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Estes - X-Prize Rubicon

Manufacturer:Estes
Construction Rating:
Flight Rating:
Overall Rating:

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Estes Rubicon

Brief:
Single stage D power scale model of an X-Prize rocket with 18" parachute recovery. It has a Saturn 1b look to it, so if you're a fan of the Saturn 1b you will probably like this kit.

Construction:
The kit includes:

  • 7 lower rocket body tubes
  • 1 upper body tube
  • 6 plastic fins
  • 2 plastic body tube holders
  • plastic nose cone
  • rubber shock cord
  • Estes paper mount
  • 6 plastic rocket nozzles for scale look

The kit has the typical Estes quality instructions with drawings and text. My version had a 1 page insert of modified Steps 1 and 2. The normal assortment of tools are needed for the build. Pay attention to the modified instructions. It will make it much easier to attached the 7 body tubes in the lower part of the rocket. The tubes are not easy to feed in so you want to make sure they seat right. Practice it several times without glue to make sure you can do it smoothly and quickly so the tubes don't catch at the wrong point.

Finishing:
The instructions have you paint the rocket after it is done. With the lower section the way it is, I think it would be hard to do it that way. I painted all the parts first, masking off the areas where glue would be applied so that I wouldn't be gluing to paint. This makes it a little harder to assemble everything without scratching the paint, but easier than trying to paint after everything is together.

The plastic parts take paint well without chipping. Krylon Original Chrome paint looks sharp on the plastic parts but seems to scratch easily.

The kit includes typical Estes peel and stick decals.

Construction Rating: 4 out of 5

Estes Rubicon

Flight:
Flying on a D12-5 gave a perfectly straight up flight, seeming to hang in the air momentarily, and then deploy of the chute. The 18" chute seem about right for descent without too much drift.

Recovery:
The upper body tube is big and easy to pack in wadding and chute. I placed a few small balls of wadding in the engine tube and layered some full sheets in the upper parachute tube.

One of the plastic fins stuck in the soft dirt and broke off clean at the glue joint. I am thinking this might be a regular occurrence when flying this kit.

Since this kit has a plastic lower body and cones, you want to clothespin this rocket above the blast deflector otherwise you risk melting the lower section of the rocket. Check out the launch picture.

Flight Rating: 4 out of 5

Summary:
Nice X-Prize kit with cool looking Saturn 1b lines. Listed as a Skill level one but the lower body assembly is pretty tricky to get together right.

