Estes Solar Flare review, photos, build tips

[jhill9693]

I love staged rockets, I love payloaders, low power builds are very relaxing, and @Art Upton made me a deal I couldn’t refuse on this OOP Estes Solar Flare.



First impressions:

• It’s heavier than expected! Both the sustainer AND booster have weights for stability and safe tumbling during recovery. Very usual to see counterweight in the booster especially.
• The upper stage takes a 13mm motor! This may have been a deliberate trade off to lower the nose weight required. But a recommended motor combination of C6-0 and A10-3T is not something you see everyday.
• The staging mechanism is gap staged in a manner reminiscent of the Centuri Pass-Port system. The sustainer motor will slip into a stuffer tube that is built into the booster engine mount. As it begins to separate, excess gas pressure can escape out of a 3mm vent hole in the booster.
• This thing is rugged. The 3/32” thick fins are hard balsa reinforced with rings. The booster fin aft corners are rounded to prevent chipping.
• This is suitable for smaller fields. Due to the weight, size, and motor limitations, it will stay below 1000ft and will be easily visible.

Build tips

• If you take none of my other advice, hear this: if you want successful gap staging without turning your booster to ash, you MUST loosen the coupler. I recommend peeling, then saturating with thin CA, then sanding to get a hard coupler resistant to impact that is sandable to the precise fit needed. As you can see in the photo the fit is loose enough that it cocks a little in the horizontal orientation. When held vertically, the booster should fall out of the sustainer.
• As usual, I upgraded the recovery system with a Kevlar leader and a thin mill nylon parachute. I double knotted the leader under the forward centering ring and protected the bottom portion with small heat shrink tubing (unshrunk) to stop ejection charges from burning through it. The elastic and length are sufficient that I’m not concerned with zippering.
• Several of the centering rings were delaminating. After getting glued in place I saturated them with thin CA. Better than new!
• This design has three sets of fins to align. Get a Roy’s Rockets fin jig—you’ll thank me!
• Titebond II double glue joints are hard to beat. I got lazy on the sustainer and used thick CA followed by Titebond fillets. The booster fins, which got the double glue joints, feel stronger to me.
• Two short launch lugs are always going to be better than one long one. Less chance for binding on the rod. I cut the lug in half and then in half again and dropped two quarters right in the upper and lower fin root fillets while the glue was still wet. Perfect effortless alignment.

Finally, a PSA: pay it forward whenever you’re lucky enough to build an older kit. If not already published by Jim Zalewski, get accurate 600dpi scans with a ruler of the fins, decals, instructions, and any other special parts. Make a parts list with dimensions if not already documented. Submit everything to him for inclusion on his site. Old and new rocketeers are indebted to all those who have done this, and to JimZ for cataloging and publishing the archive for future modelers!

http://www.spacemodeling.org/jimz

 

[BABAR]

• If you take none of my other advice, hear this: if you want successful gap staging without turning your booster to ash, you MUST loosen the coupler. I recommend peeling, then saturating with thin CA, then sanding to get a hard coupler resistant to impact that is sandable to the precise fit needed. As you can see in the photo the fit is loose enough that it cocks a little in the horizontal orientation. When held vertically, the booster should fall out of the sustainer.
• 
  
• Two short launch lugs are always going to be better than one long one. Less chance for binding on the rod. I cut the lug in half and then in half again and dropped two quarters right in the upper and lower fin root fillets while the glue was still wet. Perfect effortless alignment.

Finally, a PSA: pay it forward whenever you’re lucky enough to build an older kit. If not already published by Jim Zalewski, get accurate 600dpi scans with a ruler of the fins, decals, instructions, and any other special parts.

Good advice.

Looking forward to seeing this in paint and on the pad!

 

[Rocket-Fan]

Sharp looking rocket!