RocketReviews.com - Estes - Renegade (2109) [2003-]

Brief:
The Renegade is a cool staged rocket featuring a tumble recovery for the booster and a parachute recovery for the 2nd stage. It also flies great as a single stage rocket.

Construction:
The kit came with a whole lot of parts, including two lengths of BT-60 body tubes (one of them was much shorter, of course, for the booster section), a tube coupler, a couple different types of nose cones, two BT-20 engine mount tubes, two short BT-5 tubes and two BT-50 tubes for the boosters, 8 fins, a decal sheet, 4 centering rings, elastic shock cord, a 12" parachute, as well as some other little couplers and adapters.

The instructions were very easy to follow and all I used was Elmer's white glue. This actually was my first rocket ever. My wife gave it to me as a birthday gift and I was thrilled with its looks. Building the model went well but there was one thing that looking back, I would have changed: the "boosters." The "boosters" that attach to the booster section fit between fins on either side and are easy to attach, but after the glue dried I tried to fit the two stages together and found it to be a tight fit since those pesky "boosters" were nearly touching the upper stage. This really became a factor once a couple layers of primer and paint were applied. Aside from the "boosters" though, everything else was fine with kit assembly and all parts fit perfectly.

Finishing:
I primed the entire rocket with grey primer, then painted the whole thing with a blue-black pearl paint. After the paint was dry I put on the decals, then sprayed it all down with Krylon clear coat. Decals went on fine, but I had to do a little trimming on the fin decals. Again, the painting is where the "boosters" were a problem. It was difficult getting paint down into the spaces between the "boosters" and the fins/body tube. Anyway, it worked out. Painting the "boosters" prior to attaching them to the lower stage would take care of that headache.

Flight:
Motor retention is friction fit with masking tape. To prep it, you use Scotch tape and tape the booster motor onto the bottom of the upper stage motor. Then you fit it into the upper stage. Once that is securely in place, you slide the lower section into the upper part (the booster section has a motor block in the lower engine tube to prevent the motor from falling out the back). I first flew this baby on a C6-0 in the booster and a C6-7 in the upper body. I wanted to see it fly, and that's what it did. Rather slow lift-off due to the weight and a great first flight to an unknown altitude.

Next flight was on the same configuration and it again flew perfectly. Since those first few flights I have always used a C6-0 in the booster section but have tried B6-4s and C6-5s in the upper section as well. I have flown it many time as a single stage on C6-7s and C6-5s. I even tried it once on an A8-3, but that was a nail-biter and the chute barely deployed with 20 feet to spare. Luckily I flew it over a grassy baseball field and it suffered no damage.

This is a picture of the Renegade launching after being modified. The booster is being powered by 3 Estes D12 motors, and the sustainer flies on a C6. Flight was spectacular to well over 1200'. Booster suffered damage to one fin during launch, but it is repairable and will fly again

Recovery:
The shock cord attaches to the inside wall of the body tube with regular white glue. I have never had it pull away or fail in any way and this rocket has flown over a dozen times. The upper stage recovers via a small 12" parachute. It comes down faster than I would like, but I have not lost any fins yet and we fly in the desert in southern New Mexico where the dirt is rather unforgiving.

The booster uses a tumble recovery but it is so stable that it comes down rather straight and fast, causing me to wince every time. The booster section began showing serious signs of wear after about the 4th flight, when the BT-50 tubes began crumpling slightly. I still flew it and it did fine. Finally, however, the shock from the 8th tumble recovery caused the motor mount centering rings to fail and break away. The booster section itself was fine, except the BT-50s were also destroyed. Fins were all still good and the upper stage was still intact.

Summary:
I like this rocket and it looks cool when fully assembled for staged flight. It is nice to be able to fly it as a single stage in case you are out of booster motors (or money). It flies great either staged or single and all flights are fairly straight. The abuse that the booster takes is a drag. Some form of a streamer recovery would be great if you could swing that one.

