Estes SkyWinder

[JAL3]

The slide was then fit around the bottom of the BT and slid up into place.

 

[davel]

OK. I'll bite.

What is mythacrylic, where is it obtained and what else do I need to know about it?

Methacrylate, not mythacrylate. My bad - guess I'm spending too much time on the Mythbusters forum

Functionally, if you mix a 5 minute epoxy with plastic cement, with both parts doing their thing, that is how methacrylate behaves. It works like an epoxy, but also softens/dissolves plastic to form a strong bond.

I've used Devcon Plastic Welder in the past.
https://www.devcon.com/products/products.cfm?familyid=182
https://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?&I=LXC032
https://www.tapplastics.com/shop/product.php?pid=278
or your local hardware store.

There are many other formulations out there (just google Methacrylate Adhesive) and I can't say that the Devcon is the best by any shot - but I do know it works better when trying to bond plastic to paper better than plain epoxy, plastic cement, or CA.

 

[RangerStl]

It also has a distinct, sour, pungent odor. Once you get a snout full, you'll never forget it.

 

[JAL3]

With the upper body assembled and put onto the BT, the BT then had to be placed onto the red coupler jsut above the hub. The fit was too tight and the cement joint between the plastic and paper coupler sheared almost immediately. I did some sanding on the coupler and then reseated the BT using some thick CA as the adhesive this time. I also made sure not to get any onto the rotor.

 

[JAL3]

The kit comes with four "butter pats" of clay to be used as a noseweight. From what I have read on TRF, that makes this rocket particularly heavy on prone to damage on landing. I've also read that failure to use it can lead to very unstable flights. The instruction method is to roll the clay into snakes and tamp it into the nose cone. I did not want to do that. Instead, I measured out an equivalent weight in BBs and poured those into the plastic nose cone. I then mixed some 15 minute epoxy and poured that in on top to keep it all in place.

 

[JAL3]

Attachment of the rotors is probably the most difficult aspect of the build but it is not particularly difficult. The rotors are clear plastic and have slots that fit over a protrusion on the hinges. The only real issue is trying to identify the correct orientation since the illustrations are not too clear. A little thought and the text pointing out that that rotors form a "tube" around the BT gave only one possible option, even though the result does not look much like a tube to me.

 

[Zeus-cat]

Just an FYI - never paint the rotors. I did on my first Skywinder and the rotors became brittle and cracked. I put the cheesy decals on my second one, which I have just repaired.

The rocket is very nose heavy and may be damaged if it lands on cement or pavement. I catch it if I can.

 

[JAL3]

For the most part, this rocket is pre finished. All the parts are colored and there are some sticker with which to decorate it. I chose to do some minimal painting, though. The plastic nose cone had some pretty bad seams on it. I sanded them down but that left the black plastic looking awful. I decided to paint the NC. So it was that I sanded it a little more and then shot it with white primer. It got 2 coats of the primer.

 

[JAL3]

After the primer, I decided to go with an orange nose cone instead of black and sprayed on 2 coats of Testor's Competition Orange. I happened to have it sitting out for another project it it grated on me less than most oranges do. I actually liked the result.

 

[JAL3]

Since the nose cone would look pretty silling sitting on the bench while the rest of the rocket went flying, I used some tube cement to bond it into the upper slide.

 

[JAL3]

That just left the motor retainer to put into place before I could finish "finishing" my rocket with the stickers.

 

[5x7]

The Skywinder was modified by Estes after it was initially released to make it much more reliable. Two parts were added to prevent it from coming apart. One was the black cardboard ring meant to be installed around the tongs of the upper slide to prevent them from opening too much, the nosecone would often blow off without this. The other was the cardboard ring with the notch that installs right above the motor. The addition of that prevents the ejection from deforming the motor mount/body tube joint. I had both of those failures and added similar parts myself. Later versions of the kit included the new parts. Issues with deployment are largely solved by using two rubberbands per rotor., and removing them between flights. I have heard that drugstores carry rubberbands for braces that will work well, but I have not looked. I would never be without a this model, but I converted one to use D12-5s and it's a lot more fun.

 

[JAL3]

Just an FYI - never paint the rotors. I did on my first Skywinder and the rotors became brittle and cracked. I put the cheesy decals on my second one, which I have just repaired.

The rocket is very nose heavy and may be damaged if it lands on cement or pavement. I catch it if I can.

Thanks for the info. As it happens, I just stuck with the stickers and will probably post about those shortly.

 

[JAL3]

The Skywinder was modified by Estes after it was initially released to make it much more reliable. Two parts were added to prevent it from coming apart. One was the black cardboard ring meant to be installed around the tongs of the upper slide to prevent them from opening too much, the nosecone would often blow off without this. The other was the cardboard ring with the notch that installs right above the motor. The addition of that prevents the ejection from deforming the motor mount/body tube joint. I had both of those failures and added similar parts myself. Later versions of the kit included the new parts. Issues with deployment are largely solved by using two rubberbands per rotor., and removing them between flights. I have heard that drugstores carry rubberbands for braces that will work well, but I have not looked. I would never be without a this model, but I converted one to use D12-5s and it's a lot more fun.

The info about the cardboard is kind of what I had figured but did not know the original release history of this one.

Orthodonture bands are what I first thought of when I saw the little things but had no idea how to get them without going to a dentist. I guess I'll try the drug store.

