(05/22/08) You have to love a rocket that assembles quickly
and that can be flown in your front yard (and not that big of a front yard either)! That's what you have with the 18mm
Art Applewhite's Dragonfly.
I brought this kit, a hobby knife, a ruler, a pencil and some Elmer's Glue with me
on a short business trip. I was successful in building the kit while in the hotel one night and finished it in the AM
the next day. It was that easy.
The Dragonfly comes with a 3/32" basswood wing, a 1/4" Balance Beam
dowel, two 3/16" support dowels, a motor tube, some fiberglass tape and a piece of 3/32" basswood that is
used to create the support pieces. That's it.
CONSTRUCTION:
The instructions are printed on three pages of 8½ x 11" paper. The last
page focuses on flight and the building of a monocopter launch pad. There are B&W pictures and illustrations to
ensure an easy build.
There is very little cutting that takes place. The Center, Center Support and Motor
Support are all cut out of the small piece of 3/32" basswood. Then later in the build, the fiberglass tape needs
to be cut to fit around the motor mount.
Building is logical and easy to follow. You do have to pay attention to the
pictures to ensure you are gluing the supports, dowels and balance beam on the right sides of the center.
My only slight tweak to the instructions would be in
step 4 where it simply says, "Glue the Balance Beam to the Center". There should be some indication
that this should be centered and equally spaced on both sides of the Center.
One interesting step is placing the fiberglass tape around the motor tube and
securing it to the support. This requires the tape to be cut out to clear the support dowels and then to be cut to the
length needed to fit. Once the cutting is done, it is glued in place. Then the weave is filled in with Elmer's Glue
making a nice secure motor mount.
Now, I did say that I built the rocket at the hotel, which is true, but I completed
the final step at home. That was the drilling of the 1/4" hole in the center for the launch rod.
I made my launch pad using the basic idea outlined in the instructions. Amazing
that you only want a 1/4" long launch rod!
I didn't paint or finish the rocket in any way.
Overall, for CONSTRUCTION I would rate this kit 5
points. Fast, easy, and quality materials. Instructions were easy to follow. Also, I believe that some may
avoid trying to make their own monocopter and Art Applewhite has now made it as easy as 3, 2, 1.
FLIGHT/RECOVERY:
The Dragonfly is simple to prepare for flight. All
that needs to be done is that you wrap a 3/8" band of masking tape around the motor to make a thrust ring. Then
install the motor.
First flight was on an Estes C6-3. After ignition that rocket whirled quickly and
took off. My guess is to about 70 feet. It then stopped, seemingly pausing, and then it fell to the earth. On the way
down the ejection charge fired. The fall was rapid with the motor tube leading the way. I'm guessing that is another
reason to use the fiberglass.
The next flight was a repeat flight using the C6-3. Again, nice performance. After
this flight I noticed a small burn hole starting on the outside top of the motor tube. (Flight Video Below)
For the third flight I tried something special. I had an old
Apogee B2-4 motor. I drilled out the center of the C6 thrust nozzle until the B2-5 slide into it. I then applied tape
to the forward end of the B2-5 so that it stayed centered in the old C6 case. I then loaded it into the
Dragonfly.
The flight was cool. It didn't come off the pad as quick and it almost seemed like
a slow motion flight, but the thrust was adequate and with a 3 second burn, it was neat to watch. I miss those old
Apogee Motors! (Bottom Video Below)
For FLIGHT/RECOVERY, I would rate this rocket 4
½ points. Exciting low altitude launches that look and sound different. Nice appeal. The only detractor
would be the burn hole that appeared after the second flight.
I give the rocket an OVERALL rating of 5
points. This is one of the relatively lower priced rockets that you just "have to have".
Brief:
This was the first monocopter kit released by Art
Applewhite. He previously published a free plan for a monocopter built from Popsicle sticks and now has a 13mm, two
18mm and a 24mm version. The Dragonfly flies on a variety of 18mm black powder motors and features an 8" wing.
Construction:
This monocopter consists of the following parts:
Wing - one basswood strip, 8" x 2"
Balance beam - 1/4" dowel
Support beams - two 3/16" dowels
Center hub - one basswood strip, cut into 3 pieces
Motor mount - LOC BT-20 tubing
Motor mount reinforcement - Fiberglass drywall tape
Art's known for simple but elegant kits, and it looks like he stuck with that theme. The monocopter is made from just
9 components. Besides gluing parts together, all you do is make 4 cuts and drill one hole. This will be a quick build.
