| Construction Rating: |   | | Flight Rating: | | | Overall Rating: | |
Contributed by Bob Patterson Brief:
Single stage rocket, all plastic except for body tubes. 3 sets of fins that can be mixed & matched. Peel & stick "decals". 12" parachute.
Modifications:
Minor, as noted below.
Construction:
The main airframe of 4" and 7" body tubes, plastic coupler that also serves as shock cord mount, 18" long x 1/4" wide shock cord. 6 3/8" nose cone, all plastic engine/fin holder with screw on engine cap, 3 sets of differently shaped fins.
Very easy to build - I helped my 7 year old put it together - just keep glue out of fin mounting slots. Rocket assembles with tube type plastic cement. Shock cord is tied to body coupler tube, which has an X in the middle to tie to. Directions say to put white glue on knot and next 1 inch of elastic shock cord. We didn't, figured it'd be a pain to get at if ever needed replacing.
Finishing:
Body tubes are pre-finished yellow, nose cone is black, engine/fin holder and body tube coupler are orange. Peel & stick decals went on nicely and look sharp.
Construction Rating: 4 out of 5
Flight:
We launched on A8, B6, and several C6 motors. First flight on A8, the unprotected-with-glue shock burned thru, with nose cone/parachute and body tube coming down in separate peices. No damage. Repaired by acquiring Kevlar Yarn from Pratt Hobbies (www.pratthobbies.com) and tieing a piece to the cross piece in the body coupler, and the other end to the shock cord. Subsequent flight had no problems on B6 and C6 engines, flying pretty high, and landing without damage.
Recovery:
Except for shock cord burning thru, we had no problems. Replaced Estes plastic chute with home made 12" rip-stop nylon chute with nylon braid string, and used Kevlar cloth from Pratt Hobbies in place of normal wadding (parachute & Kevlar cloth both have fishing spinner/clips from Walmart to connect to nose cones and move easily between rockets). Used the same chute & cloth on about 10 flights afternoon of 5/26/02 on 10 different rockets, with no damage to the chute at all. In my experience, Estes chutes don't last like that.
Flight Rating: 4 out of 5
Summary:
Very nice rocket, good for beginning builder with some parental help (manning the glue, mostly) during building, and packing the chute for launches. Very durable.
Overall Rating: 3 out of 5 Flight Log| Date | Rocket Name | Motor(s) | Altitude | Notes |
|---|
| 2000-03-27 | MikeyR's Estes Mach-12 | B6-4 | - | 18 parachute Nice high flight. I reefed the parachute a lot, but there was still a lot of drift.... | | 2000-03-29 | MikeyR's Estes Mach-12 | C6-5 | - | 18 parachute Nice wobbly boost. Good flight. | | 2000-04-14 | MikeyR's Estes Mach-12 | C6-5 | - | 18 parachute Tipped into the breeze. Deployed fast, ripping 2 shroud lines. No damage. | | 2000-04-18 | MikeyR's Estes Mach-12 | C6-5 | - | 18 parachute Way up, landed over fence. | | 2000-04-18 | MikeyR's Estes Mach-12 | B6-2 | - | 18 parachute Nice flight. Deployment a bit early. | | 2000-05-04 | MikeyR's Estes Mach-12 | B6-4 | - | 18 parachute Ripped a line. Not a bad flight (over the fence). | | 2000-05-21 | MikeyR's Estes Mach-12 | B6-4 | - | 18 parachute Again nice! | | 2000-05-22 | MikeyR's Estes Mach-12 | C6-5 | - | 18 parachute Very high boost. Nice deployment and recovery. | | 2000-05-30 | MikeyR's Estes Mach-12 | C6-5 | - | 18 parachute Very nice flight. Close landing. | | 2002-04-07 | Jason Vennard's Estes Mach-12 | B6-4 | - | Nice easy flight and recovery, 12 chute. | | 2002-05-19 | Jason Vennard's Estes Mach-12 | B6-4 | - | Our 2nd Mach, built by son Devin, 9 years old. Good flight, shock chord burnt through at mount to... | | 2002-07-27 | David Logan's Estes Mach-12 | B6-4 | - | | | 2002-10-26 | David Logan's Estes Mach-12 | B6-4 | - | Nice flight, stripped the shroud lines from the chute, landed with no damage. | | 2002-10-27 | David Logan's Estes Mach-12 | B6-4 | - | Crimped upper end of body tube on it's sixth flight in one day. All flights on this date were... | | 2003-04-12 | David Logan's Estes Mach-12 | B6-4 | - | Perfect flight, recovered about 50 yards down wind on a stock 12 inch chute. | | 2003-06-01 | William Beggs's Estes Mach-12 | B6-4 | - | Great flight and recovery. | | 2003-06-01 | William Beggs's Estes Mach-12 | C6-5 | - | Great flight and recovery. | | 2006-01-15 | Aaron Stanley's Estes Mach-12 | A8-3 | - | My first flight of 2006. It was a great flight even though the ejection was late. | | 2007-04-16 | William Beggs's Estes Mach-12 | C6-5 | - | Perfect flight and recovery. | | 2007-04-16 | William Beggs's Estes Mach-12 | C6-5 | - | Perfect flight and recovery. | | 2007-06-19 | Frank Broughton's Estes Mach-12 | C6-5 | - | Excellent flight, landed 150 feet from pad | 2007-07-22  | Steve Lindeman's Mach-12 | B6-4 | - | Because of wind chose a B6-4 for this launch. Nice straight lift into the wind with ejection... | | 2010-04-10 | William Beggs's Estes Mach-12 | B6-4 | - | Perfect flight and recovery. |
- Post a Comment -
eBay Offers: Estes 2130 E2X Mach 12 Flying Model Rocket - "NIB”
>>> Product Details >>>
What You Can Do
- Link to this Page -
You can link to this page using the following HTML or BB Code.
Text Link in HTML (for web sites)
<a href="http://www.rocketreviews.com/estes-mach-12-michael-doherty.html">Estes - Mach-12 (2130) [1997-2001] - Review by Bob Patterson</a>
Text Link in BB Code (for forum posts)
[url=http://www.rocketreviews.com/estes-mach-12-michael-doherty.html]Estes - Mach-12 (2130) [1997-2001] - Review by Bob Patterson[/url]
Select the appropriate above text with your mouse then "right-click" and select "Copy." Then, paste the text into your web site's code or a discussion forum post.
|
