Estes Paveway III Build, Part 5 Engine Hook Fix

Here's the before and after fixing the engine hook.

On the left, the engine hook is pressed tight between the tail cone and engine mount tube. The tube is compressed and not perfectly round.
A swelled engine casing would be hard to insert in an ovaled tube.

On the right, a notch was filed in the bottom inside edge of the plastic tail cone. There is enough room for the thickness of the engine hook and the tube is round again. Center the notch between two fin slots.
A simple and necessary fix.

With the tail cone and engine mount in place, the rings sit this far inside the body tube.
The motor mount tube was marked at the end of the main air frame tube.
A dowel was marked a little shorter so the upper ring would hit the glue ring before it was totally in position.

A ring of glue was applied around the top of the rounded dowel. The dowel is inserted into the tube and the glue rolled around using the pencil mark as a depth gauge. Three applications of glue were needed to get a ring around the inside of the BT-55.

I adjusted the engine mount height until the tube end was even with the end of the tail cone.

Decal Printing Screen Options

On the forums, some builders have complained about decals being too transparent on painted models.
You do have to configure your printer for best decal printing.
On the right is a screen shot from my HP Officejet Pro 8000 printer. (Your screen may vary, I'm showing this to give some ideas.)

At the upper right is a box showing "Preferences"
Click on this box and it will bring up the next screen shot below.

On my printer:
1.Set the left side box for "PHOTO PRINTING - BORDERLESS"
This changes many of the available settings on the right side.
2. Under paper sizes pick:
"BORDERLESS 8.5 in. X 11" in."
3.Under Paper Type pick:
"HP ADVANCED PHOTO PAPERS"
4. Under Print Quality pick:
"BEST"
5. Under Print In Grayscale pick:
"OFF"
6. Under Orientation pick:
"PORTRAIT"
7. Click OK to go back to the first screen.

Again, these screens are for the HP brand printers. Different printers will have different "Preferences" choices.
Home printed decals aren't printed as "dense" as kit silk screened decals.
I ruined my first few home printed decal sheets because I didn't know how to adjust the ink settings.
For now, these are the settings I use with great results.

Estes Paveway III Build, Part 4 Tail Cone and Adapter

The tail cone and adapter were molded together as one piece. You have to cut them apart.

The instructions recommend a razor saw but I just used my hobby knife.
Don't try to cut through with one pass. Lighter pressure and three or four passes should do it.

Cutting off the through the wall fin nibs isn't difficult.
The instructions said to use a razor saw again, but I wouldn't use one here. You'll have more control using a hobby knife.
The blade easily follows the inside edge of the molding lines.

Be careful when you get close to the bottom, the knife will want to travel in and towards you.

Here's the tail cone with the nibs removed.
There might be a slight lip that should be sanded off for a better fit of the fins.

I wondered why a LPR needs TTW fins. This might be because gluing wood fins to a plastic tail cone won't be a strong enough joint.

Looking ahead: The fin slots in the tail cone are wider than the 3/32" thick fins! The side reinforcement pieces will cover up any root edge gaps.

Wadding Tips

I have used "Dog Barf" wadding before with good results.
The dog barf is many shredded pieces of flame resistant treated paper. There is the chance of ejection charge "blow-by" especially in larger body tubes.

I have a LOT of extra wadding! I pick it up and reuse it when I can.
Usually only the bottom piece (closest to the engine ejection) is burnt and can't be reused.
I won't pay retail for some treated toilet paper.
I've bought Parade Pomps online and cut up my own flame resistant crepe paper.

The Quest wadding looks to be parade pomp paper. It's stiffer than the Estes toilet paper wadding and a little harder to pack.

To make the Quest style wadding easier to work with:
Before putting it into the body tube, take one square roll it between your hands into a tight, small ball.
Re-open the wrinkled ball and the crumpled paper will be easier to pack.

On smaller tubes (BT-50 and smaller):
Recrumple the wadding into a ball the right diameter to seal the inside tube sides.
On larger diameter body tubes:
Put your fingertip in the center of the square and press into the top of the tube. The loose sides of the wadding will automatically give a pretty good seal on the inside body tube walls.

Here's a square of the the crepe wadding I cut from a sheet to about 4" square.
It's stronger than the Estes wadding and won't rip down the perforated  lines.

I'm using a tamping tool to push the wadding farther down than I could reach with my finger.
It's just a dowel with engine casings friction fitted over the end.

I'm not really tamping the wadding into a tight wad, just insuring the the sides are sealed and the wadding is far enough down the body tube.
I can also insert the dowel end through the engine mount and push up and raise the wadding piston. If it slides pretty easily from the bottom I know the wadding will eject.


A final protective measure:
One square of wadding is wrapped around the low end of the parachute.
This is a extra measure of protection but not a guarantee of no melted spots on the parachute.
Parachute burn spots happen to all of us.