Tools and materials that are required are Elmers Glue-All®,
hobby knife, scissors and ruler. I found my Elmers had dried to much, so I used carpenter's glue throughout.
Heres a
summary of the steps:
Assemble the center
Add supports and a balance beam
Glue wing to center
Assemble motor mount
Wrap fiberglass tape
Glue motor mount to center
Drill launch rod hole
The completed center section consists of 2 pieces of basswood and the dowels.
I built the motor mount in parallel
with other components. This consists of a basswood motor mount, the tube and the drywall tape. The tape is self
adhesive to some extent but wanted to lift when soaked in glue. So, I used some small plastic clamps to hold it where
the tube met the motor mount. After about 20 minutes, I removed the clamps and let the glue set the rest of the way.
The support dowels are mounted parallel with the wing.
The wing and motor mount are attached with one end over one dowel and under the opposing one. In the absence of a good
airfoil and a long burn motor, monocopters need to have the motor mount and wing canted to provide lift. Mounting these
items between the dowels provides this angle.
The instructions say to sand the dowels so they mate with the tube. On mine, only the bottom edge touched so a
slight nick with a knife did the trick. I filled the remaining gap with glue.
I drilled the 1/4" launch lug hole on my drill press.
Finishing:
Art recommends at least a light clearcoat. I used Helmsman Spar Urethane®
(the only clearcoat that I had).
Flight:
Prep consists of centering the motor in the mount, adding a tape thrust ring and friction fitting. You can use
booster motors or those with up to 3 second delays. I flew mine on a C6-3. It flew off of my standard pad, which
happens to be similar to that described by Art and I already had a 1/4" stubby monocopter rod.
It flew nicely, even in the 10+ mph winds. It was still at a good altitude when the ejection charge went off.
Recovery:
At burn-out, the Dragonfly merely flutters to the ground lightly. I found that the side of the motor had burned
through just above the nozzle. The burn through also made a small hole in the motor tube, but it's flyable as is.
Overall this is an awesome flier but I'll ding it for the
hole. I had seen this before on spinning rockets and I suspect this is just the physics of the beast.
My video isn't very good, so I'll refer you to this
one.
Summary:
This is a fun kit, easy to build and sure to get noticed on the field. It flies great on a C6-3. Since I don't think
the burn through is avoidable, I won't let it detract from my overall rating.
Brief:
I won this rocket as part of an EMRR giveaway, which was really exciting for a variety of reasons. Aside from this
being my 15 seconds of international fame, I've wanted some rockets I could launch in a small area (such as my 30' x
20' front lawn or the street out front) since all the local fields are now full of various summer crops that make
flying impossible. (Can you say corn stalks?)
Due to construction and painting projects around the house, I didn't get to the Dragonfly kit until I saw the
deadline for a review was tonight. I'm hoping EMRR is on the West Coast, but I'm not so sure... So, I'll put off some
painting and build this kit, writing the review as the glue dries. Oh, my digital camera is missing in action, so this
may be without illustrations unless I can get the camera on my phone to work.
Construction:
I had kind of put this build off because of various projects and it's pretty far removed from what I'm used to, which
has been 12 or 14 3FNC/4FNC kits in 2.5 months, but let's see what happens.
This kit appears to be quite simple, and after reading the previous reviews I'm inclined to think this will go
pretty quickly. There are only a few components, 7 to be exact. There is a basswood wing, a basswood sheet, 3 dowels,
fiberglass tape, and an engine mount tube.
All components appear to be in excellent condition and of high quality. Each was wrapped in its own compartment
of a bag, which was accompanied with instructions and placed into a larger bag.
The instructions are only two 8.5" x 11" pages long and have plenty of illustrations. Upon an initial
review, they seem simple enough.
Well, what I overlooked at first was that three components need to be measured out, drawn, and cut out of the
basswood sheet. I tend to be meticulous so this took me some time. Plus my X-Acto blade wasn't the sharpest.
FYI: If I did this project again, I'd cut the lines that go with the grain first then across the grain later.
This would make the pieces more manageable.
Overall, construction of the structural support went smoothly. I did note the instructions didn't specify to
center the balance beam on the center support structure, but it is obvious.
If I were doing this again, I'd make a mark ahead of time on the edges of center piece and center support
indicating the middle. Also, the instructions say to apply glue fillets after attaching the center piece to the center
support. I did this all around. One of the fillets hindered the attachment of the balance beam and had to be cut out.
