Estes Shuttle

[Fred22]

Well folks wilsotr was kind enough to sell me an estes shuttle #1284. I have read the EMRR review and as usual it was helpful but given the wealth of experiance around here I was wondering if folks had any tips on building or flying this bird. I would like to upscale it to a 24mm motor and I was wonderring what folks thought of that as well
Thanks
fred

 

[Gillard]

mine has had only one flight, and it went horizontal. A C6 motor is underpowered (the old C5 was probably okay)
I would go with the D motor mod.

 

[stantonjtroy]

I have one that my son and I flew just last weekend. I agree the C6 isn't enough (had a couple in my youth) so we went with a D. I didn't want to mess with a 24mm mod as this thing is marginal anyway so we used an 18mm Aerotech D24 reload. The boost was incredible but the ejection charge blew out the mount instead of the nosecone. More like blow by. Puzzler as the cone wasn't at all tight. Now that I think about it, the increased thrust may have been the cause of the centering ring/body tube bond failure and the resulting ejection out the rear end. By a miricle the damage was almost nill. The mount will be rebuilt using sheet balsa and epoxy and with a little filler and repaint and the orbiter is as good as new.
Bacause the kit I got was an original Green facecard kit the decals were all but shot. I made up a new set, some of it from online sources some original. If you want a hi-res image drop me a line.

Troy

 

[Fred22]

I have one that my son and I flew just last weekend. I agree the C6 isn't enough (had a couple in my youth) so we went with a D. I didn't want to mess with a 24mm mod as this thing is marginal anyway so we used an 18mm Aerotech D24 reload. The boost was incredible but the ejection charge blew out the mount instead of the nosecone. More like blow by. Puzzler as the cone wasn't at all tight. Now that I think about it, the increased thrust may have been the cause of the centering ring/body tube bond failure and the resulting ejection out the rear end. By a miricle the damage was almost nill. The mount will be rebuilt using sheet balsa and epoxy and with a little filler and repaint and the orbiter is as good as new.
Bacause the kit I got was an original Green facecard kit the decals were all but shot. I made up a new set, some of it from online sources some original. If you want a hi-res image drop me a line.

Troy

great looking decal set I guess the stability is so marginal simple noseweight would not do for keeping it stable?
Cheers
fred

 

[foose4string]

I have one that my son and I flew just last weekend. I agree the C6 isn't enough (had a couple in my youth) so we went with a D. I didn't want to mess with a 24mm mod as this thing is marginal anyway so we used an 18mm Aerotech D24 reload. The boost was incredible but the ejection charge blew out the mount instead of the nosecone. More like blow by. Puzzler as the cone wasn't at all tight. Now that I think about it, the increased thrust may have been the cause of the centering ring/body tube bond failure and the resulting ejection out the rear end. By a miricle the damage was almost nill. The mount will be rebuilt using sheet balsa and epoxy and with a little filler and repaint and the orbiter is as good as new.
Bacause the kit I got was an original Green facecard kit the decals were all but shot. I made up a new set, some of it from online sources some original. If you want a hi-res image drop me a line.

Troy

Troy, do you have a pic of your shuttle with the custom decals you made? Would love to see how these look after they've been applied.

 

[Micromeister]

great looking decal set I guess the stability is so marginal simple noseweight would not do for keeping it stable?
Cheers
fred

I've thought about this modification a number of times.. alway deciding against it for just that reason. the stack is so goosy as it is I fly it with C6's on calm days only. Works pretty will if you deep the weight in check. Unfortuately on my last flght the Glider ended up landing in a super dense Thicket of thorns and vines that I just could not penetrate. so I'm rehabing an old orphan shuttle to replace it.....which is still sitting on my building table to this day Even on still air days the model wants to weathercock to the orbiter side so take that into account when setting up the launcher and launch angle as you go.

 

[GlennW]

I have one that I started in 1982 or so and finished in 2003. It now has about 5 flights on it, most recently at NERRF 5 a few weeks ago. If you don't overbuild it and fly in calm weather only it'll be OK on a C6-3 which is what mine has mainly flown on. Here is one tip I used to save weight that I think I got from someone back at TRF 1. I cut about a half an inch off the ends of each fin and performance did not suffer. The orbiter is not the greatest glider in general but I've had a couple good glides depending on how it's pointing at ejection.

Hope that helps some. I have some good flight pics somewhere that I'll try to get on here if I can ever find the time. Good luck on yours!

Glenn

 

[stantonjtroy]

The flight stability was great, went straight up like a homesick angel (even in the slight breeze so I won't mess with the balance). Then arced over, then kept arcing over, then started down, then :y:...... You get the idea. The ejection charge did go off it just all blew by the centering rings and out the rear. In fact there was a complete centering ring/body tube bond failure. The entire motor mount was sliding free in the back of the tube with wadding all around it. The D24 reload (18mm) was a great choice I just need to slightly beef op the mount system. I will post pics when the repairs are made. I still can't believe there was so little damage. Guess the good Lord loves little boys with rockets (and their daddys)
FWIW

Troy

 

[jpalmer]

I have upgraded to D motors and it work great.

 

[Fred22]

I've thought about this modification a number of times.. alway deciding against it for just that reason. the stack is so goosy as it is I fly it with C6's on calm days only. Works pretty will if you deep the weight in check. Unfortuately on my last flght the Glider ended up landing in a super dense Thicket of thorns and vines that I just could not penetrate. so I'm rehabing an old orphan shuttle to replace it.....which is still sitting on my building table to this day Even on still air days the model wants to weathercock to the orbiter side so take that into account when setting up the launcher and launch angle as you go.

Long rod calm days and C6-3 Sounfds good
cheers
fred

 

[Fred22]

I have one that I started in 1982 or so and finished in 2003. It now has about 5 flights on it, most recently at NERRF 5 a few weeks ago. If you don't overbuild it and fly in calm weather only it'll be OK on a C6-3 which is what mine has mainly flown on. Here is one tip I used to save weight that I think I got from someone back at TRF 1. I cut about a half an inch off the ends of each fin and performance did not suffer. The orbiter is not the greatest glider in general but I've had a couple good glides depending on how it's pointing at ejection.

Hope that helps some. I have some good flight pics somewhere that I'll try to get on here if I can ever find the time. Good luck on yours!

Glenn

Sounds like a good basic tip
Thanks
fred

 

[Fred22]

I have upgraded to D motors and it work great.

How did you do the mod?
Cheers
fred

 

[jpalmer]

I scratch built an external tank with the 24 mm motor mount. I also turn it into a two stage with pop and go staging. The srbs drop off with the 1st stage and add an extra set of fins on the external tank. I usually launch on D12 to B6 and the shuttle glides back.