RocketReviews.com - Estes - Scissor Wing Transport

Brief:
Single staged boosted glider. This rocket is a re-release of an earlier Estes kit.

Construction:
Parts were of standard Estes quality and consisted of main body tube, 18mm motor tube (long tube since it's the tube for the boost pod), body tube for tail, plastic nose cone assembly, two balsa sheets for wing/fin pieces, 2 centering rings, one engine block, one engine hook, wooden dowel, parachute assembly, plastic scissor wing assemblies, and nylon cord for rear elevator.

This build was fairly easy when following the instructions. The whole thing seemed fairly well engineered, and the parts seemed to be well manufactured and fit together quite nicely. The only thing I didn't have supreme confidence in was attaching the wing to the body...more on that later...

I took my time with this build as I had always wanted this kit when I was younger but never got it. I got out of rocketry, and when I came back into the hobby this kit was not available so I was very happy when I got it for Christmas this past year. I waited to build it until I knew I could take my time with it.

I just followed the instructions on this one, not wanting to screw anything up. No "exotic" adhesives were used, just wood glue and super glue (for the plastic pieces). Fairly simple, just lots of steps to follow.

Perhaps one of the most important aspects of this kit is balancing the glider once it's built. The kit comes with clay for weighting/balancing. The instructions have you keeping the nose cone in two pieces until there are a few flights completed in order to allow fine tuning of the balance and just taping the forward part of the nose cone on for flight. I trimmed mine out and was a bit concerned with the fact that it seemed to want all the weight in the back to produce a stable glide. Oh well, it looks good so far...what could possibly go wrong?

Finishing:
Finishing was interesting as I didn't want to add too much weight and possibly throw off the glide characteristics. One light coat of primer, then two very light coats of gloss white on the glider portion and gloss black on the fins/back end of the booster pod. The decals were great, but I have notoriously bad luck with waterslide decals ripping on me. These were no exception and drove me nuts with some of the lengthier decals that always seemed to be folding in on themselves then ripping when I tried to separate them.

Flight:
Time for the first flight rolled around, and I did not have the motor I really wanted: a B6-4. Instead, I had a C6-5. Well, it should be fine. 3-2-1, liftoff! Great on the up part but kinda turning to the south a bit. Coasts, noses down, and POP! Ejection charge fired a bit past apogee, but I expected that. Parachute opens on the pod, and it looks great. Except that I notice that the glider never slowed down and there's an oval something fluttering down. Great, the wing had completely separated itself from the rest of the glider. The remaining part of the flight for the glider was a beautiful streamlined dart for the ground, landing (crashing) about 100 yards away in chest high weeds. I didn't even bother chasing in after it as I knew it was toast in the high weeds and rock hard ground. The pod landed under chute fairly close, and the wing fluttered down harmlessly (and uselessly) about 200 yards to the east. Well, so much for that kit...

Recovery:
Great on the up part, can't really render a verdict on the recovery, however, I'll still give it a 3.5--I loved the boost!

Summary:
I liked this rocket and had fun building it! I only wish I had done a better job.

