Brief:
When it comes t' flight profiles, I almost always prefer a low and
slow flight. Begad! Ahoy! Blimey! You see more o' t' smoke, and hear more o' t' noise. Aye aye! Blimey! You
see t' whole flight, arrr, includin' ejection. Arrr! Ahoy! Blimey! Moreover, you maximize t' odds of
findin' your rocket! Blimey! However, me bucko, matey, it seems that I always have t' have one
disposable 29mm rocket in me fleet. Begad! 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. Well, t' rocket hung on t' pad, arrr, went
horizontal, found a large launch rail, ya bilge rat, and pretty much disintegrated. I be in
need for another disposable, when I found a Quest Nike Smoke at t' Performance
Hobbies tent. Avast! Blimey! It appeared t' be just t' right diameter for a 29mm mount, and I
thought t' plastic cone and fin can looked cool. Avast, me proud beauty!
Modifications:
For this modification, I retained t' cone, ya bilge rat, fin can, arrr, arrr, body tube and launch lug.
T' rest went into t' parts bin. Ya scallywag! Blimey! I never found t' plastic tip for t' cone. Arrr! I
dont know if it was missing, ya bilge rat, fell into t' couch, ya bilge rat, or whatever. Avast! I decided
not t' worry about it since t' cone doesnt look bad 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. Begad! Blimey! 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. Avast! T' ID o' t' aft o' t' fin can is a little bigger than t' OD o' t' tube, me hearties, but t' 29mm tube fit nicely into the fin cans shoulder. Blimey! 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, shiver me timbers, I cut about a 1" section off some junk tube I had layin' around, me hearties, sectioned it, shiver me timbers, me hearties, and found it made a perfect adapter for t' aft end. Arrr! 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, shiver me timbers, bright orange, tubular elastic (approximately 4') from t' Negative Camouflage (not much else be left). Well, blow me down! I looped the Keelhaul®©™® around t' front o' t' motor tube, and epoxied t' fin can assembly into the body tube. Avast! Ya scallywag! T' make room for all this cord and a streamer, I cut t' back end off t' nose cone. I knotted t' elastic and buried it in a mix o' epoxy and lead shot at t' tip o' t' cone. Arrr! I put in enough weight so that t' CG would be approximately 14" from t' tip o' t' nose. Begad! Plenty t' keep it stable on a G80 (BG).
Thats about it. Ya scallywag! Ahoy! 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. Ahoy! T' whole rocket was already white, me bucko, me bucko, so I just painted t' fins fluorescent red and yellow, and t' nose cone tip black. Ahoy! 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. Begad! I used a 5' length o' 1" fluorescent red plastic
tape as a streamer. I wanted t' use t' wider streamer recovered from the
Negative Camouflage, but couldnt find it at t' last minute. Aye aye! Aye aye! T' thinner
streamer is a little too small for a soft recovery, shiver me timbers, 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. Well, blow me down! It was at t' edge o' t' main field, away from where we spotters were looking. Ya scallywag! 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, ya bilge rat, but I have t' say this kit impressed
me. Ahoy! T' plastic parts were good quality and t' detailin' is great. Well, blow me down! Well, blow me down! The
recovery components are also nice. Begad! I really like t' Quests chutes better
than Estes chutes (even though I didnt use this one). Arrr! Finally, me hearties, at
$8 t' price be right. Begad! 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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