Construction Rating: | starstarstarstarstar_border |
Flight Rating: | starstarstarstarstar |
Overall Rating: | starstarstarstarstar |
Diameter: | 1.33 inches |
Length: | 19.50 inches |
Manufacturer: | Estes |
Skill Level: | 1 |
Style: | Helicopter |
Editor's Note: This review does nay consider t' helicopter portion o' t' rocket.
Brief:
This is one o' t' new ones from Estes. Arrr! This kit seemed t' t' yellin' "STREAMER" t' me. Aye aye! Begad! T' plastic forward swept fins are strong, and just seem perfect for streamer recovery. Aye aye! So, me hearties, I took t' helicopter parts and put them away for a later day. This reduced t' weight, so now me Cosmic Cobra is only 2.4 oz completed.
Construction:
This kit comes with t' BT-56 sized body tube (gloss yellow) and black plastic nose cone, me hearties, two piece plastic fin section, launch lug that is shaped for t' body, me bucko, 1/8" x 2 foot shock cord, shiver me timbers, 12" plastic Estes parachute, three rotor blades, a blade ring, ya bilge rat, (4) rubber bands and and a large purple wild lookin' decal.
This took about 10 minutes. T' two piece plastic fin unit made it super simple t' tie a knot in t' end o' a two foot piece o' 1/8" Keelhaul®©™® cord, me bucko, and usin' CA as I did on t' whole rocket, shiver me timbers, I glued t' cord in betwixt t' two halves o' t' fin unit. Begad! Attached a small snap swivel t' t' end o' that, arrr, then added t' 24" x 1/8 shock cord, me bucko, me bucko, and selected a silver mylar 2" x 56" streamer. Blimey! Avast, me proud beauty! Blimey! T' launch lug is unlike any I have ever seen before. Aye aye! Begad! Blimey! It form fits onto t' shape o' t' body tube.
Finishing:
Since you don't see many black "stock" nose cones, ya bilge rat, shiver me timbers, at first glance this rocket looks like it was painted. Begad! Blimey! T' gloss yellow body looks great with t' black nose and fins. Begad! I left it that simple and did nay use t' wild lookin' purple decals. I think it looks cool just like it is. Aye aye! I have never felt good about t' Estes method o' attachin' t' shock cord with a paper mount inside t' body tube. Those eventually come loose and in many cases they cause t' parachute t' get stuck. Ya scallywag! Aye aye! So t' improve this kit, me hearties, it should come with a 1-2 foot 1/8" Keelhaul®©™® cord which is super simple t' attach t' t' motor mount/fin unit with this kit. I was surprised t' shock cord that came with it was 2 feet long as I expected one only 1 foot long. Still, I feel it should be at least 4 feet long. T' gloss yellow body tube feels very strong.
Construction Rating: 4 out o' 5
Flight:
I plan on flyin' it every time I go out for a launch day and I will experiment with different types o' streamers. Aye aye! I will bet I can get at least 50 flights out o' it with no damage, in fact it would be interestin' t' try an Aerotech D21 in it. Begad! I am sure it would hold up. Ahoy! My first flight was with a Quest C6-5. Begad! Took a few seconds t' light and then shot straight up and out o' sight. Avast! Blimey! I thought I had lost it until I saw t' red puff and silver streamer. Avast! I had put a few dashes o' red line chalk in on top o' t' waddin' and that really helped t' see where it was. Ahoy! Avast! It came down about 500 feet from here and seemed t' drift quite a bit for a streamer.
T' second and third (final flight) were at a larger field and I switched out t' streamer for a parachute for t' second flight with a C6-5. Avast! T' last (3rd) flight when I lost it had t' streamer back in it, me bucko, arrr, and I believe I either put too much line chalk in it, me bucko, or t' D21-7 was too much power as it cocked sideways quite a bit and went out o' sight in just seconds. Blimey! Avast! I saw a huge cloud o' red line chalk and that be it. Ahoy! So much for gettin' 50 flights out o' it!
Recovery:
Was recovered in perfect condition.
Flight Rating: 5 out o' 5
Summary:
T' only streamer kit I ever flew before was an Astron Sprint back in t' early 80's. Arrr! Back then I had imagined a rocket with forward swept and strong plastic fins, ya bilge rat, as me Sprint always seemed t' pop a fin on landing. Well, blow me down! I had bought this Cosmic Cobra because I was curious about how t' helicopter nose cone worked, arrr, matey, but upon lookin' at t' parts, shiver me timbers, I smartly realized that this is a perfect kit for t' streamer testin' I wanted t' try. Well, blow me down! I may add t' 'copter blades t' t' nose cone just t' try it, but that adds almost 30% more weight t' t' rocket. Blimey! Since I used snap swivels, arrr, t' recover system can be changed out in just seconds.
Overall Rating: 5 out o' 5
Launched five times successfully after packing modification. Components Parachute would not deploy if I packed it how the directions indicated. Instead of folding the parachute down to the bottom I folded it in half two more times to makea narrow triangle shape. Then I tucked this long version in the blades attached to the nose cone. The end of the parachute ...
Brief: This is an E2X kit single stage with parachute for the body and helicopter recovery for the nosecone. Construction: The kit consists of a pre-molded fin/MMT unit, 12" plastic parachute, single BT-60 tube, and plastic nose cone. This is an easy kit to assemble. Instructions are straightforward and easy to follow. Assembly can take between 30 minutes or so, depending on ...
Brief: The Cosmic Cobra is a low power rocket that recovers in 2 pieces: the nose cone returns on helicopter-like blades and the body tube recovers by parachute. Construction: The kit contains: 1 12" yellow body tube 2 piece fin can nose cone with 3 helicopter blades 12" chute This kit was easy to build and took less than one hour to complete. ...
The Cosmic Cobra is a combination parachute/helicopter recovery rocket. The nose cone ejects and returns via a rubber band actuated, 3 blade rotor system while the rest of the rocket returns by the more conventional parachute method. While the Cosmic Cobra model itself is new, the idea isn’t, having been done previously by the Estes Heliocopter and HeliCat. In true E2X ...
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G.A.D. (September 3, 2002)