Flight Log

Date	Rocket Name	Motor(s)	Altitude	Notes
2005-05-04	Donald Laskey's Estes Scissor Wing Transport	C6-3	-	pop the nose off and went downe fast
2005-07-19	Donald Besaw's Estes Scissor Wing Transport	B6-2	-	Excellent first flight, nice straight boost to maybe 300 feet and the glider performance...
2005-07-26	Donald Besaw's Estes Scissor Wing Transport	B6-2	-	Great flight, a bit squirrelly during boost but nothing major. However, the glider performance was...
2005-08-15	Donald Besaw's Estes Scissor Wing Transport	C6-3	-	Beautiful, just beautiful flight. Glider soared magestically overhead during descent and glided in...
2005-11-12	Geoffrey Kerbel's Estes Scissor Wing Transport	C6-3	-	Ebay win. Original one. No engine pod. Scratch built one and fixed rocket to fly. Good boost and...
2005-11-30	Geoffrey Kerbel's Estes Scissor Wing Transport	B6-4	-	Late ejection but glider transitioned ok.WOW, the dang thing can fly!! Way too straight,almost...
2005-12-10	Geoffrey Kerbel's Estes Scissor Wing Transport	C6-3	-	Tried a C engine again.Good boost and transition but glider went into a death sprial. Hard...
2005-12-10	Geoffrey Kerbel's Estes Scissor Wing Transport	C6-3	-	Used some CA on body tube,got it straight enough to try again but I should have quit while I could...
2005-12-10	Geoffrey Kerbel's Estes Scissor Wing Transport	C6-3	-	Did field repair and tried it again with the same results!Really landed hard, major damage to...
2005-12-24	Geoffrey Kerbel's Estes Scissor Wing Transport	B6-2	-	Made major repairs to body tube with tube coupler. Delay seemed too long for a -2.Down it went...
2006-01-15	Chan Stevens's Estes Scissor Wing Transport	C6-3	-	Clean pod separation, popped nose cone off, maple leaf recovery.
2006-01-15	Chan Stevens's Estes Scissor Wing Transport	C6-3	-	Popped nose cone off, maple leaf glide
2006-04-22	Chan Stevens's Estes Scissor Wing Transport	B4-2	-	Low altitude, but decent glide for high winds.
2006-04-22	Chan Stevens's Estes Scissor Wing Transport	C5-3	-	Perfect boost, great glide!
2006-06-11	Edward Chess's Estes Scissor Wing Transport	B6-2	-	Very long glide for such a short boost. Wings detached upon landing.
2006-08-13	Jerry Krueger's Estes Scissor Wing Transport	B4-4	-	First flight. Boost was good, arched over a little. Glide was perfect, better ever expected. It...
2006-10-12	Geoffrey Kerbel's Estes Scissor Wing Transport	B6-2	-	OK,last try! Still can't fly. I'll fix it but it is now retired. I so much wanted to get it to fly...
2006-11-11	B. W.P.'s Estes Scissor Wing Transport	B6-2	-	Arced over slightly in the climb. When ejection occurred at approximately 300ft, was perfectly...
2007-06-02	Steve Lindeman's Scissor Wing Transport	B6-2	-	Good Launch with rocket flying straight and true. Boost tube ejected properly and wing snapped...
2007-07-28	Glenn Weiss's Estes Scissor Wing Transport	B6-2	-	Very straight glide but a bit nose-heavy, will add more tail-weight. One fin on power pod broke...
2007-08-24	Mark Van+Luvender's Estes Scissor Wing Transport	C6-5	-	Wing on glider separated at ejection. Rest of glider streamlined in to chest high weeds. ...
2007-09-30	Glenn Weiss's Estes Scissor Wing Transport	B6-2	-	Awesome flight, glider had a nice wide sweeping turn and landed perfectly level, runway-like. ...
2007-12-30	Chan Stevens's Estes Scissor Wing Transport	C6-3	-
2008-05-10	Edward Chess's Estes Scissor Wing Transport	B6-2	-	Did not glide well this time--out of trim, and wing did not fully rotate into position. Nose...
2008-06-21	Glenn Weiss's Estes Scissor Wing Transport	B6-2	-	Arcing flight put the scissor wing in perfect glide position at ejection. Nice sloping glide...
2008-08-09	Andy Turits's Estes Scissor Wing Transport	C6-3	-	Arced pretty seriously and acheived a maximum altitude of 150 feet. Nose down separation. Booster...
2008-08-23	Glenn Weiss's Estes Scissor Wing Transport	B6-2	-	Great flight but got a little nervous as the glider headed for the treeline, luckily it flew right...
2008-09-20	Edward Chess's Estes Scissor Wing Transport	B6-2	-	At apogee; nice long, straight glide.
2008-10-26	Glenn Weiss's Estes Scissor Wing Transport	B6-2	-	Added some weight to one wing to get it to turn a little. Got a steep, tight circular glide. Will...
2009-01-25	David Sindel's Estes Scissor Wing Transport	C6-3	-	Fast but safe glide; will have to rebalance. The motor tube was crimped and I shortened it a hair.
2009-09-21	Jim Bassham's Estes Scissor Wing Transport	C6-3	-	Lifted off and arced over to horizontal flight at about 200'. Ejected pod perfectly and glided...
2009-11-22	Jim Bassham's Estes Scissor Wing Transport	C6-3	-	Arched over on boost and flew into the sun. Ejected OK and glider flew back toward launch pad and...
2010-01-02	Jim Bassham's Estes Scissor Wing Transport	C6-3	-	The Scissor-wing got a lot of comments at this flight and flew flawlessly. Great flight.
2010-06-12	Glenn Weiss's Estes Scissor Wing Transport	B6-2	-	Rubber band did not fully pull swing wing into place. Corkscrewed down and lawn darted. Tail...
2010-08-14	Edward Chess's Estes Scissor Wing Transport	B6-2	-	Poor glide path, spiraling in. Some damage to wing and body probably needs replacing. Decided to...
2010-10-23	Glenn Weiss's Estes Scissor Wing Transport	B6-2	-	Good flight until the glider flew right into a high tree. Tail unit broke off and was recovered...
2010-11-21	David Sindel's Estes Scissor Wing Transport	C6-3	-

Estes - Scissor Wing Transport (1265) [1974-1985]

Flight Log

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