RocketReviews.com - Estes - X-Prize Lucky Seven

Brief:
1:50 Scale model of the Acceleration Engineering LLC's entry in the X-Prize race. Single stage, parachute recovery. Skill level E2X.

Well I needed a rocket fix while I was waiting for something to render on the computer, so I busted out one of the X-Prize kits. This is not your usual E2X kit. This is basically a plastic artillery shell with an engine hook hanging out of it. It's almost scary. Actually, I think what scares me is that it looks like somebody glued fins to their Old Spice bottle and is planning to launch it!

Construction is very fast and pretty straightforward. I think it's the first time I've ever done an engine mount without slitting the engine tube! In this case the engine hook just hooks over the forward end of the engine mount, which slides into a socket in the molded plastic body (and it can go in only one way) The molded plastic fins slide into slots in the body, then the body base is glued over the bottom of that, capturing the engine mount and fins in the process. And that's about the hardest part of construction. You may want to dry fit the base to make sure the opening is large enough for the tube to just fit through properly. If I had a mini-engine case handy, I probably would have put it in there to act as a guide. There are also 4 tiny molded display nozzles that are attached to the base surrounding the engine.

Because the body of this model is so short, the long pointed nose is mostly hollow, to allow space for the 12 inch chute, and real rubber shock cord. (When was the last time you got THAT in a kit?) To assemble the nose cone, you start by gluing the nose cone cap about halfway up in one half of the nosecone (there is a molded ridge for placement purposes), and allow it to dry. The clay weight is divided in half, with each half of the cone getting it forward of the nosecone cap, then the halves are glued together. Please remember to tie the shock cord to the eye of the nosecone cap before gluing the halves together. While this is clearly mentioned in the instructions, the build is so easy that your humble reviewer neglected to tie the shock cord before gluing. To make room for the chute, you will note that the eyelet is a good 2 inches or so up into the nose after you glue the halves together and I have fingers like Twinkies...

The other end of the shock cord is an eyelet molded onto the front bulkhead inside the body. The chute is tied to the shock cord a couple of inches away from the body, to guarantee that it is pulled from the nose cone after ejection. With that completed, the construction is complete. The launch lug is molded into the body so that is not even a worry. The only thing that is absolutely needed to build this kit is plastic model cement. (I used liquid cement with no problem, however, Estes recommends tube type cement.) The kit does recommends a knife, tape, and sandpaper, but I didn't even need any of these items. I suppose I could have used tape to hold the nose cone halves together...

Finishing:
The model is molded in shiny styrene in two colors, and requires no painting. I do recommend washing the parts to remove mold release so the glue can do its job. I must commend Estes on their fine mold work here. The nose cone halves went together perfectly and the results are nearly seamless. The decals are the peel and stick variety and even include a recommended motor label. The resulting kit is an unusual E2X kit that will be interesting at the launch site. I'm curious what this thing will fly like.

Acceleration Engineering designed themselves an odd little craft which resulted in an odd little model. I'm half tempted to peel the stickers off and dress it out with model parts just to make it look more interesting. Otherwise it looks like an Old Spice bottle!

Flight:
I used an A10-3T, the only recommended engine, for all flights. Have flown it several times so far. Prep for recovery consists of folding the chute and inserting into the recessed base of the nose cone and putting wadding on top of that, as well as some wadding on the top of the motor. Be sure to attach the chute to the shock cord where recommended by the instructions--if it is too close to the nose cone, there won't be enough length for the shroud lines to pull the chute all the way out.

Flights are surprisingly peppy for a serious hunk of plastic like this with only an A mini-engine. A good 200 feet or so and very straight. It has not suffered damage during any flights so far, just a couple of loosened display nozzles but that was from my daughter playing with the rocket on the way home from the launch.

Recovery:
Very straight forward to fly. It has held up very well on all flights so far. No damage yet to the old school airplane rubber shock cord that Estes is now providing with their kits.