Thanks

 

[davel]

Standard rubber bands from an office supply store. 2 #8's in parallel or a #12 doubled up on each rotor.

 

[JAL3]

Standard rubber bands from an office supply store. 2 #8's in parallel or a #12 doubled up on each rotor.

Thanks. It looks like Office max looms in my immediate future.

 

[JAL3]

I detest stickers. I would much rather have water slide decals and sometimes scan stickers to print my own waterslides. I would not do that with a kit like this so I was pleasantly surprised when I actually took a close look at the stickers. Most of the time, stickers are thick things that do not want to follow a curve to well. There were not. They are fairly thin, not much thicker than waterslides. I learned that they stick better than most stickers also.

 

[JAL3]

The first to be applied were the stripe pattern on the rotor blades. Once in place, they greatly improved the look of the rocket and made the blades much more visible to boot.

 

[JAL3]

One thing I did not consider when painting the NC orange was the placement of a bar pattern sticker on the cone. The oranges did not match up and the pattern would have been much more visible on the black but its not completely terrible.

 

[JAL3]

Another group of sticker intended for the NC was a series of three long, orange triangles the length of the NC. I used only two of them and they did not show up all that well (although better than in the photo).

 

[JAL3]

One of my common pet peeves with Estes is their inability to count compounded by their unwillingness to often provide enough stickers/decal for both sides of the fins. In thsi kit, they were guilty of both. In a perfect world, there would have been 8 stickers; this would handle both sides of 4 fins. In actuality, it came with three so that three fins have a single sticker and one is staying nekkid.

 

[JAL3]

Placement of the fin stickers completed my build but I wanted to try something first and make sure that the rotors would deploy. As such, I added the rubber bands, folded them against the BT and set the slide in place to retain them. I pulled up the NC and the rotors deployed. I then got stupid and tried to fumble with the camera while manipulating the NC, fins and rotors and wound up with this short sequence: https://www.flickr.com/photos/23694991@N03/3612301361/

 

[blackjack2564]

Nice job! I had many good flights on mine. Finally the rubber bands rotted. Need to get some more.

This rocket was always a crowd pleaser. I only used half the clay, and powder graphite on all the moving surfaces. C 6 3 's were all perfect flights.

After reading this I need to go into the rocket dungeon and dig it out!

If it weren't for the complicated hubs and rotors.....what a great upscale it would make!

 

[mikeyd]

The actual body tube for this rocket is a white section of BT5. It was located along with a plastic stop meant to fit into one end. As per instructions, the stop was installed with tube cement.

Plastic tube cement, works by "melting" the plastic, and then evaporating, and letting the plastic "weld" together. When I use it to bond to paper, I put a good coating of the glue on my finger, and work it into the paper tube, this allows it to soak into the paper better. You can take your time with this as it does not matter if it dries. You can then put more glue on the plasitc, and bond it to the area of the paper you "pre" glued. This has worked on my Skywinder, and it has many flights on it.

 

[JAL3]

If it weren't for the complicated hubs and rotors.....what a great upscale it would make!

I have on more than one occasion lamented the dearth of HPR with helicopter recovery.

 

[JAL3]

Plastic tube cement, works by "melting" the plastic, and then evaporating, and letting the plastic "weld" together. When I use it to bond to paper, I put a good coating of the glue on my finger, and work it into the paper tube, this allows it to soak into the paper better. You can take your time with this as it does not matter if it dries. You can then put more glue on the plasitc, and bond it to the area of the paper you "pre" glued. This has worked on my Skywinder, and it has many flights on it.

That explanation makes sense. I know about the melting part but have often wondered why such a solvent would bond to paper. If some is absorbed, that makes some sense.

Thanks for the info.

 

[AstronMike]

I have on more than one occasion lamented the dearth of HPR with helicopter recovery.

Back in '93 I dabbled around with a few crude G and H powered types, but since Im into gliders much more I stopped working with those. Might have to revisit some of that if I get a chance........

 

[JAL3]

Back in '93 I dabbled around with a few crude G and H powered types, but since Im into gliders much more I stopped working with those. Might have to revisit some of that if I get a chance........

Like I said when I began this thread, this is my first real copter recovery project. That's strange since it is the most interesting type to me. I guess the few kits I had either seemed too complicated or to inane. THe Cobra comes to mind for the latter. I really would like to see some big ones even if I never build anythign like that.

 

[mikeyd]

If I remember correctly, at LDRS18, 1999 someone flew a large Skywinder, with glassed foam rotors. I believe it was flown on an J motor. The flight was great, however it did break at least one rotor when it landed. It can be found on page 3 of this pdf.
https://www.masa-rocketry.org/planet/masa_Vol5-4.pdf

After reading the article, it was his Level 2 so I must have remembered incorrectly, maybe the rotors were made to come off at landing.

 

[JAL3]

If I remember correctly, at LDRS18, 1999 someone flew a large Skywinder, with glassed foam rotors. I believe it was flown on an J motor. The flight was great, however it did break at least one rotor when it landed. It can be found on page 3 of this pdf.
https://www.masa-rocketry.org/planet/masa_Vol5-4.pdf

After reading the article, it was his Level 2 so I must have remembered incorrectly, maybe the rotors were made to come off at landing.

Thanks for the link. THat's somethign I would have liked to have seen.