying to build the Astron Nighthawk Booster/Glider, Two things are hanging me up. So if anyone out there has built one maybe you can answer a few questions. One is on Step 12 where you cut out the tube marking guide. Well I cut it out snd it is short by 4 mm the ends do not meet. How do you mark the canard places? Do you make up the 4 mm by splitting 2mm on each side? If I do this then the canards will be 180 degrees apart. If I do not then they look off according to the drawing. SO are they 180 degrees apart or not? THE other question is on step 13 the pylon pin. How far out from the bottom of the pylon is it suppossed be. If I do it according to the drawing I will only have 6 mm of it showing. That hardly fits. Do I allign the pin in the glider slot and mark it from there? The drawing looks like the pin is seated in the pylon fron the rear edge. Or is it a certain angle. If anyone can help it would be appreciated. Thanks Nukemmssret

 

[NjCo]

Did you print out those plans from the JimZ site? If so then keep in mind that unless the plans were a PDF they will not be the proper scale usually. You have to adjust the scale setting in the Page Setup dialog until the tube marking guide does wrap around the body tube appropriately. Then print the plans and everything should turn out the proper scale.

 

[nukemmcssret]

How do you get the Jim Z drawing into a PDF format? Or scale it up. What progrgam do I use Paint? Thanks for the help

 

[mjennings]

JImZ doesn't have every thing in PDF, you can check Ye Olde Rocket Shope for the plans as well. You can try your printer settings for scaling. You can scale in Paint but it inst the best. PowerPoint could be useful.

https://plans.rocketshoppe.com/estes/estK-34/estK-34.pdf

looking at the plans I's say there is at least 10 degrees of intended dihedral in the canards

Also from your unscaled wrap you could take some measurements and determine the scale up factor when you compare the wrap length to the circumference of the body tube.

one way to check for 180 degree assignment is to add the lengths from the lines to the edges and if that equals the length between the two lines you have 180 degree alignment.

Hopes this helps

 

[NjCo]

How do you get the Jim Z drawing into a PDF format? Or scale it up. What progrgam do I use Paint? Thanks for the help

Some of the files at the JimZ site are in PDF format. Those have a PDF icon in the 2nd row of the table. Some don't and just have a green, yellow, red or blue color in the 1st column. The key to the colors is at the top of the page. The Nighthawk (kit K-34) has a green color in the 1st column and no PDF icon in the 2nd column. That means that all of the files are available but not in PDF format. So the files are just a scan.

Open the appropriate page in your browser. To get the proper size I just rescaled the file in the Page Setup dialog (go to the menu where you would normally select print in your browser and the Page Setup menu item should be in that menu as well). Select that menu item and there should be a box that says Scale: with 100% after it. Just change that a little (say 103%) and print again. Cut out the tube marking guide and see if it fits on your tube. If it's still too short then repeat the process until you get a size that fits perfectly. It shouldn't take you too long to get it right. I'm not sure if there is a faster way to do it but when I did this for an EAC Viper I was cloning it only took me 3 times and I got it right. It maybe took me about 5 minutes to do.

Keep in mind that if you've already used the pages to make the fins and other parts then they will also be the wrong size. It might not make any difference but with a rocket like this that requires parts to fit together in a certain way it might make a difference and could account for some of the differences you are seeing compared to the instructions.

 

[nukemmcssret]

All is well I have figured it out. I do appreciate all your help!!! You all have a good day.