Bill Eichelberger's PageAKA: Wallyum, Fishhead, Fire Marshall Bill Location: Ft. Thomas, KY Certification Level: NAR - Bronze Club Memberships: Wright Stuff Rocketeers,Dayton,OH,QUARK,Cincinnati,OH Favorite Rockets: Estes Condor, Estes Satellite Interceptor, any Goony, Semroc Lil Hustler, Centuri Raven, Centuri USS America, Centuri Mach 10, FSI Viking Biography: First started flying in the summer of 1977. Lost interest in college, made the classic mistake of giving almost all of my rockets away, then started over in the early 90's after my son was born. Sam and I flew an occasional mix of semi-RTF stuff until my brother in law took me to a launch in Cleveland in 2001, after which the bug bit hard once again. Since then I've gone with the occasional ebbs and flows of the hobby, seen a lot of changes, made a lot of friends, and lost a great field.
Favorite Quote: "No one respects the flame quite like the fool who's badly burned" - Pete Townshend
RocketReviews.com Pages:
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2021-05-22Estes - Baby Bertha "Blue Jacket"  Flight First flight since 2001ish. Excellent flight and recovery. - C6-5 - E-Rockets Field, Huber Heights, OH [More]
Aerospace Specialty Products - Corporal  Flight Wiggled quite a bit, but a very straight flight with recovery just behind the pads. - B6-6 - E-Rockets Field, Huber Heights, OH [More]
Semroc - Point  Flight Not sure how many this thing made it to the pads before it finally flew. Twice today, and at least five times previously. - C6-3 - E-Rockets Field, Huber Heights, OH [More]
Estes - Wizard  Flight Out of sight flight to the left and behind the flightline. Lost it in the sun on recovery, but a friend found it out against the fence. - B6-6 - E-Rockets Field, Huber Heights, OH [More]
Quest - Evader Cruise Missile  Flight High, straight flight. Long recovery walk into the soccer fields. - C6-5 - E-Rockets Field, Huber Heights, OH [More]
Estes - Gauchito  Flight Surprising altitude on the A3. First time ever flown on anything larger than a 1/2A. Nice short recovery walk. - A3-4 - E-Rockets Field, Huber Heights, OH [More]
Centuri Engineering Co. - Python Fighter  Flight Straight flight. Recovered left of the pads, but still in our field. - C6-5 - E-Rockets Field, Huber Heights, OH [More]
Estes - Rascal (2021)  Flight Straight off the pad with recovery on the soccer fields. - C6-5 - E-Rockets Field, Huber Heights, OH [More]
Estes - D.A.R.T.  Flight Someone asked where I got the Scud Missile nose cone, but it's a D.A.R.T. nose cone. Duh. - C6-5 - E-Rockets Field, Huber Heights, OH [More]
Centuri Engineering Co. - Screaming Eagle  Flight Straight boost with recovery left of the pads, but s short walk. - C6-5 - E-Rockets Field, Huber Heights, OH [More]
2020-12-16Canaroc FK-3 (Plan)  Review
In my quest to have as many new or old rocket companies as possible represented in my fleet, it was inevitable that I'd eventually find the road to Canaroc. I'd chased several kits on Ebay over the years, seldom coming within sniffing distance, but forever intrigued. ... [More]
2020-11-25Quest Courier (Kit)  Review
Picked up at Hobby Lobby during the Quest clearance "just because." The Courier would become my first competition egglofter by default. (It was the only one I had that met the single engine criteria.) Despite a lack of enthusiasm for the project at first that ... [More]
2020-11-23Scratch Estes Raven Clone (Clone)  Review
This is a story of reclamation. At some point in the past decade I became enamored with the Estes National Aerospace Plane and decided that I needed to clone one. To that end I began scouring Ebay for one of the kits that shared the unique nose cone with the NASP, namely the ... [More]
2020-11-16U.S. Rockets Sniper (Kit)  Review
Slick and sleek looking US Rockets product with great lines and a killer name. Another cool feature is that the power possibilities go from 18mm to 29mm, and it is entirely imaginable to see it built to handle any of the three motor sizes. (Although it may never be seen ... [More]
2020-11-12Estes Ventris (Kit)  Review
The Ventris is one of the first four rockets released by Estes as part of their new Pro Series II mid-power collection. While all are great looking birds, the Enerjet-esque lines of the Ventris were the clincher when it came time to make the choice of which bird would be my 50th ... [More]
2020-08-04The Launch Pad Perseus (Kit)  Review
Apparently I'm not alone in this. I initially bought the TLP Perseus thinking that it was a scale kit, only to find out that it was a TLP original. There were two problems with that: 1) it eliminated any chance of using the rocket in a scale competition, and 2) it freed me from ... [More]
