John_lennon
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Feb 21, 2021
- Messages
- 147
- Reaction score
- 68
Hi guys,
I finally had some quality time with my grandson, I purchased one of the RTF kits by Estes the Riptide. I got the kit because it came with the launch stuff as well as a rocket to be able to fly while we were building our first kit together. Him being a 9yr old impatient kid it was a great idea. I'd built a few kits when I was a kid at camp but never dealt with the pre flight of setting up the engine, ignitors, or launch pad. So we brought the rocket outside and I proceeded to insert the ignitor then plugged it. I then attached the banana clips, I then walked over to let him press the button after countdown. The ignitor burned but didn't start the engine on two different occasions. I then tried another ignitor with just an engine on the ground & it lit. I wasn't shorting the system out because they first two did ignite and melt the plug. After I lit the engine on the ground I tried again with another engine and after screwing with the damn thing for 10mins we had a successful ignition, flight, chute deployment. The recovery is another story it ended up in the trees. Which stinks because it was the one kit that was ready to fly as is, just insert another motor and go. What are the tips to insuring the ignitor is in properly to get successful ignition, banana clip placement. Do I leave the little paper tab on the ignitor wires? I had a hell of a time with the first and last engine flown in the Riptide. Whatever I did the clips wanted to keep resting on the blast plate. How much wind is too much, I've got a fairly large park behind my house, I truthfully thought it'd return to the ground so we could recover it properly. The wind was 6mph with gusts up to 10mph. I read somewhere that 20mph was the cutoff. What am I doing wrong. I need help badly. Thanks for any wise words of wisdom from the group. I'll shoot some pics of the Viking kit build and how I'm doing on that first real build we're doing together. I already started another thread about it but I didn't upload pictures and may need to scrap it anyway. I really don't want to discourage my grandson since we just started down this road together. He was a big help reading the directions and with some help and guidance making the necessary measurements for hash marks with lines. Thanks for listening,
Confused Grandpa, Dyl
I finally had some quality time with my grandson, I purchased one of the RTF kits by Estes the Riptide. I got the kit because it came with the launch stuff as well as a rocket to be able to fly while we were building our first kit together. Him being a 9yr old impatient kid it was a great idea. I'd built a few kits when I was a kid at camp but never dealt with the pre flight of setting up the engine, ignitors, or launch pad. So we brought the rocket outside and I proceeded to insert the ignitor then plugged it. I then attached the banana clips, I then walked over to let him press the button after countdown. The ignitor burned but didn't start the engine on two different occasions. I then tried another ignitor with just an engine on the ground & it lit. I wasn't shorting the system out because they first two did ignite and melt the plug. After I lit the engine on the ground I tried again with another engine and after screwing with the damn thing for 10mins we had a successful ignition, flight, chute deployment. The recovery is another story it ended up in the trees. Which stinks because it was the one kit that was ready to fly as is, just insert another motor and go. What are the tips to insuring the ignitor is in properly to get successful ignition, banana clip placement. Do I leave the little paper tab on the ignitor wires? I had a hell of a time with the first and last engine flown in the Riptide. Whatever I did the clips wanted to keep resting on the blast plate. How much wind is too much, I've got a fairly large park behind my house, I truthfully thought it'd return to the ground so we could recover it properly. The wind was 6mph with gusts up to 10mph. I read somewhere that 20mph was the cutoff. What am I doing wrong. I need help badly. Thanks for any wise words of wisdom from the group. I'll shoot some pics of the Viking kit build and how I'm doing on that first real build we're doing together. I already started another thread about it but I didn't upload pictures and may need to scrap it anyway. I really don't want to discourage my grandson since we just started down this road together. He was a big help reading the directions and with some help and guidance making the necessary measurements for hash marks with lines. Thanks for listening,
Confused Grandpa, Dyl