| Construction Rating: |   | | Flight Rating: | | | Overall Rating: | |
Contributed by John R. Brandon III
Brief:
Another fine single stage scale model of an Ansari X-Prize competitor from
Estes.
Construction:
The kit parts included a BT-55 body tube, a BT-60 body tube, a BT-20 motor
mount tube, a wire motor-retainer hook, a mylar ring to retain the motor hook,
a block of clay nose weight, a launch lug, a preassembled 12" parachute, a
heavy 1/4" x 30" rubber shock cord, a small sheet of laser-cut balsa
for the forward fins, a sheet of pressure-sensitive decals, and three sets of
plastic parts--one set is the entire rear quarter of the airframe with the main
fins, the second is the nosecone and transition, and the third is two centering
rings, a display base, and twelve (yes, twelve) rocket engine nozzles in three
sizes from reasonable to "bring me the tweezers and my 3.5x reading
glasses to handle and see these darn things". There was one of the yellow
spacer tubes Estes uses for positioning motor block rings listed on the parts
list, but it wasn't in my kit (more on this later in the review).
This kit was well engineered. The instructions were the usual well written
Estes style: clear and logical. Apparently the kit's motor mount has been
revised slightly since my instruction sheet was printed. The motor tube was
just long enough to hold a standard 18mm motor using the standard hook and
front thrust ring approach. The spacing tool was redundant so it was left out,
but the instruction sheet should be revised to reflect the way the mount is
now.
I needed four spring clothespins to get the fin canister glued together
without gaps, but I've seen and fixed many worse fit problems in my 20+ years
building plastic kits.
This one is as solid as my Estes Rubicon or at least very close to it.
PROs: Easy construction, solid and scale-like fin canister.
CONs: Rewrite instruction sheet to accurately reflect new motor mount.
Finishing:
It's not a horrid paint scheme. In fact, I painted only detailing colors onto
the parts that weren't supposed to be white. I was worried about a checkerboard
roll-pattern decal that was going to go on the BT-55-to-60 tube transition but
it fit beautifully.
PROs: Nice, simple, elegant color scheme made colorful with decals.
CONs: I would still prefer waterslide decals--you can't tell me that the
stickers are that much cheaper...
Construction Rating:
4
out of 5
Flight:
I figured that I'd best use B4-2s and C6-3s in this one and save my B6-4s and
C6-5s for my Thunderstar. My first flight was on the B4-2. It produced a nice
straight boost to about 360 feet. I used an 18" chute instead of Estes'
provided 12" unit and was glad I did--a three-ounce rocket needs a bigger
chute than a 12", unless it's flying a LOT higher than this one can!
Second and third flights were on C6-3s and put the Eagle up to close to 500
feet as advertised. An acceptable demonstration rocket for the schoolyard, if
the field is big enough.
Recovery:
I used plenty of Estes toilet paper with this one. Estes is listening to us
finally about shock cord length, but this one should have been equipped with an
18" parachute.
A baffle ejection setup or maybe a piston ejection setup to reduce wadding
requirements on some of Estes' bigger tube sizes would be a good thing.
Flight Rating:
4
out of 5
Summary:
Main PROs: Headline making subject, easy and quick to build and decorate, nice
use of plastic parts.
CONs: Instruction sheet slightly outdated, parachute needs to be the next
size up from what they sent with the kit.
Overall Rating:
4
out of 5 Flight Log- Post a Comment -
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