Polecat Aerospace communication, or lack thereof

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smoon

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I have been trying to contact Polecat Aerospace for some time now with no response whatsoever.

I first tried their online contact form to ask about availability of their 5.5" Phoenix, which I would love to add to my fleet. I tried three times over a few weeks, and never received a response.

Yesterday, I decided that I wanted to try one of their kits and have been looking a the MIM-23B Hawk since I saw a USMC one painted in tan with a black nose cone, which changed my mind about this rocket. After my previous experience with contacting them, I decided to call an place the order. My call went to voicemail, so I left my name, number, and why I was calling. So far, I have not heard back from them.

Is there something going on with Polecat, or do they just not want my business for some reason?

Thanks for any insight given,

Steve
 
I hope you get an answer quickly. One of my long term goals/dreams is to build their Thunder Storm 15".
 
I have been trying to contact Polecat Aerospace for some time now with no response whatsoever.

I first tried their online contact form to ask about availability of their 5.5" Phoenix, which I would love to add to my fleet. I tried three times over a few weeks, and never received a response.

Yesterday, I decided that I wanted to try one of their kits and have been looking a the MIM-23B Hawk since I saw a USMC one painted in tan with a black nose cone, which changed my mind about this rocket. After my previous experience with contacting them, I decided to call an place the order. My call went to voicemail, so I left my name, number, and why I was calling. So far, I have not heard back from them.

Is there something going on with Polecat, or do they just not want my business for some reason?

Thanks for any insight given,

Steve

The owner has a day job. I think most of his activity is limited to weekends. Saying that, I have ordered both standard and special configs (that were set up via email communication) from him and, although a bit slow, all items were received as agreed.
 
I have always received good communication from them. Maybe not instantaneous, but timely and very helpful. Don't give up on them...I suspect you will be a very satisfied customer like me!

Cheers,
Michael
 
I ordered a kit from them about a 6 or 8 months ago. I work 3rd and talked to a lady when I called during the day. I usually try my calls around 12 eastern time. I had called on the availability on the 75mm motor mount option that showed out of stock on their website. It showed in stock in the next day or so and I placed my order through their store. Expensive shipping but order arrived quickly.
 
E-mail? Why didn't I think of that? I hate online contact forms, as I have had very bad luck getting responses from them. I did not even think about looking for an actual e-mail address, which was very easy to find.

I think I will bypass them this time, but I will find out about the Phoenix. I want that rocket more than any other right now.
 
I've never ever gotten a reply via email or their forms....I made one phone order when I could get in touch with a person.

Frank
 
Thanks for your perspective Frank.

I sent them an e-mail. we'll see what happens.

Day job or no day job, communication with customers or potential customers is important when running a business. Lack of communications is why I stopped dealing with RW long before the big issues started.

If I am going to spend my money someplace, I need to feel that my business is important and that the transaction will be completed as agreed.

Steve
 
I'm lucky, in that Polecat is a short drive from home. Tim is totally besieged with his day job at Lumalaser and he's going to be that way for a couple of months.
Ah, the life and glory of being in business for yourself.
When all else fails, try calling him before 12 Noon Pacific time.

John
 
Maybe a little note on his Web site noting that would help customers understand the delay in or lack of response.
 
Have you tried one of folks that carry his line of products?
You might get better support (and pricing) from one of them.
 
I was not aware that anyone else even carried Polecat kits.
 
I have been trying to contact Polecat Aerospace for some time now with no response whatsoever.

I first tried their online contact form to ask about availability of their 5.5" Phoenix, which I would love to add to my fleet. I tried three times over a few weeks, and never received a response.

Yesterday, I decided that I wanted to try one of their kits and have been looking a the MIM-23B Hawk since I saw a USMC one painted in tan with a black nose cone, which changed my mind about this rocket. After my previous experience with contacting them, I decided to call an place the order. My call went to voicemail, so I left my name, number, and why I was calling. So far, I have not heard back from them.

Is there something going on with Polecat, or do they just not want my business for some reason?

Thanks for any insight given,

Steve

I'm in the same boat. I used the form a few days ago to try to contact them about getting a replacement payload section for my 10" Thumper and I've heard zip, zilch, nada, nothing. I'll try to find that email address.
 
Now, I am thinking about scratch building a 5.5 inch Phoenix, if I can get a nosecone that will work. I will see if I can get a Loc nosecone that they sell with their extended Phoenix.
 
I have only had one transaction with Polecat for a Thumper Jr. kit. I emailed Tim to see if I could get it with a 54mm motor mount and it was handled and shipped within a few days.

As far as the scratch built Phoenix, that is exactly what I did using LOC tubing and the short 5.5" LOC nosecone. Depending on what tools/saws you have the fins can be a bear to cut but I managed with a little Rockwell scroll saw on the 1/4" ply.

