Hawks Hobby - Super Solar Sailer
Contributed by James Gartrell
Brief: It is one huge, fantastic rocket. It flies on 24mm motors and recovers by parachute. The rocket flies on AeroTech E or F motors. You could easily convert this to fly on 29mm motors, but remember the fins are surface mounted and some nose or payload weight may need to be added to re-balance the rocket at the same CG with the heavier motors. The rocket stands almost 68 inches tall and has a fin span of almost a foot! Construction: The forward and aft sections of the rocket are ST-16, one at the rear, and three more at the front. Two heavy-duty 29mm tubes are joined to form the center section of the rocket. Kraft couplers are used to join the two 29mm tubes and two of the ST-16 tubes that comprise the forward payload section. The joined 29mm tubes extend to the rear of the aft ST-16 tube and are centered to hold the 24mm motor mount. The forward end of the tubes is centered into the rear of an ST-16 tube that is used to hold the recovery system. A solid balsa coupler is inserted into the rear of the payload section with a large eye screw provided for shock cord and parachute attachment. The motor mount kit includes a 3.75" engine hook. I modified the construction of the motor mount to allow installation of the engine hook using my standard method. Here's the link on EMRR's tip page for the general idea: ../../featured/tip_featured26.shtml This method allows positive motor retention while not having to worry about the hook getting in the way of the delay element when using the AeroTech reload motors. I filled the grain in the nose cone and fins and the seams in all of the tubes with Elmer's Fill 'n' Finish. The nose cone is very nice balsa. The main and "truss" fins are laser cut basswood. The centering rings are all laser-cut light-ply, and a Kevlar 3/8" elastic shock cord combo is included, along with two big 3/16" launch lugs, a hefty eye screw, and some really nice waterslide decals. The enlarged decals match the original perfectly and are exceptionally reproduced. The shock cord was super long as I modified the way it is installed. The instructions indicate to attach the Kevlar cord to the forward ring centering the 29mm tube in the rear of the forward section of ST-16 and then attaching the elastic cord to a loop at the end. I used my standard tri-fold shock cord attachment to allow inspection of the shock cord. I do love it though when the manufacturer puts Kevlar in the kit! The pre-assembled, 30" rip-stop nylon parachute that is included is an excellent plus, too, and exhibits the same level of quality as the rest of the kit: top notch! I pre-sanded and prepped all of the parts before starting construction, my usual routine. That way I am sure to have sanded any attachment points and minimize any sanding in tight places that might otherwise be required in the final finishing steps. Just follow the instructions carefully and you'll find construction of the rocket is pretty straightforward. There are several measurements you need to get right for everything to align, but if you've installed couplers before there really isn't anything difficult about building the rocket except for having to angle cut the 1/8-inch wood dowels. Not that cutting the eleven dowels is difficult, but it just takes some time. You could cut them square and then sand them to the proper angle, but I measured the angles and then cut them to minimize the amount of sanding. I used yellow glue for all of the construction, except I smoothed in JB-Weld for the fillets on the three main fins since these are surface mounted, along the launch lugs and dowels that extend out the rear of the rocket for strength, and to anchor the eye screw in the balsa coupler. Using the "double-glue" joint method makes attaching the large fins a lot easier to manage. The double-glue joint attaches must faster so the fins are much less likely to fall over while drying. As is usual on any rocket I build, I installed a length of Kevlar (which was provided!) in a paper shock cord attachment (not provided) with a loop at the end to attach the elastic shock cord. To minimize abrasion from the Kevlar against the body tube, I soaked in CA around the top 1/2" of the body tube and tied a knot in the Kevlar to meet the lip of the body tube. As I noted earlier, the parachute is already assembled and it has small grommets holding the shroud lines. It's a very nice parachute! Finishing: I did experience one problem unrelated to the kit when applying the Future. The red stripe behind the number 12 on one side of the fin stripped right off. As I noted earlier, I had waited a couple of days before applying the Future. When applying Future I normally very carefully apply a light coat over the decals and let that dry for about 24 hours to secure the decals before application on the entire rocket. I didn't do that this time. Bad move. I thought I would note this for folks using Future. Construction Rating: 5 out of 5
Flight and Recovery: Flight Rating: 5 out of 5 Summary: Overall Rating: 5 out of 5 Flight Log
What You Can Do
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