Overall Rating: 4 out of 5

    Flight Log

    DateRocket NameMotor(s)AltitudeNotes
    2005-01-01Donald Besaw's Estes X-Prize RubiconD12-5- Nice first flight, arched into the wind quite a bit making for a rather long delay. Three fins...
    2005-01-02Bruce Canino's Estes X-Prize RubiconD12-5- Stright up Flight, 1 fin broke off clean at glue joint on landing
    2005-01-10Donald Besaw's Estes X-Prize RubiconD12-5- Very nice flight to maybe 400 feet. Nice recovery but one fin popped off on landing, reattached...
    2005-02-20Kyle Hancock's Estes X-Prize RubiconD12-3- First flight. Pretty nice.
    2005-03-07Donald Besaw's Estes X-Prize RubiconD12-5- Beautiful flight, straight up. I think the 18 inch chute is too small for this rocket. Once again,...
    2005-11-04Donald Besaw's Estes X-Prize RubiconD12-5- Nice flight, for some reason, the chute was almost completely ripped apart at ejection which...
    2005-12-04Donald Besaw's Estes X-Prize RubiconD12-5- Very nice flight, very straight. Recovered very nicely on a 24 inch chute. This was the very first...
    2006-03-04Chan Stevens's Estes X-Prize RubiconD12-3-
    2006-03-26Chan Stevens's Estes X-Prize RubiconD12-3- No fin damage, though popped loose a couple of nozzles.
    2006-06-18Richie Brunjes's Estes X-Prize RubiconD12-3- Shroud lines broke , came down fast, all but one fin broke off Will fly again but I will add a...
    2006-06-27Richie Brunjes's Estes X-Prize RubiconD15-4- Broke three fins and two fake nozzels off. Thanks to whoever it was that found and returned my...
    2006-07-23Richie Brunjes's Estes X-Prize RubiconD12-3- 4 fins came off , will be repaired
    2006-09-16Kyle Yawn's Estes X-Prize RubiconD12-3- Good first flight. It was a very stable flight but a fin did break off upon landing, but by what...
    2006-09-17Kyle Hancock's Estes X-Prize RubiconD12-3- 18 chute, still lost fin
    2006-09-23Donald Besaw's Estes X-Prize RubiconD12-5- Excellent flight, very straight boost to 500 feet. Recovered nicely on a 24 inch chute and I...
    2006-12-16Kyle Yawn's Estes X-Prize RubiconD12-3- Great boost. Two fins came off on the landing. They can be glued back on though.
    2007-04-14John Caramagna's Estes X-Prize RubiconF21-8- Super straight, fast and high flight! Rocket is modified with larger motor hook which can accept...
    2007-05-12Bob Harrington's Estes X-Prize RubiconD12-3- Good boost but ejection charge was weak and nose popped but chute didn't deploy. It bounced off a...
    2007-07-17John Lee's Estes X-Prize RubiconD12-5- I should have waited till I had a shorter delay. The chute barely opened in time. Only damage was...
    2007-10-14John Lee's Estes X-Prize RubiconD12-3- Landed softly on grass but still broke off 3 fins and 1 nozzle. THis seems to be a common problem...
    2007-10-20Bob Harrington's Estes X-Prize RubiconD13-3- Motor CATO. Big flame through the body.
    2007-11-10John Lee's Estes X-Prize RubiconD12-3- Best flight with this rocket. Using CA on the fins means that this is the first flight I have not...
    2007-12-16John Lee's Estes X-Prize RubiconD12-5- Perfect
    2008-01-12John Lee's Estes X-Prize RubiconD12-5- Great flight but a fin broke off on landing. Something on this bird always breaks on landing.
    2008-06-14John Lee's Estes X-Prize RubiconE30-7- Good flight for this reliable rocket
    2008-07-12John Lee's Estes X-Prize RubiconD12-5- popped a fin on landing, easy and common repair
    2009-01-11Howard Smart's Estes X-Prize RubiconD12-5- A little melting of the faux nozzles.
    2009-01-17Edward Fewer's Estes X-Prize RubiconD12-3- Another great flight snowy field 3 fins off easy ca repair
    2009-02-12Donald Besaw's Estes X-Prize RubiconD12-3- Great flight, haven't flown this in awhile. Nice straight boost and recovery on an Estes 24 inch...
    2009-03-22John Bergsmith's Estes X-Prize RubiconE28-4- First flight for the Rubicon. Nice and straight boost that left the pad in a hurry. Ejection was...
    2010-09-11John Bishop's Estes X-Prize RubiconE20-4- Excellent flight on the E20-4W. Straight and impressive. Popped one fin on landing, as usual.
    2011-09-04Kurt Knox's X-Prize RubiconD12-5- Great maiden flight but parachute did not deploy, landed hard but only broke one wing and not at...
    2011-11-20Kurt Knox's X-Prize RubiconD12-5- Great flight, used 24" nylon chute which worked super.

    Comments:

    D.W.M. (April 23, 2006)

    I bought my son a Rubicon for his birthday last year and we've flown it several times. However, we use a 20" nylon parachute for recovery, and other than the usual breaking off of several fins on landing, works great. I modified the model to use the Estes E9-4 as well as the D12's.

    B.S. (September 12, 2006)

    While this rocket is good looking and fun to fly - it is poorly designed. The fins drop off like flies. I have tried multiple types of adhesives and nothing has worked. It isn't just a problem on landing - standing around the thing can suddenly lose a fin. I've actually lost a couple of the fins permanently now. I'm starting to think about modifying the rocket to use some type of bolt system (nylon) to hold the fins on.

    M.S. (September 22, 2006)

    Can you say Cluster Engine? Sure. I knew you could. This thing is just begging to be clustered!

    A.P. (December 19, 2006)

    This pictures of model looks great on line, but it seems to me that it's more show than go. It catches a lot of attention at the launch site, but at every launch, I lost a fin or two, even when mounted with epoxy. So after repairing and touching up the paint, it now sits on my son's shelf - where it looks great! Reminds me of the phrase, "better to look good than to(fly)good." If you do buy it, be sure to paint if before assembly.

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