Estes SR-X

[aerostadt]

I picked up an old SR-X on ebay auction. This boost-glider with a pop-pod goes all the way back to the 1996 time frame. The review and flight records on Rocket Reviews look pretty good.

https://www.rocketreviews.com/estes-sr-x-bruce-markielewski.html

There is also a review in Sport Rocketry in the May/June 1996 issue.

 

[walterb]

I had one it had one a great flight. Straight up boast nice glide. I think in many ways the cosmos mariner is similar but I have not flown that yet. I had a house fire in 2004 an all my rockets were lost so, any thing before that i don't have. I'm sure I would have flown it more.

 

[CoachSteve]

Very cool - I want one for sure

 

[brewster_rockit]

Very cool kit that's not widely remembered. I'm sure it didn't boost very high or glide well, but sometimes the look of a model is enough to make the flight memorable.

 

[aerostadt]

The model has more parts than I thought. The pop-pod is interesting. It has a long wire form attached on the aft end. There are two metal washers glued in place between two green rings on the forward end.

 

[aerostadt]

This model comes with a long sturdy soda straw that is enclosed in the styrofoam half-shells. It needs to be glued on straight so that it does not hang up on a 1/8" diameter launch rod. By mistake I cut the straw too short. Luckily, I found that one of those small cardboard tubes that Aerotech igniters come in could be used a sleeve to mend my soda straw launch lug.

 

[aerostadt]

The instructions called for gluing a styrofoam bulkhead on the main body tube to the upper styrofoam half-shell. The bulkhead does not fit flush with the shell, so the instructions say to use tape to hold the parts together while the glue cures. I wanted to use something that would work faster with good control. The foam-safe medium CA and accelerator worked out really good. In the past I preferred the flexible foam-cure glue, but I think the foam safe medium CA and accelerator worked much better. I don't think that 3M Super 77 spray adhesive is going to work well in this application.

 

[aerostadt]

I decided that I did not want to use CA for gluing the two styrofoam halves together and went with Bob Smith Industries(BSI) Flexible Foam-Cure glue. I don't think that for this kind of joint spraying accelerator is going to work. Maybe heavier than CA but it is easy to work with in this situation. The kit comes with a self-adhesive decal sheet. Some of the decals are hinge material. I decided to use hinge tape instead.

 

[aerostadt]

The kit came with plenty of clay for nose weight to trim for glide. I found this model to be difficult to toss for test glides. I epoxied the clay forward in the nose and put some extra epoxy inside in the nose area for strengthening the nose. I think this helped. I finally launched the model yesterday. Many of the recorded flights on Rocket Reviews show somewhat erratic performance for this model. I would say that my experiences repeats that experience. (It is surprising how far aft the motor is in this model.) The model took off vertically for about 150 feet and then arced over and even started to go horizontal almost gliding before ejecting the pop-pod, but aimed towards the ground. About 75 feet above the ground it ejected the pop-pod and then the glider fluttered to the ground. There was no damage to any parts.

 

[K'Tesh]

Looks like you did a nice job on it!

I always wanted to try one of those... However, I haven't managed to get my hands on one. Glad to hear that yours managed to fly, and more importantly, not to be damaged.

 

[Rockyt]

I had one of these kits (not ever assembled) in High School. I threw it out thinking I would rebuy it when I moved out...At the time, I didn't know Estes' 'discontinued' policies...

..le sigh....o well....at least I have a Dr. Zooch.