Saturday, October 1, 2016

#Rocketober Tweets for Today

Time to pick a build for #Rocketober. I have so many Estes rockets
I'm going with something else. Here's my non-Estes build pile.

I've been posting a ton of photos to Twitter for #Rocketober. Here's what I've done so far today.

From the selection pile - the Apogee Components Avion.
I've built 4 of these and have one to paint, so I'll save this one.

Quest Astra, a leftover kit from rocket camp. Will build another time.

The Quest Magnum Sport Loader. I bought after my 1st had some minor flight damage.

Definitely out of production - the Red River Rocketry Blue Shift!
I think I got the last one in the world a couple years ago.

A limited edition, designed by Crazy Jim of SkyPyrates - the Sky Wolf. This is a National Sport Launch 2015 commemorative rocket. Small but powerful with a 29mm motor mount, it can fly on anything from D to H motors.

The FlisKits Tres - a three-motor cluster rocket. I bought this from Jim Flis at
a launch after chatting with him about airbrushes.

The Quest SuperBird - a low and slow rocket. I think this one is out of production as well.

This is a big one - the Mad Cow Rocketry Aerobee 150A. It's a scale model of a sounding rocket, and has a 38mm mount.

I'll also soon finish a scratch-built copy of the Estes Hi Flier XL with a payload section.
I'm building the original Estes kit at the same time.

Decided on the Sky Wolf

Checking the parts. That's a 12-foot Kevlar shock chord.

The Sky Wolf comes with some nice vinyl decals.

I'll measure and weigh all the parts to build a simulation in OpenRocket. Here, I'm measuring the nose cone.


It's an 8-inch long (spherically-blunted) tangent ogive.

The nose cone is hefty, and has some nose weight added to the tip. I had to find the real CG for the simulation.

The NC alone weighs 91.4 grams.

Careful notes on the sizes, masses and placement of all the parts will help me make an accurate sim.

The aft centering ring is glued on. The instructions say to use epoxy, but wood glue will work fine for
this rocket. It's also less messy and lighter in weight than epoxy, so I don't have to mix anything.

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1 comment:

  1. Awesome photos. I like the Tres kit from Flis Kits.I have the Deuces Wild kit so far. Tres is next among other Flis Kit models.

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