Flight Log

Date	Rocket Name	Motor(s)	Altitude	Notes
1989-02-14	Donald Laskey's Estes Renegade	C6-0/B6-6	-	booster great but the sustainer ejected on the ground.
2004-01-11	Donald Besaw's Estes Renegade	C6-0/B6-6	-	Nice first flight, slow liftoff. Staged nicely. Booster recovered close to pad, it came straight...
2004-01-17	Bob Bernatchez's Estes Renegade	B6-0/B6-6	-	Cool model received as Xmas gift from kids. Model staged at a low altitude. Might try a C booster...
2004-02-22	Bob Bernatchez's Estes Renegade	C6-0/B6-6	-	C6-0 is much better booster for this model. Unfortunately, one of the booster fins broke upon...
2004-03-07	Donald Besaw's Estes Renegade	C6-0/C6-7	-	Very nice flight, went up slow and straight and continued upward at sustainer ignition, Went maybe...
2004-03-13	James Reyome's Estes Renegade	C6-0/C6-7	-	Great first flight for neat new rocket. Booster very sticky due to tight fit on sidepods, may have...
2004-03-20	Bob Bernatchez's Estes Renegade	B6-0/B6-4	-	Good flight & no damage to the booster!
2004-04-18	Bob Bernatchez's Estes Renegade	C6-0/B6-4	-	Broke another booster fin. Need to redesign the booster.
2004-05-15	Bob Bernatchez's Estes Renegade	C6-0/B6-4	-	Ejected a bit early this time. Will probably go with a longer delay from now on when using a C6...
2004-05-16	Bob Bernatchez's Estes Renegade	C6-0/C6-7	-	Model took off to the south after staging. Upper stage is lost.
2004-07-20	Jeff Hale's Estes Renegade	C6-0/C6-5	-	Rocket went almost parallel to the ground shortly after booster stage. Will build another one -...
2004-12-18	Robert Davis's Estes Renegade	3xD12-0/C6-7	-	Awesome lift-off on 3 Ds! This one was fun. One fin (booster) came loose in flight, and another...
2005-05-28	Jeff Lane's Estes Renegade	C6-0/B6-4	-	Stayed upright but still a very slow boost. Sustainer flight was good. A booster pod broke off on...
2005-05-28	Jeff Lane's Estes Renegade	C6-0/B6-6	-	Boosted lazily off pad, arced over and ignited sustainer horizontally at ~20ft. Deployment after...
2005-06-18	Mike Kiss's Estes Renegade	C6-0/C6-5	-	Slow easy lift off, stayed stable, staged perfectly at about 150 ft, sustainer flew to about 800...
2005-06-18	Jeff Lane's Estes Renegade	B6-0/A8-3	-	Perfect flight after fixing booster recess. No damage to booster or sustainer.
2005-06-25	Reed Johansson's Estes Renegade	B4-4	-	Maiden flight with two coats of primer. Really great flight. Nice slow liftoff with low altitude...
2005-06-25	Reed Johansson's Estes Renegade	B4-4	-	Another great flight. This rocket/motor combo is great for small fields. For all of the flights on...
2005-06-25	Reed Johansson's Estes Renegade	B4-4	-	Another great flight. I was able to run and catch it before it touched the ground.
2005-07-03	Jim Hinton's Estes Renegade	2xC6-3+C6-0/C6-7	-	first lauunch with C6-3's in side pods, worked very nicely. Only one chute fully deployed on...
2005-07-23	Reed Johansson's Estes Renegade	C6-0/B6-6	-	During the booster flight, the rocket went up at a 50-degree angle. After successful staging, the...
2005-07-23	Reed Johansson's Estes Renegade	C6-0/A8-5	-	Again, it weathercocked or just plain leaned over, whatever you want to call it. Still a really...
2005-07-23	Reed Johansson's Estes Renegade	C6-0/A8-5	-	Great flight. THis rocket tends to weathercock a bit. It might just need more noseweight.
2005-08-13	Mike Kiss's Estes Renegade	C6-0/C6-5	-	Slow lift off that turned horizontal just before staging, 2nd stage flew horizontal about 500 ft,...
2005-09-24	Reed Johansson's Estes Renegade	C6-0/A8-5	-	Again, staged a little low. Definitely going to upgrade to a 24mm motor mount.
2005-09-24	Reed Johansson's Estes Renegade	C6-0/A8-5	-	Flew/staged kinda low.
2005-10-16	Jeff Lane's Estes Renegade	B6-4	-	Good flight, single stage.
2005-10-23	Reed Johansson's Estes Renegade	B6-4	-	Cool flight. Nice and low.
2005-10-23	Reed Johansson's Estes Renegade	B6-4	-	Again another cool low flight.
2005-11-06	Reed Johansson's Estes Renegade	B6-4	-	Cool flight. A litte squirrelly on the way up and the chute took a little while to open up, but...
