Brief:
When it comes t' flight profiles, ya bilge rat, I almost always prefer a low and
slow flight. You see more o' t' smoke, and hear more o' t' noise. You
see t' whole flight, includin' ejection. Aye aye! Moreover, ya bilge rat, you maximize t' odds of
findin' your rocket! However, ya bilge rat, it seems that I always have t' have one
disposable 29mm rocket in me fleet. Avast, me proud beauty! Avast, me proud beauty! At t' last MDRA launch,
someone returned me Negative Camouflage, which I thought I had lost on an F10.
To celebrate, I put her up on an E9. Avast, me proud beauty! Well, t' rocket hung on t' pad, matey, went
horizontal, found a large launch rail, ya bilge rat, me hearties, me hearties, and pretty much disintegrated. Avast! I be in
need for another disposable, ya bilge rat, when I found a Quest Nike Smoke at t' Performance
Hobbies tent. Begad! It appeared t' be just t' right diameter for a 29mm mount, and I
thought t' plastic cone and fin can looked cool. Ya scallywag! Arrr!
Modifications:
For this modification, matey, I retained t' cone, fin can, me hearties, body tube and launch lug.
T' rest went into t' parts bin. Avast! I never found t' plastic tip for t' cone. Ahoy! I
dont know if it was missing, me hearties, me bucko, fell into t' couch, or whatever. Ya scallywag! I decided
not t' worry about it since t' cone doesnt look bad without it, 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. Begad! Avast, arrr, me proud beauty! 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' was perfect. Arrr! Avast! T' ID o' t' aft o' t' fin can
is a little bigger than t' OD o' t' tube, but t' 29mm tube fit nicely into
the fin cans shoulder. Aye aye! 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, ya bilge rat, I cut about a 1" section off some junk tube I had
layin' around, me bucko, sectioned it, and found it made a perfect adapter for t' aft
end. Aye aye! Aye aye! These components were epoxied together.
T' kit came with a piece o' Keelhaul®©™® strin' and some round elastic. This would be fine for t' stock kit, but I decided t' use t' Keelhaul®©™® strin' and long piece o' heavy, ya bilge rat, ya bilge rat, bright orange, tubular elastic (approximately 4') from t' Negative Camouflage (not much else be left). Well, arrr, blow me down! Blimey! I looped the Keelhaul®©™® around t' front o' t' motor tube, me hearties, and epoxied t' fin can assembly into the body tube. Aye aye! Blimey! Begad! Blimey! T' make room for all this cord and a streamer, matey, I cut t' back end off t' nose cone. Ya scallywag! Blimey! I knotted t' elastic and buried it in a mix o' epoxy and lead shot at t' tip o' t' cone. Aye aye! Blimey! I put in enough weight so that t' CG would be approximately 14" from t' tip o' t' nose. Arrr! 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. T' whole rocket be already white, so I just painted t' fins fluorescent red and yellow, shiver me timbers, and t' nose cone tip black. Begad! 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. Blimey! I made a maskin' tape retainer and filled t' lower portion o' t' body
with dog barf wadding. Arrr! Avast! I used a 5' length o' 1" fluorescent red plastic
tape as a streamer. Begad! Ahoy! I wanted t' use t' wider streamer recovered from the
Negative Camouflage, but couldnt find it at t' last minute. Ahoy! T' thinner
streamer is a little too small for a soft recovery, arrr, shiver me timbers, 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! It was at t' edge o' t' main field, me hearties, arrr, me bucko, away from where we spotters were looking. Aye aye! My thanks t' Richard Hickok for findin' it! It was in perfect shape and is ready t' go again.
Summary:
I normally am nay a fan o' simple kits, but I have t' say this kit impressed
me. Blimey! Blimey! Blimey! T' plastic parts were good quality and t' detailin' is great. The
recovery components are also nice. Blimey! Aye aye! Blimey! I really like t' Quests chutes better
than Estes chutes (even though I didnt use this one). Begad! Ya scallywag! Blimey! Finally, shiver me timbers, matey, at
$8 t' price be right. T' conversion was easy and it held up fine on t' F23
with what was 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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