EeebeeE
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Aug 7, 2011
- Messages
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Back in the mid 80's I bought this kit and built it after not flying rockets for a while. I must have flown it 50 times or more. Now it is in a box somewhere. Once some friends of mine in an apartment complex tried to launch it over a pond and recover with a rubber raft. Managed to get it out before there was any significant damage. It flew probably 25x more times after that.
I found the drawings and decided it was time to upscale it. Challenge with making this a high power is that most clubs have gone to rails, and it is hard to put rail buttons on this because of the shroud. So making it an F or G mid power was the right way to go. So I bought an Estes Hi Flier XL kit, and will take it up 168%. The original was 15.125" long with about a 9" wingspan and a 3.8" vertical stabilizer span. The upscale will have a little over a 14" wingspan and a 6.25" vertical stabilizer span.
I have found that the Hi Flier XL is a good "base kit" to design a rocket around. Mid power motors, decent diameter, comes with a nose cone that seems to scale to a number of designs, and has a motor mount. Cheaper to buy this kit and mod it than it is to buy the parts separately.
The original had cardboard for the shrouds. I will replace with 1/16" balsa. fins will be TTW balsa and will be papered as well, using epoxy. That strengthens them, but still keeps the weight down. I will probably add a tracker in the nose cone and may also electronically deploy the main. That remains to be seen. The launch lug will be positioned inside the shroud as it was on the original. I will try to match paint schemes (Duh ... red), and will reach out to Stickershock 23 for decals.
Should be a fun little project, and the rocket should be a great flyer.
I found the drawings and decided it was time to upscale it. Challenge with making this a high power is that most clubs have gone to rails, and it is hard to put rail buttons on this because of the shroud. So making it an F or G mid power was the right way to go. So I bought an Estes Hi Flier XL kit, and will take it up 168%. The original was 15.125" long with about a 9" wingspan and a 3.8" vertical stabilizer span. The upscale will have a little over a 14" wingspan and a 6.25" vertical stabilizer span.
I have found that the Hi Flier XL is a good "base kit" to design a rocket around. Mid power motors, decent diameter, comes with a nose cone that seems to scale to a number of designs, and has a motor mount. Cheaper to buy this kit and mod it than it is to buy the parts separately.
The original had cardboard for the shrouds. I will replace with 1/16" balsa. fins will be TTW balsa and will be papered as well, using epoxy. That strengthens them, but still keeps the weight down. I will probably add a tracker in the nose cone and may also electronically deploy the main. That remains to be seen. The launch lug will be positioned inside the shroud as it was on the original. I will try to match paint schemes (Duh ... red), and will reach out to Stickershock 23 for decals.
Should be a fun little project, and the rocket should be a great flyer.
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