Estes Code Red

Estes - Code Red {Launch/Starter Set} (001824, 1824)

Contributed by Graham Richard

Construction Rating: starstarstarstarstar
Flight Rating: starstarstarstarstar_border
Overall Rating: starstarstar_borderstar_borderstar_border
Published: 2016-05-26
Diameter: 1.35 inches
Length: 18.00 inches
Manufacturer: Estes
Style: RTF, Sport

Brief

An RTF kit that, with its red BT and silver fins/nose cone, is, IMO, one of the nicest looking rockets out of the box that you can buy.

Components

This kit has a plastic all-in-one fin can that can take a free fall a lot better than balsa fins tend to.

Construction

Construction is very easy.  Simply tie the parachute and nose cone, to the pre-attached rubber cord. 

It's nice to see Estes attaching their shock cords to the motor mount, rather than gluing it inside the lip of the BT, but in my case I doubled the length of the shock cord to help avoid the "Estes Dent" that can occur after ejection when the nose cone bounces back on it's rubber band into the rocket's body tube.

Nothing else to do, assemply was done at the feild, seeing this was a gift to a visitor.

Finishing

Construction Score: 5

Flight

I bought 5 of these and have given them as gifts to my boy's visiting friends over a couple of years.  They've all flow well.  Great reliable flights on B motors, and even nicer flights on C's, apart from the whole melting thing (more below).

Recovery

Recovery issues I've had have been due to not using enough wadding (chute burn), and an error with their new owner not tying on the nose cone properly.

I do like how the plastic fin-can assemply can take a harder landing than balsa, again, making these ideal non-perfect landing environments.

Flight Rating: 4

Summary

This kit does have one major flaw.  Do not use it with a C sized motor.  Every time we send one of these up with a C, the heat causes the plastic fin can assemply to warp creating buckles in the lower part of the rocket.  The rocket is not destroyed, and will fly again, but was obviously under significant heat stress and is cosmetically ruined.  Perhaps some "C's" create more heat than others, so this may not be universal, but this probem has been running at a 100% rate for us (we bought 5 of them, have used 4 so far), as we work though our big batch of C's.

A very nice RTF rocket for "B" sized motors making it ideal for smaller parks.  Perhaps Estes have improved their fincan design in other RTF's, or perhaps this whole generation of RTF's suffer the same issue?  I can't comment as we don't buy many RTF rockets.

Overall Rating: 2
Other Reviews
  • Estes Code Red (RTF) By Jon Revelle

    Brief: Let me start by saying, DON'T TRUST THIS ROCKET!! But a good starter, don't use a C6-5 though. Construction: The rocket has one tube, no payload. 4 plastic molded one piece fins alredy attached, this is a basic ESTES starter. The design is similar to the ESTES TIDAL WAVE STARTER SET. Works good on B6-4. This is an extremly quick build because CODE RED only needs the ...

  • Estes Code Red By Michael Branin

    This is a well constructed ready to fly rocket that looks good in the air! 1 - Body Tube 4 - Fins 12in. Parachute Plastic Nose Cone Pro's - Extremely Durable Overall. This rocket came ready to fly. It has a very durable fin assembly. Reflective Body Tube is easy to spot in flight. Quick Descent Con's - Nose cone sits too freely in the body tube. Construction Rating: 5 ...

  • Estes Code Red (RTF) By Shawn Bradley

    A ready to fly kit with a basic rocket that looks cool! A great rocket for beginners. The kit is a starter set and comes with a Code Red rocket (already assembled except for the parachute) and a launcher & ignitor controller. Pros: No construction, except for attaching the parachute! Cons: nose fits on loosely, had to use tape to make tighter. Construction Rating: 5 out of 5 ...

  • Estes Code Red By Mike Salter

    A ready to fly rocket single stage rocket which can take a real beating if it has to. Code Red has a cardboard airframe with molded motor mount which uses a locking ring to secure the motor. Also molded onto the motor mount are four plastic fins. This was a ready to fly rocket so no construction was required except attaching the parachute which was pretty simple. Many have said the nose ...

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