Construction Rating: | starstarstarstarstar |
Flight Rating: | starstarstarstar_borderstar_border |
Overall Rating: | starstarstarstarstar |
Diameter: | 0.98 inches |
Length: | 12.30 inches |
Manufacturer: | Estes |
Skill Level: | 1 |
Style: | Sport |
Brief:
About the most simple there is. It's pretty much just a black gloss body tube,
orange plastic nose cose, and one piece (3) fin unit. 12" Estes parachute.
Modifications:
Upsize of launch lug.
Construction:
This is a super simple rocket kit that can be built in less than 30 minutes
with just CA (super glue). When building mine, I replaced the launch lug with a
one inch piece of a blue plastic Jack In The Box straw, to be able to use my
larger launch pad.
Finishing:
There really is not anything to finishing this kit. It does not need paint, and
includes some self stick decals.
Construction Rating: 5 out of 5
Flight:
I picked this rocket with a fairly strong agenda for it. (1) night launch in
order to obtain a good digital picture of a C or D liftoff flame at night.
Recovery:
I knew recovery would be difficult considering the night launch. I broke open a
small light stick and poured that glowing liquid in on top of the wadding just
a minute or less before launch. That would have never made any difference, as
due to the sound of the ejection charge it was too far out of sight to even see
during the day.
Flight Rating: 3 out of 5
Summary:
With mild wind it still went straight up on an Estes SU C6-7. I could even see
the tracking smoke in the moonlight. Perfect up.
Overall Rating: 5 out of 5
I received my Alpha III kit recently from Hobbylinc.com and was annoyed to find that all three fins on the plastic fin assembly were bent like a Bobby Hull hockey stick. This was either poor manufacturing or improper storage along the way. Something heavy was probably sitting on top of the kit package for a long time. I soaked the fin assembly in hot water for about 15 ...
Brief: This is a very simple rocket of the 3FNC design. Basicly nothing more than a fin can, BT and nosecone Construction: The instructions are easy to follow with lots of pictures. Assembly starts with building a basic motor mount and glueing it into the fin can. You then glue the launch lug on to the body tube and glue this on to the fin can also. You then glue the shock cord ...
NOTE: This review is for the Alpha III in the Starter Set Ahh... Old Faithful. My first kit. Flown in excess of 30 times, and still going strong. A good flier, it always lifts straight and true. Works just fine on almost any 18mm Estes engine. I've made a habit of sending it up at least once almost every time I go out to launch. Had to re-tape the parachute shroud lines to the parachute, and ...
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J.B. (July 1, 1999)