Hi-Flier Tornado build

[Rich Holmes]

Yes, it's a build thread for a skill 1 2 Estes kit. Sort of.

I was not planning on building another rocket this week.

Monday Kenny and I went to the Syracuse Rocket Club meeting. In the year-plus since the first meeting we went to we've been to a half dozen launches but no more meetings until this one. We'd had a schedule conflict most Mondays. That conflict is gone now, so we can get to meetings more often.


Plans for this Saturday's launch were discussed, and they mentioned the contest: a B motor helicopter duration. I don't have a helicopter recovery model, and with the Patrioony still not quite finished and less than a week to the launch I didn't think I'd have time to make one.

Then I went looking online.

At JimZ's rocket plans site I looked at the Estes Gyroc and Tornado. The Gyroc ejects its motor, so no go, but the Tornado seemed to have possibilities. Probably not a contest winner, but at least I could get an entry in... assuming the judges don't distinguish between helicopter and maple seed recovery and thereby disqualify it.

I looked at John Brohm's Estes Nose Cone / Kit List Reference...

I looked at the Hobby Lobby web site...

And I realized it'd be ridiculously easy to kitbash a Hi-Flier — which with a coupon I could get for $4.79 plus tax — into a Tornado.

(Only problem was, I'd been planning on getting a package of C6-5s with my coupon, and Hobby Lobby's far enough away that I figured I might not get there again this week. Then I remembered it was near a Michael's that has a very small selection of (RTF) rockets and motors. Sure enough, they had C6-5s, and I had a 40% off coupon for that store too. Later in the day I realized I needed some Gorilla Glue, so I went to another Michael's and used a coupon for that. Skinflint scores again.)

So, using the cheapest rocket kit I've ever bought, I've started making a Tornado.

I'll pretty much be following the Estes instructions. I'll be using the body tube (most of it), thrust ring, launch lug, and nose cone from the Hi-Flyer kit.

I cut fins from a piece of 3/32" balsa. I've decided to paper them — survival looks doubtful otherwise — so that's what I started with, and right now they're being pressed flat while the glue stick dries.

I needed two pieces of body tube, 4" and 1 ½". Cutting tubing by hand is not my most developed superpower but I think I did a decent job.
View attachment 148724


The instructions start with gluing the base onto the nose cone and gluing the nose cone to the 4" body tube. I've been looking at this rocket in OpenRocket and I want to leave open the possibility of adding a little weight to the nose cone, so I decided to save that for last. I've glued in the thrust ring and marked the body tubes for fins and launch lug. That's it until the fins are dry.

 

[eedetail]

Cool kitbash, the Tornado is one of my favorites. I did a 2.6 upscale (look in the mid power threads) with
a 24mm motormount, as well as two bt-5 downscales... Havent finished them yet, but Got the decals
from Gordon at excelsior rocketry, who did a great job on them. And, working on a 3.8 upscale tornado
too, with a 29mm motor mount. I look forward to your build!

Oh yeah, you stand a good chance of losing it on a C6!
TimE

 

[Rich Holmes]

Oh yeah, you stand a good chance of losing it on a C6!
TimE

Not if I have no intention of launching it on a C6, I don't!

 

[Rich Holmes]

I finished putting the Tornado together, primed, sanded, and threw on a coat of white. Since time was short I didn’t spend much time on it, didn’t fill the spirals, didn’t do the finish coat I want to put on it. The only reason I shot the white was to make it easier to find. Figured if it survived today's club launch, I’d finish it right later.
View attachment 149223

The Estes instructions list four B and C motors as recommended, but over at RocketryReviews.com I find most listed flights were on A or even 1/2A. So I decided on an A8-3, and that worked well. B would have gone probably too high to be sure of keeping it in sight, and C would have made it disappear. This month’s contest was a B motor helicopter duration, with separate categories for rockets that return in one or two parts, so this flight was timed: 38 seconds. Then came the hard part… recovery. The grass at our field was a bit over ankle high, and I didn’t have a very good line on the tail section. I couldn’t locate it. I decided to write it off as lost, but someone later on found it accidentally, which meant my entry qualified. Turned out to be the winner by 7 seconds (second place was another Tornado) by the end of the day.
View attachment 149222