2005-11-26	Donald Laskey's Estes Renegade	C6-0/B6-6	-	booster great but the sustainer ejected on the ground.
2005-12-31	Reed Johansson's Estes Renegade	B6-4	-	Great flight. Nose hit the body, slightly chipping the paint.
2006-05-20	Mike Kiss's Estes Renegade	C6-0/A8-3	-	Good flight, still struggles off the pad, too heavy, booster broke 2 fins again, sustainer no...
2006-06-03	Todd Mullin's Estes Renegade	1XD12-0+2XA10-3/B4-4	-	Great boost! Clustered the booster because the standard configuration has always been sluggish of...
2006-06-24	Reed Johansson's Estes Renegade	D12-0/B6-4	-	Booster broke a fin on landing b/c of gained altitude with D12. Sustainer section did not eject...
2006-07-09	Edward Chess's Estes Renegade	B6-4	-	Flown single stage for small field.
2006-07-13	Jeff Lane's Estes Renegade	B6-0/B6-4	-	Perfect liftoff straight up, good staging, beautiful deployment. More proof that reducing the...
2006-10-02	Ed Scientist's Estes Renegade	C6-0/A8-3	-	Well it was ugly. Great boost with seperation at about 75 feet. The sustainer failed to ignite...
2006-10-06	Todd Mullin's Estes Renegade	F40-M	-	Yee-ha! My second Renegade mod, this time with a single stage 29mm motor mount! Beefed up with...
2006-12-30	Gerry Williams's Estes Renegade	C6-5	-	MAIDEN FLIGHT: Good flight, excellent recovery. Do it again! :-J
2006-12-30	Gerry Williams's Estes Renegade	C6-0/C6-5	-	SECOND FLIGHT: With booster stage (thought staging might fail as coupling seemed tight), launched...
2007-01-14	Todd Mullin's Estes Renegade	D12-0/2XA10-3T/B4-4	-
2007-01-27	Todd Mullin's Estes Renegade	F52-4	-	Motor delay burn by... Ejected violently and early
2007-02-24	Todd Mullin's Estes Renegade	D12-0+2XA10-3/A8-3	-
2007-03-10	Dragan Mejic's Estes Renegade	C6-0/C6-7	-
2007-03-25	James Powers's Estes Renegade	C6-0/B6-6	-	Boost stage went well. After separation, booster lawn darted and impaled itself 1 inch in ground,...
2007-03-25	James Powers's Estes Renegade	B6-4	-	Perfect first flight. Nice slow lift-off, recovery ~30ft from launch pad.
2007-08-12	Mark Van+Luvender's Estes Renegade	2xA8-3+C6-0/C6-5	-	Modified with 18mm mounts in the booster side pods. All three boosters lit on the ground, great...
2007-08-19	Scott Turnbull's Estes Renegade	C6-0/C6-5	-	Good staging and booster sep. Recovered off-field.
2007-11-11	Jesse Heady's Estes Renegade	C6-0/C6-5	-	Nice slow take off, went up about 100ft then straight back down into the ground. At impact the...
2008-02-23	Reed Johansson's Estes Renegade	D12-0/B6-6	-	Good flight. I cut the side pods and added two small parachutes to the booster to slow its...
2008-05-24	Andy Turits's Estes Renegade	B6-0/B6-4	-	Low motors, first flight. Slow take off. Sustainer fired perfectly at no more than 20 ft to an...
2008-09-20	Edward Chess's Estes Renegade	B6-0/A8-5	-	Good set of motors for small field. Lost both booster fin tip pods, but easily repaired.
2009-03-28	Duane Boldt's Estes Renegade	C6-0/C6-7	-	This rocket flew excellent on the C6-0/C6-7 combo. Much better than using the B6-0's in the...
2009-07-25	Duane Boldt's Estes Renegade	C6-0/C6-3	-	Actually the C6-3 on the sustainer worked out very well on this flight. Beautiful!
2009-07-25	Duane Boldt's Estes Renegade	C6-0/C6-3	-	Again a great flight on same combo. Used this flight for NARTREK Bronze Two-stage requirement.
2009-07-25	Duane Boldt's Estes Renegade	C6-0/C6-5	-	Awesomely high flight. Staged perfect, but wind picked up and had to chase the sustainer about...
2009-08-22	Duane Boldt's Estes Renegade	C6-0/C6-5	-	Was a great flight. Booster kit kinda hard on the asphalt. Had to touch up paint later.
2009-10-10	Edward Chess's Estes Renegade	B6-0/B4-4	-	Short boost on a B6-0, but that limited the damage to the booster to a broken fin--all the pods...
2010-12-16	Brian Hoover's Estes Renegade	C11-3	-	Moded for rear ejection, flown w/out paint as a test for the mod. Flight was good and stable,...

Estes - Renegade (2109) [2003-]

Flight Log

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