Estes Red Nova Build

[Brian Kirksey]

Happy Halloween everyone. Today I put the final coat of clear on my Red Nova kit. I know we have a great build already posted here in the forums by EXPjawa so I thought I would try a video. The video was more challenging than I thought. The kit was pretty straight forward. I did deviate from the instructions a little. I omitted the traditional teabag tether and I used a kevlar thread motor mount.With a swivel, elastic band, connected to the Nose Cone. While building this kit, I had the opportunity to expand and revise my CNC fin location jigs. I was able to design a disposable jig that gets trapped between the two sets of fins. It is a break away design, a basic series of slot or reliefs in the lexan material. after the fins are dry and in place simply saw or snap the jig in half. Anyway, thanks for watching my video. Special thanks to all masters in the forums that help, advise, and inspire me. ~Brian Kirksey

 

[Tbmx3]

Nicely done, thanks for sharing.

 

[Bat-mite]

Looks great!

 

[neil_w]

Nice video. I am still staring slack-jawed at your fin fixtures.

 

[GlenP]

Nice slideshow. Looks like after masking off the portion to be painted red, you hit it with another base coat of white first. This is a good idea to help avoid the red from leaking through the tape edges. Not essential if you have good tape technique and press the edges down firmly, but a good insurance policy.

 

[Brian Kirksey]

At Snow Ranch today I launched the Estes Red Nova I built. The first launch was on a D12-3 and the second launch was on a D12-7. I think the perfect engine would have been the D12-5. The D12-3 launch went pretty good, no issues.
The second launch on the D-12-7 Launch the parachute failed to exit all the way and the rocket coasted down unharmed. The Estes 15" plastic chute was singed and had a few holes. It will be replaced with a ripstop in the near future. It was a 15" chute not a 18" like wrote, oops.

Thank you Bill for loaning me the Altimeter II for this flight. I need to get one of those, very handy.
D12-7
Altitude 769 ft
Thrust time 1.54 sec
Top speed 193 mph
Peak Accel 18.0 G's
Average Accel 5.7 G's
Coast Apog 5.1 sec
Decent 5 mph
Duration 31.0 sec