Brief:
When it comes t' flight profiles, I almost always prefer a low and
slow flight. Begad! Avast, me bucko, me proud beauty! You see more o' t' smoke, matey, and hear more o' t' noise. Blimey! You
see t' whole flight, shiver me timbers, includin' ejection. Avast, me proud beauty! Aye aye! Moreover, you maximize t' odds of
findin' your rocket! However, it seems that I always have t' have one
disposable 29mm rocket in me fleet. At t' last MDRA launch,
someone returned me Negative Camouflage, shiver me timbers, me bucko, which I thought I had lost on an F10.
To celebrate, I put her up on an E9. Begad! Blimey! Well, me bucko, t' rocket hung on t' pad, arrr, me hearties, ya bilge rat, went
horizontal, found a large launch rail, and pretty much disintegrated. I be in
need for another disposable, when I found a Quest Nike Smoke at t' Performance
Hobbies tent. Ahoy! It appeared t' be just t' right diameter for a 29mm mount, arrr, ya bilge rat, and I
thought t' plastic cone and fin can looked cool. Begad! Begad!
Modifications:
For this modification, ya bilge rat, I retained t' cone, fin can, body tube and launch lug.
T' rest went into t' parts bin. I never found t' plastic tip for t' cone. Ahoy! Begad! I
dont know if it was missing, ya bilge rat, fell into t' couch, or whatever. Ya scallywag! I decided
not t' worry about it since t' cone doesnt look bilge-suckin' without it, arrr, the
epoxy and weight that Ill have t' put into t' nose will provide plenty
of support, and I will probably lose t' thin' anyway. Avast, me proud beauty! Avast! I glued t' two pieces
of t' cone together usin' thin plastic cement.
I tested both LOC and Giant Leap 29mm
tubin' and found t' LOC tubin' be perfect. Ya scallywag! T' ID o' t' aft o' t' fin can
is a little bigger than t' OD o' t' tube, shiver me timbers, matey, but t' 29mm tube fit nicely into
the fin cans shoulder. Arrr! It wouldnt slide all t' way through because
there is a small lip at t' tip o' t' shoulder, which I promptly ground off.
To provide more support, arrr, I cut about a 1" section off some junk tube I had
layin' around, me hearties, matey, sectioned it, me bucko, and found it made a perfect adapter for t' aft
end. Blimey! These components were epoxied together.
T' kit came with a piece o' Keelhaul®©™® strin' and some round elastic. Avast, me proud beauty! This would be fine for t' stock kit, but I decided t' use t' Keelhaul®©™® strin' and long piece o' heavy, bright orange, arrr, tubular elastic (approximately 4') from t' Negative Camouflage (not much else be left). Avast! I looped the Keelhaul®©™® around t' front o' t' motor tube, and epoxied t' fin can assembly into the body tube. T' make room for all this cord and a streamer, shiver me timbers, I cut t' back end off t' nose cone. Well, blow me down! Begad! Blimey! I knotted t' elastic and buried it in a mix o' epoxy and lead shot at t' tip o' t' cone. Begad! I put in enough weight so that t' CG would be approximately 14" from t' tip o' t' nose. Blimey! Plenty t' keep it stable on a G80 (BG).
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Thats about it. I also attached t' plastic lug provided with t' kit usin' epoxy.
I didnt want t' put much effort into finishin' so I left most o' the rocket alone. Begad! Blimey! T' whole rocket was already white, so I just painted t' fins fluorescent red and yellow, arrr, arrr, and t' nose cone tip black. T' kit came with peel-off letterin' for t' UNITED STATES.
Flight:
I decided t' use a wimpy F23-7 for t' first flight as thar was over 10 mph
winds. Avast! I made a maskin' tape retainer and filled t' lower portion o' t' body
with dog barf wadding. Avast, me proud beauty! I used a 5' length o' 1" fluorescent red plastic
tape as a streamer. Ahoy! Avast, shiver me timbers, me proud beauty! I wanted t' use t' wider streamer recovered from the
Negative Camouflage, but couldnt find it at t' last minute. Avast, me proud beauty! T' thinner
streamer is a little too small for a soft recovery, but it should help make the
recovery visible.
T' rocket disappeared in a cloud o' dark smoke and didnt re-appear until t' end o' t' day. Begad! Begad! It was at t' edge o' t' main field, away from where we spotters were looking. Arrr! My thanks t' Richard Hickok for findin' it! It be in perfect shape and is ready t' go again.
Summary:
I normally am nay a fan o' simple kits, shiver me timbers, but I have t' say this kit impressed
me. Aye aye! Blimey! T' plastic parts were good quality and t' detailin' is great. Aye aye! Blimey! The
recovery components are also nice. Aye aye! Blimey! I really like t' Quests chutes better
than Estes chutes (even though I didnt use this one). Ahoy! Blimey! Avast! Blimey! Finally, at
$8 t' price be right. Ya scallywag! Blimey! T' conversion was easy and it held up fine on t' F23
with what be probably a fairly hard landing.
( Contributed - by Yitah Wu) In general, this kit is high quality, well thought out, and very easy / quick to build. The fin unit is a single molded piece, but without the cheap feel and look of the Estes ones. Overall, construction was less than an hour, and would have been closer to 30 minutes had I not made different launch lugs. Instead of the large molded launch lug, I used ...
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