Estes - Greyhawk
Contributed by Bill Eichelberger 
Brief: I describe it as one of the rockets my wife bought me in 1994 at a closing sale of an Arlington, Texas hobby shop. This one, the Super Vega and the F-22 Air Superiority Fighter were the three that most intrigued me. The F-22 ASF has never flown, and another rocket, the Hornet, remains unbuilt to this day. I particularly liked the Interceptor look of this one, and the brilliantly simple way that the pods went together. Construction: Parts:
Having been out of the game for almost fifteen years, I was more than a little intimidated by the parts and instructions when I opened the Greyhawk box. I almost packed it in, but then remembered that I was the guy who'd built the Andromeda, Alien Invader AND skill level 5 Mercury Redstone in high school. Nerves forgotten, I tore into the project. Turned out to be no different than I remembered, and the project progressed quickly. (To a Nickelodeon soundtrack thanks to the kids. I always think of Rug Rats when I see this bird.)
Despite the looks, construction of the Greyhawk wasn't any different than a typical rocket, but some of the details were worth pointing out. As I mentioned earlier, the engine pods had to be constructed out of two different sizes of body tubes, centering rings, tube couplers and cardstock. This filled me with trepidation, but I found that actually reading the directions for a change made all the difference in the world. Even with my toddler daughter in the room with me occasionally supervising, (luckily she mostly just wanted to point and ask "dat", then go back to her dollhouse,) I managed to get all the parts together in the manner intended, and was rewarded with a very cool looking bird. It's a very well thought out design and the pod details go well with the fighter nose cone. The finished Greyhawk is interesting in that it's one of the few rockets still flyable in my fleet from the days of the traditional folded shock cord mount and no sanding sealer. Finishing: Construction Rating: 4 out of 5 Flight: After several more B flights, I finally got a chance to stretch the Greyhawk out on a C6-7 at NARAM 43 in Geneseo, NY. The field was huge and the winds seemed light on the field. Overhead things were obviously different, because the higher the Greyhawk went, the more it windcocked. The seven second ejection was perfect for the conditions, as the charge fired just as the rocket stopped forward motion. Then the drift began. It came back across the pads riding a thermal and rode it back into an adjacent cornfield. I'd heard horror stories about the cornfield, but at that point in my BARdom, I didn't have enough rockets that I could afford to give up on one. Despite having only a vague idea where the rocket landed, I managed to walk right up to where it hung on a stalk. On the way out I even managed to find another rocket that I took to the lost and found. The third flight of note was on a C5-3, which I was surprised to find as a recommended motor. This one left the pad with true authority, but the ejection charge was way early. As a result, the chute lines fouled in the fins and the rocket did a free fall into the parking lot. Damage was limited to a couple of broken fins. After I fixed the damage, I decided to go with a Navy blue paint scheme that I hoped to find a set of Blue Angels decals for. The blue crazed badly and the Greyhawk was put on a shelf to gather dust until I got interested again in it in 2009. Oddly enough, my flight log entries seemed surprised that this rocket performed as well as it did. Fifteen years down the road I look at it and can't imagine it NOT being a good performer. Strange. Recovery: Flight Rating: 4 out of 5 Summary: Con: Uninspired paint and decal scheme. C5-3 engine being listed as one of the motor choices. Overall Rating: 4 out of 5 Flight Log
What You Can Do
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