To facilitate a straight attachment of the engine mount, I did the "door frame" method utilized by many Skill Level I and
II model kits.
The rest of the rocket went together pretty smoothly. Again, I recommend marking center points where the wing
edge is connected to the center piece.
Wrapping the fiberglass tape went fast enough and I should mention that drilling the hole requires a very sharp
drill bit so minimal pressure can be used.
Overall, this took me 2.5 hrs to build, but I made a lot of beefy fillets that took time to dry, and I wrote this
as I was building.
Finishing:
I didn't use any finish yet, but I will use a polyurethane spray.
Flight:
I let the glue dry about 30 minutes and was looking forward to flying it too much to wait until tomorrow. There are
lighted tennis courts nearby, and I went to it to try flying this thing. Oops! I didn't have a "Dragonfly"
launch pad made. I used my regular launch pad and taped off the end of my 1/4" launch rod.
The flight of this is very unique and difficult to describe. The videos on the other reviews are accurate.
This will be a cool little gadget to fly when the "bug" hits me. (Get it? "Bug"? Did you note
the name of the kit? Sorry, some midnight humor there...)
Recovery:
I initially tossed the Dragonfly from my deck to see what recovery looks like. It looked fine.
My rocket got a little burn where the others mentioned. I may put a thin layer of 30min epoxy or JB Weld to
protect the area.
I'll do another launch in the daylight. The other reviewers submitted videos of the flight, so unless my flights
are drastically different, I'll refer you to the videos.
Summary:
This rocket was a nice change of pace from what I was used to. It built on skills I've learned from other rockets,
mainly cutting with the X-Acto knife. It forces the builder to think outside the box from what the typical rocket looks
like.
- Cool! Went to about 70 feet and fell pretty hard following the motor tube down
05-18-2008
EMRR
Est SU C6-3
None - Tumble
Gusty
- Caught this flight on video, pretty much a repeat of the first flight
05-18-2008
EMRR
Apo SU B2-5
None - Tumble
Gusty
- Long 3 second burn motor adapted by using a C6 casing. Like a slow motion whirl!
09-14-2008
EMRR
Est SU C6-3
None - Tumble
Calm
- Always fun to watch. Round and round!
06-29-2008
Glenn Little
None - Tumble
0-5 mph winds
- Midnight launch under lights at tennis courts, spontaneous & therefore lots of fun. It was quiet out, sound effects were enhanced. Very cool sound and fun to watch. Unique, no drift, just what I was looking for since local fields all have corn, etc.
11-29-2008
Glenn Little
Est SU A8-3
None - Tumble
0-5 mph winds
Event: Watchaug Rd upper fld - Cool launch. Not as high as expected, 50' or so. Ejection at 25' or so (motor could have hit someone). Otherwise, was fun. Interesting change of pace from other rockets. Wow from crowd.
05-17-2008
Dick Stafford
Est SU C6-3
None - Tumble
10+ mph winds
Event: ESL-120 - This was a nice flight. The only issue was the motor burned through on the side, just above the nozzle.
05-24-2008
Dick Stafford
Est SU C6-3
None - Tumble
0-5 mph winds
- Another good flight. The side of the motor had turned dark, but did not burn through.
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(05/22/08) You have to love a rocket that assembles quickly
and that can be flown in your front yard (and not that big of a front yard either)! That's what you have with the 18mm
Art Applewhite's Dragonfly. 
My only slight tweak to the instructions would be in
step 4 where it simply says, "Glue the Balance Beam to the Center". There should be some indication
that this should be centered and equally spaced on both sides of the Center.
The Dragonfly is simple to prepare for flight. All
that needs to be done is that you wrap a 3/8" band of masking tape around the motor to make a thrust ring. Then
install the motor.
For the third flight I tried something special. I had an old
Apogee B2-4 motor. I drilled out the center of the C6 thrust nozzle until the B2-5 slide into it. I then applied tape
to the forward end of the B2-5 so that it stayed centered in the old C6 case. I then loaded it into the
Dragonfly.
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Construction:
The support dowels are mounted parallel with the wing.
The wing and motor mount are attached with one end over one dowel and under the opposing one. In the absence of a good
Flight:
Overall this is an awesome flier but I'll ding it for the
hole. I had seen this before on spinning rockets and I suspect this is just the physics of the beast. 
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