| Construction Rating: | starstarstarstar_borderstar_border |
| Flight Rating: | starstarstarstar_borderstar_border |
| Overall Rating: | starstarstarstar_borderstar_border |
| Published: | 2013-06-18 |
| Diameter: | 1.64 inches |
| Length: | 22.80 inches |
| Manufacturer: | Estes  |
| Skill Level: | 2 |
| Style: | Sport |
Brief
A skill level 2 competition design with elliptical fins, parabolic nose, and tailcone. Designed to fly on C11, D12, and E type motors.
Components
The kit contained high grade balsa fins which required very little filling, a very well made molded plastic nose and tailcone. The nose was a definite improvement over other Estes kits as there was very little seam that needed to be filled prior to painting.
The tailcone was attached to the bottom of the nose cone and required cutting to separate, a feature that I feel Estes can and should do away with.
Construction
As for building the kit, it took less than an hour to accomplish using 5 minute epoxy. The instructions were absolutely worthless with mislabeling of one part. Estes REALLY needs to improve the quality of their instructions included with their kits!!
All of the parts fit together well with very little to no sanding required.
Finishing
Finishing the kit was simple and straightforward. The supplied decals were O.K. but I've seen and used better. As mentined previously, the balsa fins had a fairly tight grain which required little finishing to achieve a smooth surface. Painting was easy as the paint scheme is simple.
Flight
A C11 is more than sufficient for flying this model. A D12 will require a decent sized flying field. An E9 will most likely risk loosing the rocket and is far too much power for this model.
Flight prep is easy.
Recovery
The supplied parachute worked well and recovery was easy when using a C11. A D12 will require a larger field and an E9 is simply too much power for this very lightweight model. Unless you can easily track it from launch to recovery, I would not suggest the use of an E9 motor.
Summary
The only con against this product is the poorly written instructions that came with it. As was stated earlier, there is a part that is mislabeled. This could be a serious problem for the novice builder.
Estes really needs to rework the way their instructions are written and pay more attention to the typographical errors! As a veteran of the hobby, I see this as a serious problem that Estes needs to address!
 |
 |
Flights
Sponsored Ads
|
|