kenobi65
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Jul 18, 2010
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(stands up) Hi, my name is Mike...and I'm a BAR. 
The Rocket Challenge shows on Discovery Channel reawakened the bug in me after 22 years away from the hobby. Since it's butt-biting cold here, I haven't flown anything yet, but I've been building like mad (I'll see if I can borrow the neighbor's digital camera, so I can share a picture of the quickly-growing fleet).
In the meantime, I've been thinking about the rockets I built as a teenager, and was curious how many others had built these kits. (Alas, I don't have any of these anymore; those that didn't crash and / or burn were given by my parents to the neighbor kids sometime in the mid-90s, after spending 15 years in the basement.)
- Estes Patriot. This was my first kit. I spent forever on the big girl, and, on her maiden flight, the shock cord came undone at the nosecone. Core sampler. The happy ending is that I'm putting the finishing touches on a clone I recently bought on eBay, and she looks every bit as gorgeous as she did back in '77.
- Centuri Payloader II. Those goofy fins were a pain in the tuckus to put together. And, my assembly skills were a bit lacking at the time anyway (hey, I was only 13), and so the 4 fins were not anywhere near 90-degree angles from each other. Even with that handicap, she did fly well, until she cracked a couple of those bloody fins.
- Estes Condor. I loved this baby. The "Orbital Transport Lite" was fun to build, and flew well. I just built a Custom Rockets Tristar, in part because the looks reminded me a lot of the old Condor. Maybe once I hone my skills a bit, I'll try to clone a Condor off of the JimZ plans.
- Estes Viper. This one came with the Model Rocketry Club kit. As the Comic Book Guy would say: Ugliest. Paintjob. Ever. Flew OK, though.
- Estes Scissor-Wing Transport. Gads, I hated assembling this thing. The photography of the rocket in the Estes catalog hid all the 75 bits of balsa that went into the scissoring mechanism. And, since I was young and impatient, I didn't let the glue dry enough, and so the scissoring mechanism wasn't quite right. First flight, power pod popped out just fine, but the wing maybe moved 10 degrees (instead of the necessary 90 degrees). MAJOR lawndart.
- Estes SS Cassiopeia. What a beauty; I spent the time to build her correctly, and found some metallic blue spraypaint to finish her. First flight, the parachute caught a breeze, and she landed on the domed roof of the YMCA pool down the street. The janitor actually went up on the roof and brought her down! I flew her a few more times (on bigger fields!), and she always flew well. This is the one I really regret letting my parents give away, as the occasional kit that shows up on eBay now goes for big bucks.
- Estes Firefly. Fun little glider; flew better after I accidentally broke the main spar, and glued it back together. I usually piggybacked her on the Cassiopeia.
Sorry for the reminiscing, but I've enjoyed reading all of the stories on the board, so I thought I'd share.
Safe flights!
Mike Mistele
The Rocket Challenge shows on Discovery Channel reawakened the bug in me after 22 years away from the hobby. Since it's butt-biting cold here, I haven't flown anything yet, but I've been building like mad (I'll see if I can borrow the neighbor's digital camera, so I can share a picture of the quickly-growing fleet).
In the meantime, I've been thinking about the rockets I built as a teenager, and was curious how many others had built these kits. (Alas, I don't have any of these anymore; those that didn't crash and / or burn were given by my parents to the neighbor kids sometime in the mid-90s, after spending 15 years in the basement.)
- Estes Patriot. This was my first kit. I spent forever on the big girl, and, on her maiden flight, the shock cord came undone at the nosecone. Core sampler.
The happy ending is that I'm putting the finishing touches on a clone I recently bought on eBay, and she looks every bit as gorgeous as she did back in '77.- Centuri Payloader II. Those goofy fins were a pain in the tuckus to put together. And, my assembly skills were a bit lacking at the time anyway (hey, I was only 13), and so the 4 fins were not anywhere near 90-degree angles from each other. Even with that handicap, she did fly well, until she cracked a couple of those bloody fins.
- Estes Condor. I loved this baby. The "Orbital Transport Lite" was fun to build, and flew well. I just built a Custom Rockets Tristar, in part because the looks reminded me a lot of the old Condor. Maybe once I hone my skills a bit, I'll try to clone a Condor off of the JimZ plans.
- Estes Viper. This one came with the Model Rocketry Club kit. As the Comic Book Guy would say: Ugliest. Paintjob. Ever. Flew OK, though.
- Estes Scissor-Wing Transport. Gads, I hated assembling this thing. The photography of the rocket in the Estes catalog hid all the 75 bits of balsa that went into the scissoring mechanism. And, since I was young and impatient, I didn't let the glue dry enough, and so the scissoring mechanism wasn't quite right. First flight, power pod popped out just fine, but the wing maybe moved 10 degrees (instead of the necessary 90 degrees). MAJOR lawndart.
- Estes SS Cassiopeia. What a beauty; I spent the time to build her correctly, and found some metallic blue spraypaint to finish her. First flight, the parachute caught a breeze, and she landed on the domed roof of the YMCA pool down the street. The janitor actually went up on the roof and brought her down! I flew her a few more times (on bigger fields!), and she always flew well. This is the one I really regret letting my parents give away, as the occasional kit that shows up on eBay now goes for big bucks.
- Estes Firefly. Fun little glider; flew better after I accidentally broke the main spar, and glued it back together. I usually piggybacked her on the Cassiopeia.
Sorry for the reminiscing, but I've enjoyed reading all of the stories on the board, so I thought I'd share.
Safe flights!
Mike Mistele
