Estes Scout

Estes - Scout {Kit} (1201, K-1) [1961-1985]

Contributed by Bob Goffena

Construction Rating: starstarstarstar_borderstar_border
Flight Rating: starstarstarstar_borderstar_border
Overall Rating: starstarstarstar_borderstar_border
Diameter: 0.77 inches
Length: 7.00 inches
Manufacturer: Estes
Skill Level: 1

Brief:
Small rocket i received for a birthday around 1990. Shot this off at a rocket launch at grade school, during school hours, with a C6-5 if i remember correctly. Other students shot rockets off, and their rockets were recovered. My Scout just disappeared into the sky, noone saw apogee, noone had a clue where it landed. We guessed it must have gone over 2,000 feet.

Construction:
The one thing i will never forget about building this rocket was cloth/web like mesh that was glued against the fins and body tube near the fins. I have never built another rocket that requird this. Also, tumble recovery, so there was a hole in the body tube near the base of the nose cone for the ejection gasses to escape through.

Pros: Gluing the mesh against the fins, instead of glue fillets, was definitely interesting and educational. Tumble recovery was interesting educational. High flier, if you are willing to risk never seeing the rocket again.

Cons: Only against myself. I did NOT follow Estes recomendations of only using A engines, and instead used a C engine.

Finishing:
Gluing mesh to the fins, instead of fin fillets. Hole in the body tube, near the base of the nose cone, to allow escape of ejection gasses.

Construction Rating: 3 out of 5

Flight:
Motor:

I used a C6-7 engine (Estes only recommmended A engines). We assume the rocket went well over 2,000 feet. Never recovered.

Prep:

Stick the motor and igniter in the rocket. No parachute, no streamer, no wadding.

Flight:

Straight up, VERY high, people who blinked never saw the rocket in the air.

Recovery:
Tumble recovery. No idea how this worked out, as the rocket was lost before apogee. Tumble recovery in general does have faults, in that there is no orange/red parachute or streamer to see unfurl in the sky.

Flight Rating: 3 out of 5

Summary:
Hard to say, since i used a significantly overpowered engine. But in general tumble recovery rockets are hard to recover, since there is no parachute or streamer to see unfurl.

Overall Rating: 3 out of 5

Other:
Great rocket, but if you want to see it again, use the recommended engines.

Flights

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