2020-08-03Scratch Rocket Development Corporation Starflite (Clone)  Review
Another of my late night cruises through old catalogs, the RDC Starflite actually gave me the choice of two different designs to pick from, the Starflite and Starflite II. The difference was the fin pattern, and I chose to go with the early version. What caught my eye was the ... [More]
2020-08-02Bo-Mar Spartan (Clone)  Review
The inspiration for this project was born out of desperation and boredom. Nothing at any of the plan sites seemed to interest me and one night at work I started looking through all the catalogs at Ninfinger and YORP. I realized that there were a lot of different builds from a lot ... [More]
2020-07-31Modification Estes Vampire from Estes Jynx (Modification)  Review
My first Estes catalog was the 1977 version, which I got in mid-July and read to tatters by the time school started back. Much of my cloning has centered around this catalog and the rockets therein, mostly those I never saw or couldn't afford. I never saw an Estes Vampire, and if ... [More]
2020-07-29Modification Estes Quasar from Estes Metalizer (Modification)  Review
I created an upscale Estes Quasar from the currently available Estes Metalizer kit.
Components
Estes Metalizer kit (Hobby Lobby)
BT-56 body tube (Red Arrow)
Mylar tape
QUASAR decal (HP Inkjet)
/h2
The Metalizer is an E2X kit that I normally wouldn't ... [More]
2018-06-24National Association of Rocketry Jet Freak (Plan)  Review
http://www.oldrocketplans.com/narcomp/Jet-Freak.pdf
I found the NAR Jet Freak plan several years ago, but my history with gliders made me more than a little hesitant about attempting a build. But when a boost glide event came up in one of our club contests, I pulled it out and gave ... [More]
2018-02-18Estes Kadet (Kit)  Review
This was a project that came out of a cleaning session in my build room. I had been looking for a project in the plan collection at YORF. http://www.oldrocketplans.com/ I clicked on the Kadet plan and realized that I had everything I needed laying around my build ... [More]
2017-02-06Estes Vector (Clone)  Review
Back in the early days of Ebay I picked up a lot of Estes kit decals that somehow didn't make it onto the rockets they were meant for. Quite a few of them were minimum diameter BT-5 and BT-20 kits from the mid to late 80's, rockets that would rarely be noticed unless you happened ... [More]
2017-01-25Estes Generic E2X (Kit)  Review
Once available only in a bulk pack, the Estes Generic E2X has recently been released as a stand-alone kit. I don't have much interest in E2X kits, but on occasion I build one to have an idea how tough it might be for a group build. Recently I was in Hobby Lobby, in the ... [More]
2017-01-19Estes 220 Swift (Kit)  Review
For the old-timers, the 220 Swift is simply a Mosquito in an updated body with sticker graphics. The Swift is another of the "fire and forget" mini engine birds. I can't imagine that the recovery rate on these is anywhere close to 30%.
Components
BT-5 main body ... [More]
2016-03-23New Way Space Models Check-It (Kit)  Review
Back in the infancy of my BARdom, I found a square tube that a component for a printer I used came in. At the time, every tube I came in contact with was fair game for potential rocket designs, and I thought up a doozy for the square tube. Several attempts with balsa blocks and ... [More]
2016-03-21Semroc Cherokee C (Kit)  Review
The Estes Cherokee D was one of the first vintage kits I tried my hand at cloning when I first picked up the hobby as a BAR. Even though I'd mistakenly identified the PNC-55BB nose cone as the correct one for the project, I was quite happy with how it turned out, and if not for an ... [More]
2016-03-14FSI Dart (Clone)  Review
I'm always on the lookout for vintage rockets on Ebay. Something about continuing the career of old veterans appeals to me, and I picked up several mystery birds from a collection back in the summer of 2012. The only notation on the rocket in question was "Mach Buster", so ... [More]
2016-02-02Scratch Rascal 1.59x (Upscale)  Review
I picked up a poorly started attempt at an Estes Rascal via Ebay several years back, then took eight years to finally clone the rocket using the only parts I could salvage, the nose cone and decal sheet. I really liked the finished product, and like all rockets with the Goony profile, ... [More]
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Bill Eichelberger
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