| Construction Rating: |   | | Flight Rating: | | | Overall Rating: | |
Contributed by Marty Wiggins
Brief:
The Wacky Wiggler is a fun, easy build rocket. It is made of 7 plastic sections that are held together by string. The rocket goes up as one piece and comes down in 7 pieces.
Construction:
The package includes the nose cone, fin section, 5 plastic body sections, 6 paper body sections, motor mount and a 6' section of string.
The components are mainly plastic, but are usual Estes make.
The rocket is easy to build and the instructions are straight forward. My 5 year old son and I built it in less than 1 hour, however, it does take a lot of plastic cement. The fins snap into place. The rocket seems a little "wiggly" when standing. Hence the name, I guess.
Finishing:
The only finishing required is placing the decals onto the rocket. It is pretty neat looking when finished.
Construction Rating: 4 out of 5
Flight:
For the first flight, I chose an A8-3. I was a little concerned about the rocket leaning, so I propped it up against the launch rod. After ignition, it soared to about 150' and came down only 20' from the pad.
The string did break at the attachment for the fin can. The instructions did not mention to use any recovery wadding, and I forgot to place any in the bottom section.
Recovery:
The flight was surprisingly straight. I was a little worried that it would lean and venture off course, but the boost was straight.
Flight Rating: 4 out of 5
Summary:
The Wacky Wiggler is cheap and easy to build. Kids will love the colorful finish and the name is pretty cool as well. It will not be a high flyer but it should be get some attention from the crowd.
Overall Rating: 4 out of 5 Flight Log| Date | Rocket Name | Motor(s) | Altitude | Notes |
|---|
| 2003-02-05 | Donald Besaw's Estes Wacky Wiggler | B6-4 | - | Nice first flight, fell horizontally. Provided cord nearly burned through. Needs Kevlar. No damage. | | 2003-02-19 | Larry Zeilmann's Estes Wacky Wiggler | A8-3 | - | After three unsuccessful break apart attempt, I finally broke a fin. | | 2003-03-16 | Jason Vennard's Estes Wacky Wiggler | C6-3 | - | A little spiraling on the way up but cool flight. Deployment system worked fine. Overall pretty... | | 2003-03-22 | Tim Morris's Estes Wacky Wiggler | C6-3 | - | Rocket flew very well on this engine and recovered with out a hitch. Shock cord will need to be... | | 2003-03-22 | Tim Morris's Estes Wacky Wiggler | A8-3 | - | Rocket went near horizontal due to segmented body bending at lift off. Recovered well. | | 2003-03-22 | Tim Morris's Estes Wacky Wiggler | B6-4 | - | Rocket flew better on this engine and recovered well. | | 2003-04-26 | Larry Zeilmann's Estes Wacky Wiggler | C6-3 | - | Little wobble during the flight. still incomplete break apart | | 2003-05-27 | Jason Vennard's Estes Wacky Wiggler | C6-3 | - | Great flight, only second flight on this bird. Recovery burnt through nylon cord though, came down... | | 2003-09-13 | Chan Stevens's Estes Wacky Wiggler | C6-3 | - | Nylon cord burned through/worthless/replace with Kevlar | | 2003-09-20 | Amanda Kluth's Estes Wacky Wiggler | B6-4 | - | Fun, little nervous on launch but went staight up. recovery worked as advertised wiggling all the... | | 2003-10-25 | James Reyome's Estes Wacky Wiggler | B6-4 | - | What a neat little rocket! It actually leans a bit on the pad--looks crooked--but under boost it... | | 2003-12-26 | James Reyome's Estes Wacky Wiggler | B6-4 | - | I think this is a neat rocket and recovers very well if you can get all the segments to come... | | 2004-01-25 | Donald Besaw's Estes Wacky Wiggler | A8-3 | - | Very low flight. Heck, I probably could have thrown it higher without using a motor. No damage | | 2004-01-25 | Donald Besaw's Estes Wacky Wiggler | B6-4 | - | Nice higher altitide flight. Came down fast and knocked off a fin. Easily fixed. | | 2004-04-18 | Marissa Surdu-Miller's Estes Wacky Wiggler | C6-3 | - | High, straight boost and coast. All segments deployed. Nice floaty, snakey recovery with very low... | | 2004-04-18 | Dwayne Surdu-Miller's Estes Wacky Wiggler | B6-4 | - | Perfect straight boost and coast. All segments deployed. Nice snakey, floaty recovery with low... | | 2004-06-01 | Carl Cravens's Estes Wacky Wiggler | B6-4 | - | First flight. Smooth, clean launch into the wind. Burned clean through