Estes Ready 2 Fly

[Fishhead]

Need I say more.
Actually I have had the misfortune of having a run-in with some Estes RTF kits. I have two nephews who have a casual interest in rocketry, but whose parents have little or no interest in the hobby. My brother in law and I try to get together to fly whenever he is in town, so I bought each nephew a rocket, hoping to pique their interest a little more. The first two rockets I bought were a Custom Tristar and a Nike Arrow, which I built so that the kids could fly with us at a family launch in April. The Tristar lasted almost five minutes before one nephew crushed it by putting it on a picnic table and attempting to shove the parachute back in. Completely crushed the fins. The Nike Arrow had a longer life, but when the time came to fly it, I noticed a serious crimp in the upper body tube that hadn't been there an hour before. Realizing that building rockets for these two was going to be a never-ending chore, I instead opted for one of the Estes RTF two packs. Man, was I disappointed. Extremely thin body tubes, bad plastic pieces and ugly stick-on decals; that's what I'll forever associate with Estes RTF. I hope they plan on burying these dogs in the discount houses. They're a disgrace to the hobby.

 

[scooter]

I'm with you there Fishhead! Don't like that RTF stuff! Why when I was a youngun' we had to grind our own charcoal, mine our own sulfur and potassium nitrate and wait for the toilet paper tube to be empty to build a rocket! Kids these days don't know a good rocket from.... uh, excuse me.

Whazzup Bill? I just joined this forum. I like it! Just when I thought patrolling my regular thirty rocket sites each day was enough, I find a new one! I see Karl Perry posts here too and it sounds like Carl Tulanko is a regular and a Cincinnati guy as well. We'll have to round everyone up sometime at a Quark launch and say howdy! Maybe in the bleak winter months Quark can put together a Quark dinner or pizza get together to talk rockets and socialize. I'll work on that.

 

[Klint]

I agree they are trash.. IMHO the wors one is the astro cam the nose cone is way to hevy for the thin BT and the worst part is that the shock cord is weak and way to low for comfort. Oh yeah mine was destroyed first flight.

 

[Fishhead]

Yeah, I knew that Carl posted on her with some regularity. I even invited him to launch with us before it suddenly dawned on me to check the QUARK roster. Imagine how I felt when I found that he was already on the roster.
Scooter and Fishhead?!? We sound like some really bad Mickey Mouse Club revival.

 

[scooter]

"Scooter and Fishhead?!? We sound like some really bad Mickey Mouse Club revival."

Bwaahahahah! For real! I gotta remember to tell that to Skunky, Warpo and Ragweed.

 

[Fishhead]

Wait'll you see the avatar that I have for my monicker. On one level it clears up the whole "Fishhead" thing, while opening a whole new barrel of fish (pun intended) on other levels. Pretty scary, huh kids?

Hey, Klint. How would that AstroCam have worked had the camera section been grafted onto a REAL body tube? We've got one of the 2nd generation ones, but it doesn't work worth a damn, so you may just have to count yourself lucky.

 

[Klint]

My dictionary ran out of bateries so would sombody be as so kinda as to explain grafted? As far as I can fathom it be attached but I dunno

 

[MarkABrown]

graft1 (grft)
v. graft·ed, graft·ing, grafts
v. tr.

To unite (a shoot or bud) with a growing plant by insertion or by placing in close contact.
To join (a plant or plants) by such union.
To transplant or implant (living tissue, for example) surgically into a bodily part to replace a damaged part or compensate for a defect.
To join or unite closely: graft new customs onto old.

v. intr.
To make a graft.
To be or become joined.


P.S. You can look up any word at
www.dictionary.com

 

[Milo]

I find Websters to be very useful as well.

 

[Klint]

makeing me feel stupid.
From what I got from that is that if the camera would have been attached to the tube.
I think the camera would have worked better but the body tube I think would still crimp on first flight. Just casue the body tube is so thin and weak.

 

[BlueNinja]

I got a RTF Ionizer for my second rocket, and it flew pretty well for an RTF. It went out of sight and got lost before it broke. Oh well. At least it came with a pad and controller.

 

[Balsa Bob]

The only RTF rocket I own is the Estes Mini Mars Lander... it flies great, although packing the chute is a pain in the rear. -BB

 

[richalex2010]

I got one (FREE ) and flew it as a "sacrifice" to the trees, and it went DIRECTLY to them... Oh well. Anyone ever notice how the CODE RED is not always RED?

 

[Stymye]

you can slip the astrocam(bt-56) onto a maniac/eliminator.. works nice.