Summary:
It is a fast build with clear instructions of an accurate model that is a bland, pointy, featureless craft.

Flight Log

Date	Rocket Name	Motor(s)	Altitude	Notes
2004-12-14	Donald Besaw's Estes X-Prize Lucky Seven	A10-3	-	Nice first flight, rather slow liftoff but climbed steadily up to about 150-200 feet. Nice...
2005-01-25	Alan Tuskes's Estes X-Prize Lucky Seven	A10-3	-	Good flight. Fast, surprisingly peppy for as heavy as this model seems to be. Ejection just at...
2005-02-05	Alan Tuskes's Estes X-Prize Lucky Seven	A10-3	-	Started a little squirrely, but straightened up as propellent burned. Ejected right at apogee,...
2005-02-05	Kyle Hancock's Estes X-Prize Lucky Seven	A10-3	-	Nice flight.
2005-02-13	Scott Hauff's Estes X-Prize Lucky Seven	A10-3	-	Fun little scale rocket. Fast but quick flight on this engine. Close recovery. Son loved it since...
2005-02-20	Kyle Hancock's Estes X-Prize Lucky Seven	A10-3	-
2005-03-13	Rocky Firth's Estes X-Prize Lucky Seven	A10-3	-	Great first flight.
2005-05-21	Alan Tuskes's Estes X-Prize Lucky Seven	A10-3	-	Another zippy flight for the Lucky Seven. Landed maybe 20 feet from the pad.
2005-05-29	EMRR's Estes X-Prize Lucky Seven	A3-4	-	Nice first flight and fast. Parachute stuck in nosecone. Rocket came down fast. Nosecone stuck...
2005-07-09	Roy Lappalainen's Estes X-Prize Lucky Seven	A10-3	-
2005-07-11	Austin Flora's Estes X-Prize Lucky Seven	A10-3	150 feet	Great for very small fields. Word of warning- don't try to make it a streamer rocket. I thought...
2005-09-18	Brad Bowles's Estes X-Prize Lucky Seven	A10-3	-	Perfect launch straight up with no spin. Ejection was textbook with a successful chute opening...
2006-01-08	Mark Edwards's Estes X-Prize Lucky Seven	A10-3	-	Excellent Flight. Landed 10' from pad.
2006-01-08	Alan Tuskes's Estes X-Prize Lucky Seven	A10-3	-	Wet park equals plastic rocket day. Another fine flight for this little Old Spice bottle....
2006-02-24	Donald Besaw's Estes X-Prize Lucky Seven	A10-3	-	Nice flight, some slight wobbling noticed during boost. One nose cone half and the motor mount...
2006-03-27	Mal McClenaghan's Estes X-Prize Lucky Seven	A10-3	-	First flight. Much higher than expected for this little beast. Lawn darted without damage.
2006-03-27	Mal McClenaghan's Estes X-Prize Lucky Seven	A10-3	-	Great flight, this is a cool little rocket. Gusty wind to about 5mph, but the Seven landed within...
2006-04-14	Mal McClenaghan's Estes X-Prize Lucky Seven	A10-3	-	Nice flight, especially given the wind. Slight damage to base on recovery. Easy repair.
2006-05-06	Mike Mistele's Estes X-Prize Lucky Seven	A10-3	-	Nice straight flight. Parachute didn't deploy fully (melted a bit), but landed OK.
2006-06-04	Mal McClenaghan's Estes X-Prize Lucky Seven	A10-3	-	Nose separated, but no chute deploy. Ejection charge burned through shroud lines.
2006-06-19	Mal McClenaghan's Estes X-Prize Lucky Seven	A10-3	-	Nice flight. Toasted a couple of shroud lines.
2006-07-08	Chan Stevens's Estes X-Prize Lucky Seven	A10-3	-
2006-07-15	Ed Scientist's Estes X-Prize Lucky Seven	A10-3	-	Nozzle came off putting motor in. Good launch nose cone broke leaving the pararchute with nothing...