20160327_181622.jpg
 
The Loc barebones kit looks goofy to me with the extra length (added for stability?).


I have only had one transaction with Polecat for a Thumper Jr. kit. I emailed Tim to see if I could get it with a 54mm motor mount and it was handled and shipped within a few days.

As far as the scratch built Phoenix, that is exactly what I did using LOC tubing and the short 5.5" LOC nosecone. Depending on what tools/saws you have the fins can be a bear to cut but I managed with a little Rockwell scroll saw on the 1/4" ply.

View attachment 293554

Now, that is what I am talking about. Did you use a single length of 5.5" airframe, plus the nose cone? By my calculation, that brings the finished rocket a little over 2 inches short for scale length, but I figured nobody would be able to tell, not even me.

As for the fins, I have a band saw, or if I am lazy I can pay someone to cut them for me. There are plenty of vendors that do this, although, fins this big would likely cost a pretty penny, depending on the quality of the ply used.

Thanks for the replies, and the inspiration Jeff.

Steve
 
The Loc barebones kit looks goofy to me with the extra length (added for stability?).




Now, that is what I am talking about. Did you use a single length of 5.5" airframe, plus the nose cone? By my calculation, that brings the finished rocket a little over 2 inches short for scale length, but I figured nobody would be able to tell, not even me.

As for the fins, I have a band saw, or if I am lazy I can pay someone to cut them for me. There are plenty of vendors that do this, although, fins this big would likely cost a pretty penny, depending on the quality of the ply used.

Thanks for the replies, and the inspiration Jeff.

Steve

Dude, it's basically the same. There is just a variation in perspective on the two pictures. Read all my posts on this build and you'll see how much you'd have to resize the fins and add noseweight to really make it work...

image.jpg
 
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I'm lucky, in that Polecat is a short drive from home. Tim is totally besieged with his day job at Lumalaser and he's going to be that way for a couple of months.
Ah, the life and glory of being in business for yourself.
When all else fails, try calling him before 12 Noon Pacific time.

John

I didn't know that they are located in Oregon - pretty cool! Do they have a showroom at all?
 
Did you use a single length of 5.5" airframe, plus the nose cone? By my calculation, that brings the finished rocket a little over 2 inches short for scale length, but I figured nobody would be able to tell, not even me.

No, this has a booster, payload and av-bay setup for dual deployment. I cut it down as short as possible to still fit the laundry. Booster is 38" and the payload is 16" with a 1" switch band. Total length is 68", far from scale but not too noticeable. You'll have to add nose weight to make this stable. I added 16 oz to get it to 1.3 cal with a K550W.

View attachment Phoenix AIM-54C.ork
 
No, this has a booster, payload and av-bay setup for dual deployment. I cut it down as short as possible to still fit the laundry. Booster is 38" and the payload is 16" with a 1" switch band. Total length is 68", far from scale but not too noticeable. You'll have to add nose weight to make this stable. I added 16 oz to get it to 1.3 cal with a K550W.

Did you adjust to scale fin size/span...
 
Did you adjust to scale fin size/span...

Nope, I pretty much just eye balled the fin size in OR until I was happy. This was never meant to be a scale version, just a "replica" that I could have fun flying :smile:

I still haven't launched mine yet and was curious what motors you have flown it on? Was it stable?
 
No, this has a booster, payload and av-bay setup for dual deployment. I cut it down as short as possible to still fit the laundry. Booster is 38" and the payload is 16" with a 1" switch band. Total length is 68", far from scale but not too noticeable. You'll have to add nose weight to make this stable. I added 16 oz to get it to 1.3 cal with a K550W.

So, did you used the Loc short kit and make the modifications to that, or did you scratch build the whole thing?

As of now, I am looking to make this one single deploy to get closer to the scale length. Your 68" one is about 10" longer than scale, but it does not look too bad. Going single deploy, maybe I could modify it a little more to get closer to the scale length.

Dealing with the out of scale fins should not be too difficult. If I cannot modify them, I will just get new ones cut or cut some myself.

As for nose weight. I am going into this with the knowledge that some to a lot of nose weight will be needed, depending on how close to scale length I want to get.

Steve
 
Thanks for the Open Rocket file, too. I will look at it over the weekend.
 
Nope, I pretty much just eye balled the fin size in OR until I was happy. This was never meant to be a scale version, just a "replica" that I could have fun flying :smile:

I still haven't launched mine yet and was curious what motors you have flown it on? Was it stable?

Mix of L's and M's. Last was Loki M900 at Airfest a couple years back to 10Kft. Nice flight. Stable yes, never had to use NC weight.
 
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