recovery cord, fin can... | | 2004-06-20 | Paul Pearon's Estes Wacky Wiggler | C6-5 | - | My 9 yr. old claims 565 ft. on the AltiTrak. Wiggly recovery and all the segments separated fine.... | | 2004-06-20 | Paul Pearon's Estes Wacky Wiggler | B6-4 | - | My 9 yr. old claims 460 ft. on the AltiTrak. A wiggly recovery was acheived and all the segments... | | 2004-07-17 | Marissa Surdu-Miller's Estes Wacky Wiggler | C6-7 | - | Slightly curving boost. Late ejection. No damage upon recovery, but the nylon cord looks suspect... | | 2004-08-01 | Tim Anderson's Estes Wacky Wiggler | A8-3 | 150 feet | Rocket Took off After leaving pad at 45 degree angle it didn't get very high on the A8-3 when it... | | 2004-09-05 | Geoffrey Kerbel's Estes Wacky Wiggler | B6-4 | - | This was the first flight I finally remembered to jot down. Number 14 to date. Fun rocket! Never... | | 2004-09-05 | Geoffrey Kerbel's Estes Wacky Wiggler | C6-3 | - | WAY too big a motor! Went horizontal about 50' up and headed for a well traveled road! One tree... | | 2004-09-19 | Dwayne Surdu-Miller's Estes Wacky Wiggler | C6-3 | - | First flight after installing new nylon cord. Weathercocked noticeably. Very high flight, almost... | | 2005-01-03 | Michael Mangieri's Estes Wacky Wiggler | A8-3 | - | Nice flight. Supplied cord will not take another flight. Recommend replacement with Kevlar. | | 2005-02-13 | Megan Rupp's Estes Wacky Wiggler | B6-4 | - | Perfect launch, straight up with no veering. Ejections showed a flaw in our shock cord, so we... | | 2005-02-15 | Michael Mangieri's Estes Wacky Wiggler | A8-3 | - | First flight after changing shock cord to kevlar cord. OK flight, but the kevlar cord slipped... | | 2005-04-23 | Marissa Surdu-Miller's Estes Wacky Wiggler | B4-4 | - | Nice high boost & coast. Frontmost and rearmost segments did not separate, so came down as 5... | | 2005-05-14 | Megan Rupp's Estes Wacky Wiggler | C6-7 | - | Good flight, came apart just like it should. Kevlar replacement on string worked great. | | 2005-05-14 | Megan Rupp's Estes Wacky Wiggler | C6-7 | - | One more time, went straight up. Got comment from RSO that he thought he saw a wiggle. Lost... | | 2005-05-20 | William Beggs's Estes Wacky Wiggler | B6-4 | - | Good flight and recovery. | | 2005-07-09 | Geoffrey Kerbel's Estes Wacky Wiggler | B6-4 | - | SSS park launch. Small park, lots of trees. Good flight, about 200'. Came down rather hard. Not... | | 2005-07-09 | Geoffrey Kerbel's Estes Wacky Wiggler | B6-4 | - | Second park launch after cleaning each section of ejection residue. Better seperation but not... | | 2005-07-31 | Allen Smolenaars's Estes Wacky Wiggler | B6-4 | - | Got some rod whip on it's second flight and it ended up drifting into a huge tree and settled... | | 2005-07-31 | Allen Smolenaars's Estes Wacky Wiggler | A8-3 | - | Straight up, straight down. One section needed to be re-glued, did a quick CA job on the spot. | | 2005-09-11 | Allen Smolenaars's Estes Wacky Wiggler | B6-4 | - | Nice flight. Cord tangled pretty badly on the way down, but she still landed nice and soft in tall... | | 2006-01-15 | Dave Brunsting's Estes Wacky Wiggler | A8-3 | - | | | 2006-01-15 | Dave Brunsting's Estes Wacky Wiggler | A8-3 | - | | | 2006-01-26 | Hank Helmen's Estes Wacky Wiggler | C6-5 | 157 feet | Slightly erratic boost. Good ejection. String that holds rocket secitions together burned... | | 2006-02-12 | Joe Policy's Estes Wacky Wiggler | C6-5 | - | Always a favorite with the kids, upgraded kevlar cord held up well. Great flight and tumble... | | 2006-05-21 | Catesby Wolski's Estes Wacky Wiggler | B6-4 | - | Good boost but wrapped itself on a power line. Since the cord is kevlar - it's going to be up... | | 2006-05-21 | Catesby Wolski's Estes Wacky Wiggler | B6-4 | - | Loopy flight - wind gusted right at takeoff. | | 2006-08-20 | Scott Stover's Estes Wacky Wiggler | B6-4 | - | Wobbly ascent due to flex is body segments.Ejection charge burnt through the nylon cord holding... | | 2007-02-10 | Richard Stephens's Estes Wacky Wiggler | B6-4 | - | Straight ascent off rail but began slow corkscrew prior to apogee. Good deployment with all... | | 2011-11-12 | Luke Wolski's Wacky Wiggler | C6-3 | - | Great flight! The Wacky Wiggler broke apart at ejection and all the segments were deployed... |
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