| Construction Rating: |   | | Flight Rating: | | | Overall Rating: | |
Contributed by Peter Davidson 
Brief:
A tiny fun-to-build 13mm rocket employing tumble recovery, a descendant of the classic Estes Mosquito.
Construction:
Included in the kit:
- 1 body tube
- 1 plastic nose cone
- 1 launch lug
- 2 small balsa strips to cut your own fins
- 1 peel-and-stick decal set
This is an easy 3FNC kit to put together with next to nothing in the way of gotchas. The instructions as supplied by Estes were very easy to follow although I ended up not using them as the rocket is so logical and straightforward to construct.
I started by cutting out the fin template from the instructions, traced the pattern on to the supplied balsa strips and cut out the required three fins. Even though the balsa fin stock is of good quality, I did not appreciate the fact that two small balsa strips were supplied instead of a single larger balsa strip as the smallness of the strips made it difficult to keep even a small ruler in place when cutting. It would also have been better if the fin template had not been a paper template but preferably from cardstock.
After having slightly roughened up the body tube with 240 grit sandpaper, I then tackled the fin marking lines for which a wraparound fin marking guide is provided. I used the door jam method for drawing my fin lines. I then attached the fins with Craftworks Tacky Craft Glue using the double-glue method. After allowing the glue sufficient time to dry, I then added generous tacky glue fin fillets. Lastly, the launch lug was tacked into place with medium CA with tacky glue fillets then added.
I used 180 grit sandpaper to roughen up the plastic nose cone in preparation for paint although I opted not to attach the nose cone to the body tube at this stage despite the instructions.
Finishing:
I filled in the balsa fin grain with three coats of NHP Micro-Fill balsa sealer which nicely sealed all the balsa smooth and then gave both the rocket and nose cone two coats of Tamiya Fine White primer with light sanding in between using 400 grit sandpaper. I then followed this up with two coats of Tamiya Yellow spray lacquer for the main section with a 600 grit light sandpapering in between and two coats of Tamiya Black for the nose cone.
After allowing both the nose cone and rocket to dry, I attached the nose cone to the body tube with a small blob of 12-minute epoxy instead of the recommended plastic cement and then added the peel-and-stick decals.
Construction Rating: 3 out of 5
Flight:
For my first launch, I friction taped a 1/4A3-3T into place, set up the rocket on the launch pad, and hooked it up to my trusty Quest controller. The rocket zipped off the launch pad at breakneck velocity to somewhere around 200-250ft at a slight angle, spat the motor upon ejection, and lawndarted back to the ground.
The second launch, again using a 1/4A3-3T, was more satisfying with a perfectly straight flight although the rocket again spat the motor (despite more friction-taping) and again another lawn dart.
Recovery:
Despite my best attempts at friction fitting, this rocket is in the habit of spitting its motor thus making for a very fast lawn dart. As previously noted by Donald Besaw, the rocket comes down nose first to stick into the ground which I believe could possibly be unsafe if young children are in the vicinity.
Flight Rating: 3 out of 5
Summary:
This is a nice little rocket which I was happy to have the chance to build and really quite fun to fly.
PROS: Ease and quickness of construction, good quality components, nice finished appearance, great flight performance.
CONS: The supplied balsa fin stock difficult to work with, lawndarting tendencies.
