Model Rocket Fleet
|
Pink Power Puff 1 |
Rocket 001: My daughter's "Pink Power Puff 1" has a unique tube system for stabilization, rather than fins. It came with parachute, but we also launch it with streamer recovery. It flies great, and with an A8-3 makes an excellent "wind check" rocket to be the first launch of the day. The design is by Qwest. |
|
|
|
|
Estes Fat Boy |
Rocket 002: My first rocket now belongs to Bobby because he lost his Big Rage to a tree on our first launch outing, and its second flight. The Big Daddy flies great. It's a tad heavy, or draggy, so it takes a "B" or "C" to get much of a flight from it. Also, the large diameter body tube makes it hard to pack recovery wadding so that the parachute doesn't get singed. We've melted 2 so far. News flash: Coffee filters work great on these large diameter rockets in place of wadding. |
|
|
|
|
Quest Big Rage |
Rocket 003: The ill-fated big rage. This rocket flew great and was really easy to assemble. We bought it as part of an all-in-one starter kit that included rocket, launch pad, and engines. Eventually, a thermal caught it (ever see a rocket ascending on its parachute?) and deposited it in a tree, never to be heard from again. Lost Rocket: Bummer!
Big Rage, shortly after landing in tree... |
|
|
|
|
Quest Falcon |
Rocket 004: Artem's Falcon. This has been one of our most reliable rockets, and gives a beautiful flight every time. |
|
|
|
|
Quest Monarch |
Rocket 005: This is David's first rocket. It really flies high! Also very reliable, gives a great flight, looks good, and has been with us through a lot of launches. |
|
|
|
|
Polaris |
Rocket 006: Helen built this colorful Polaris. She was bitterly disappointed when it landed on a neighbor's roof on the very first flight. It was a beautiful flight too. Lost Rocket: Bummer! |
|
|
|
|
Space Plane |
Rocket 007: David's second rocket, a space plane. This thing was a real pain to build, and doesn't come out looking as cool as you'd like, but it is a good flying rocket, if a tad heavy. The fuesalage generates a lot of drag. We recovered it on one "C" flight when the parachute melted into a ball and it was still fine after landing on grass. It's normal 2 parachute recovery mechanism is kind of a pain. OTOH, it has lawn darted once when the chute didn't deploy until 2 feet above the ground. Dave repaired it, though. |
|
|
|
 |
Rocket 008: Bobby is setting up Grandpa's spinner rocket in this photo. There are small control surfaces that make the rocket spin as it goes up. I like to fly this one with a streamer. It's a small rocket that'll go really high on "C" power. The spinning seems to make for a very straight trajectory. The only thing about it is that you can't really see the spinning, which makes it mostly a marketing gimmick. |
|
|
|
 |
Rocket 009: This cute little rocket was Artem's first attempt at building one himself. He probably did half the work, anyway. On it's maiden voyage Dave stuck a C6-3 in it, the rocket went horizontal torwards the ocean slightly after takeoff, and was never heard from again. Speculation is that it shed a fin. Lost Rocket: Bummer! |
|
|
|
 |
Rocket 010: This little Qwest HL-20 lifting body is Bobby's rocket. Dave has affectionately named it the "Flub". I built it one night at about 1am, and let me just say that it isn't quite square. Looks a little odd, in fact. The flights are comical. It does a tight corkscrew into the wind, ejects the engine with a loud BANG, and then more or less drops straight down. Very rugged little rocket and fun to watch. It's heavy, so even a big engine doesn't send it too far up. |
|
|
|
 |
Rocket 011: Here is my Qwest Flat Cat boost glider, purchased via eBay auction. This is a great kit! It was easy to build, looks cool, and flies great! BG's are a little unusual, and everyone here really likes it. It weathervanes into the wind, and since I built the glider to circle, it can be launched in a pretty small field. OTOH, if you have the pad set up to shoot rockets into the wind that have a tendency to drift, you will chase this one in the opposite direction. The Flat Cat is a real crowd pleaser... |
|
|
|
 |
Rocket 012: The Estes E-series V2, complete with airbrushed cammo paint job. This photo doesn't do justice to how big this rocket really is. Unfortunately, the D-series motor recommended for early flights also doesn't do just. We got a low arching trajectory, and chute deployment was barely in time to save the day. I need to mail order some E-series motors so we can see how this thing really flies. BTW, I used paper coffee filters for the parachute wadding and it worked great. Not a scorch mark in sight. The rocket uses 2 big 24" chutes. BTW, the amount of information on V-2's available on the web is staggering. Try http://www.v2rocket.com for a start... Definitely a good addition to the fleet. |
