Estes Sea-Dart

Estes - Sea Dart {Kit} (1901) [1983-1984]

Contributed by Casey Smith

Construction Rating: starstarstarstarstar_border
Flight Rating: starstarstarstarstar_border
Overall Rating: starstarstarstarstar_border
Diameter: 1.33 inches
Manufacturer: Estes
Style: Scale

Brief:
This is Estes representation of the British surface to air missile used in the Falklands war in 1983. It is a single stage rocket with standard parachute recovery. It was only in the 1983 and 1984 catalogs. They are getting harder to find. This was the second rocket I ever had.

Construction:
The kit comes with the main body tube, a long motor tube, and 12 fins and 4 strakes. It has a plastic nose cone and a molded plastic rear unit. It has the standard cardboard centering rings and a unique nose. It comes with the older Estes elastic nylon shock cord and mylar parachute. It also has an engine hook.

Estes Sea Dart Estes Sea Dart

These were the typical Estes directions, very easy to follow. The rocket is very easy to put together, it is a level 2 kit. The toughest part of the whole rocket is the paint scheme. I built the forward and rear sections seperately, and then glued them together. It was a lot easier to paint and to build this way. I did use 5 minute epoxy for the building, as I plan to have it for a long time. I coated the ends of all the tubes with CA for strength, as well as the fins. I did not add spruce edges to the fins, as I will not be flying it that much, and increased the size of the chute.

Finishing:
PRO - Straight forward finishing, the toughest part is removing the balsa grain. No real surprises here.
CON - The rear fins are prone to break on hard landings. You may want to change to Basswood on them. Also, don't fly on windy days and you can increase the size of the 12 inch chute to 18 inches. Oh, and it is OOP by the way, I have 5 so I decided to build one. It looks real nice finished.

Construction Rating: 4 out of 5

Flight:
I used a C6-5 on the first flight, it went loop-de-loop into the pavement. I guess I needed nose weight. Also, had a very small zipper. I added about 1/2 ounce nose weight and now it flies great! I guess the epoxy added more weight to the rear than I thought. The original still flies great with no nose weight.

Recovery:
Classic Estes recovery, works great. The original rocket motor tube burned through after 11 years and 63 flights. I added a coupler and put it right back together.

Flight Rating: 4 out of 5

Summary:
I love this kit, it is one of my all-time favorites. It looks real good, and is somewhat a challenge to build. It also is not a kit you see everyday, so it gets noticed. The main con is they only made it for 1 year 17 years ago!

Overall Rating: 4 out of 5

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