LAUNCH! - Orlando R.O.C.K. December 7. 2013

Only one blog post today - there's a lot here . . . 
For the first week of December it was warm! 84 degrees today.
Winds were near calm, perfect conditions for flying.
Roger and Bracha have posted many more pictures HERE

My Quest A-30 AEROSPACE PLANE flew with the only recommended engine, a C6-3 to probably 450 feet.
Beautiful straight boost with no roll.
The two parachutes have never both ejected so I took one out before the flight. Problem was, the nose cone is so heavily weighted it didn't want to descend horizontally.




Roy Riggs flew with us today.
He's holding his well crafted Estes Black Star Voyager.

Flown with a E9-6 the delay felt long. The parachute ejected nose down.
Full parachute and no damage when it was picked up.





Here's another great design from Ken Cooper, the Ion.
The ejection is ducted through the fins and into the upper body section.

Nice slow ride with a C6-5. The angle of the rod turned it a little to the North.

Roger Smith (JonRocket.com and RocketReviews.com) was busy with his Hanukkah gift from wife Bracha.
On the bottom of the 4 prop helicopter is a camera.
Roger could hover it 200' up from the launch site and take video and pictures of the launches!

It's an amazing piece of engineering. The motor noise sounded like a swarm of bees were close by.






From Carl Campbells Facebook post:
"Here is a shot of my Delta II scale model flight today my friend Roger Smith took from his helicopter carrying HD video camera."

Manuel Mieja showed me the new Estes "Starter" igniter.
The tips aren't black but more a translucent clear.
It looks like they were made with the same Estes equipment, just the dip is a different color.
Manny used the new "Starter" to ignite a Estes BP F15 in his tube stabilized rocket.





Lonnie Buchanon made the 1 1/2 hour trek to Orlando to fly his many sized Estes Marauders and Big Berthas.
The Marauders are a great design, perfect for his up scales and down scales.





My also flowns:
Semroc ASTRON  with a Quest A6-4. Surprising altitude for an A engine.
Downscale Carded HORNET with an Estes 1/2 A3-4t. Fin was torn off at landing, didn't notice until I was back at the flight line.
CHEROKEE GOON with a Quest B6-4. Perfect engine for this one.
The new Estes PAVEWAY GBU-24 on an Estes B6-4. Fair altitude, this is really a C6-5 rocket.
HONEST GOON with an Estes C6-5. Great altitude, drifted back to the launch area.

NARCON - Feb. 28 - March 2, 2014

I'll be doing a technical session on
Model Rocket Construction and Tips 
at the upcoming NARCON,
February 28 thru March 2.
Check out the website HERE

From the website:
"You are invited to join us in Cocoa Beach, Florida -- home of the Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral AFS -- for insightful technical sessions about model rocketry, a behind-the-scenes look at America’s historic rocket ranch, and a glimpse at the future of our nation's space program."

Vendors * Exhibits * Raffles * Prizes

• Friday night dessert reception at
• Air Force Space & Missile History Center
• Four concurrent tracks of technical sessions
• Lunch with local Space Legends
• Exclusive insider tour around Cape Canaveral
• See Space Shuttle Atlantis at the KSC Visitor Complex
• Beachfront host hotel with direct access to Atlantic Ocean
• Easy access to a world of attractions
• Something for the entire family!

Estes Paveway III Build, Part 3 Fin Prep

These fins were die-cut, before laser cut fins were the norm.
Some new kit instructions have you "gang sand" the laser cut fins. This is really unnecessary, laser cut fins should all be exactly the same! You should sand off the burnt laser cut sides of the fins, that's all.

Die-cut fins are cut using razor blade like pieces set in a wood block. It was nearly impossible to get all the blades in identical places on a second, third or fourth fin template.
The raised blades are quickly pressed into a balsa sheet.
This die-cutting (or die-crushing as we used to call it) isn't consistent from fin to fin, the blades can shift and get dull when cutting a run of balsa.
Die-cut fins do need to be gang sanded to get them all the same size.

There are eight reinforcement fin pieces, too many to be stacked and sanded at the same time. I did three at once.
The bottom fin root edge was marked and used as a master.
All the fins were sanded and trued using the master fin for consistency.

Always start a gang sanding by lining up one side, usually the root edge.
It's easier to tell which fins are high or low with one side flat and consistent.
Be sure your block of fins is standing up straight before sanding the edges.

Here's a good example of die-crushing. The outside edge of the third fin down from the top is pretty broken up.
Don't sand all the way down to smooth out the broken side. That takes too much off the fin sides changing the shape. You'll be able to fill this broken edge with CWF later on.

All the fins prepped for filling.
This is a lot of balsa!