2006-08-05	Donald Besaw's Estes X-Prize Lucky Seven	A10-3	-	Great flight, fairly straight boost. Landed close to pad. No damage.
2006-10-29	Mal McClenaghan's Estes X-Prize Lucky Seven	A10-3	-	Textbook flight.
2006-10-29	Mal McClenaghan's Estes X-Prize Lucky Seven	A10-3	-	Nice flight. No laundry, but plastic rockets bounce! Chute is sometimes hard to pack in this one.
2007-03-11	Chris Gonnerman's Estes X-Prize Lucky Seven	A10-3	-	It flew pretty well, arcing a bit more than I'd like to see, but recovered fine. The flight was...
2007-06-09	Chris Halinaty's Estes X-Prize Lucky Seven	A10-3	-	Parachute got stuck in NC but rocket was undamaged.
2007-07-19	Chris Halinaty's Estes X-Prize Lucky Seven	A10-3	-
2007-07-19	Chris Halinaty's Estes X-Prize Lucky Seven	A10-3	-
2007-07-19	Chris Halinaty's Estes X-Prize Lucky Seven	A10-3	-
2007-08-19	Chris Halinaty's Estes X-Prize Lucky Seven	A10-3	-
2007-09-08	John Lee's Estes X-Prize Lucky Seven	A10-3	2 feet	Technically, it did eject NC up at apogee. The problem is that it hung on the rod and the whole...
2007-10-14	John Lee's Estes X-Prize Lucky Seven	A3-4	3 feet	It hung up on the rod again! It did eject NC up.
2007-11-10	John Lee's Estes X-Prize Lucky Seven	A10-3	-	It finally did what it was supposed to do and did it well.
2008-06-01	Tom Benson's Estes X-Prize Lucky Seven	A10-3	-	Nose cone stuck - my fault since I friction fit it pretty tight. Came in ballistic and de-kitted...
2008-06-01	Glenn Weiss's Estes X-Prize Lucky Seven	A10-3	-	Chute did not open, nose cone buried itself in ground and a couple of the plastic parts popped...
2008-06-27	Chris Halinaty's Estes X-Prize Lucky Seven	A10-3	-
2008-06-27	Chris Halinaty's Estes X-Prize Lucky Seven	A10-3	-	Shock cord burn-through. Repairable.
2008-06-28	Glenn Weiss's Estes X-Prize Lucky Seven	A10-3	-	Third time was the charm, full deployment of chute and no repairs needed.
2008-09-14	EMRR's Estes X-Prize Lucky Seven	A10-3	-	Great flight up... not so great down. Parachute failure. Hit the ground and broke into pieces
2008-10-26	Glenn Weiss's Estes X-Prize Lucky Seven	A10-3	-	2 shroud lines on chute broke so descent was quicker than I'd like but no damage suffered
2009-02-14	John Lee's Estes X-Prize Lucky Seven	A10-3	-	It again got stuck on the rod.
2010-03-20	Glenn Weiss's Estes X-Prize Lucky Seven	A10-3	-	A rare good flight out of the Lucky Seven, which has not been lucky for me in general! Full...
2010-04-18	Matt Shoemaker's Estes X-Prize Lucky Seven	A10-3	4 feet	Got stuck on the rod... ejected fine, just still on the rod :-(
2010-05-15	Moe Bertrand's Estes X-Prize Lucky Seven	A10-3	-	Concept Scale Event. Good first flight of my nekkid Lucky Seven.
2010-10-23	Glenn Weiss's Estes X-Prize Lucky Seven	A10-3	-	Ejection blew nose cone out and broke the 2 halves apart, chute did not fully deploy, but all was...
2011-08-20	Glenn Weiss's Estes X-Prize Lucky Seven	A10-3	-	Put it too far up the rod after previous attempt got stuck, flew in a corkscrew to about 35 ft,...

Estes - X-Prize Lucky Seven

Flight Log

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