Overall Rating: 4 out of 5 Flight Log| Date | Rocket Name | Motor(s) | Altitude | Notes |
|---|
| 2003-03-17 | Donald Besaw's Estes 220 Swift | 1/4A3-3 | - | Nice flight but landed in some tall grass and was not recovered. Lost. I'll probably get another. | | 2004-04-01 | Saunassa's Estes 220 Swift | 1/2A3-4 | - | another tumble recovery lost - next time have more people for tracking | | 2004-05-11 | Brian Riendeau's Estes 220 Swift | 1/2A3-4 | - | Rocket took off the pad extremely fast! Lost view of the rocket until ejection, then we lost it... | | 2004-06-16 | Paul Gray's Estes 220 Swift | 1/2A3-2 | - | WOW. Get up and go. Did not think i would get it back but after looking for 15mins found it stuck... | | 2004-10-31 | Michael Bentley's Estes 220 Swift | 1/2A3-4 | - | First flight and rocket perform well. Saw engine ejection charge. Landed about 10ft from launch. | | 2004-11-28 | Michael Bentley's Estes 220 Swift | A3-4 | - | Perfect flight, hard to find | | 2005-01-01 | Kurt Tetrault's Estes 220 Swift | A3-4 | - | This lil' guy is a kick in the pants. Flew off the launch pad. Lawn darted about 30-40 feet from... | | 2005-01-01 | Kurt Tetrault's Estes 220 Swift | A3-4 | - | 2nd launch. Could not see. Lost. I will pick up a couple of these for next launch !!! Fun rocket... | | 2005-05-07 | Corey Maher's Estes 220 Swift | A10-3 | - | Screamed off the pad. Lost sight of rocket after ejection. Found rocket after a 30 minute search... | | 2005-05-08 | Chase Hrncir's Estes 220 Swift | 1/4A3-3 | - | First launch ever at Sportflyers Estates, Brookshire, TX. Great boost, but failed to tumble, as... | | 2005-09-05 | Michael Bentley's Estes 220 Swift | A10-3 | - | Unexpected altitude. Hard to find in ground. Landed like lawn dart. | | 2006-12-23 | Bill Poster's Estes 220 Swift | 1/2A3-3 | - | | | 2007-01-06 | Rick Lindsey's Estes 220 Swift | 1/2A3-2 | - | My 3 year old son wanted a bitty rocket, so I built this for him.It took off, tilted over about 30... | | 2007-07-01 | Shaun Bella's Estes 220 Swift | 1/2A3-4 | - | Very fast takeoff. Very loud ejection 2 smoke trails off in different directions. Found about a... | | 2007-07-15 | John Lee's Estes 220 Swift | 1/4A3-3 | - | First Launch on my return to rocketry. I warned my stepson (based on experience years before) that... | | 2008-08-13 | Mark Grisco's Estes 220 Swift | 1/2A3-4 | - | GONE!!!!!! | 2010-02-21  | Matt Shoemaker's Estes 220 Swift | A3-4 | - | Slight weathercocking but very stable, and quickly flew out of sight. Saw the puff of smoke as the... | | 2010-07-06 | Dean Booth's Estes 220 Swift - LOST (1) | 1/4A3-3 | - | At apogee, the smoking motor casing flew off in one direction and the rocket simply vanished. I... | | 2010-07-13 | Dean Booth's Estes 220 Swift - LOST (1) | 1/4A3-3 | - | Vanished again at apogee. I searched the ground in vain. I'll convert my next one to MMX. | | 2011-08-05 | Chris J Taylor's 220 Swift | A10-3T | - | Incredible velocity!!! Once it fired it was out of sight after smoke trail quit. Found it about... | | 2011-10-05 | Dean Booth's Estes 220 Swift - motor mount mod (2) | Estes 1/4A3-3T | - | Flawless operation on this maiden flight. I modified the Swift for rear ejection to aid in... | | 2011-10-23 | Dean Booth's Estes 220 Swift - motor mount mod (2) | Estes 1/4A3-3T | - | Another flawless flight using the rear-ejection mod. Nice tracking smoke before apogee, recovered... | | 2012-02-01 | Dean Booth's Estes 220 Swift - motor mount mod (2) | Estes 1/4A3-3T | - | I loaded up a teflon tape streamer and shortened 1/4A motor. Heard a loud pop at ejection. Rear... | | 2012-03-14 | Dean Booth's Estes 220 Swift - motor mount mod (2) | Estes 1/4A3-3T | - | The teflon streamer stripped off during descent, resulting in a quick trip down. I found the... |
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T+M B. (March 22, 2006)