Monday, August 6, 2018

NARAM 60 Sunday, August 5, Manufacturer's Forum

Sunday was another full day of Sport Flying at the field. Lots of Mid Power launches. The Estes tour and the first competition launches start tomorrow.

There were nine vendors presentations.
ESTES: Ellis Langford showed the upcoming Mercury Little Joe I along with the new offerings already on sale. The Saturn V is returning with some new scale mold corrections and other revisions. Canadian rocketeers asked why Estes won't sell engines over the border. Mr. Langford said he would look into the matter.
QUEST: The C and D Q-Jets will be pre-sold from the website shortly. Dane Boles is now working for Aerotech and will probably focus on the Quest product line.
ASP: Showed the newest scale kits.
BMS: Bill showed the newest 3' School Rockets upgraded for larger engines.
SEMROC: Randy brought a rack of the new Micro Maxx models. I might pick up the little Orbital Transport.
There other new product demos, some were directed toward mid and higher power.

I participated in the Manufacturer's forum on Sunday night with new products from Odd'l Rockets.
On the right is the new BT-20H, heavy walled BT-20 tubing. It has the same wall thickness as a BT-55 or BT-60.
Imagine the applications - Stronger stuffer tubes, strap on boosters, Super-roc competitions and general sport flying with longer life models!

I have never been a fan of the BT-20 style tubing ever since I crimped the BT-20 on my Estes Beta trying to remove a friction fit engine.
This stronger tubing will better insulate a hot engine and won't shrink up when the white glue dries! A perfect fit with the Apogee plastic (Starlight) nose cones.

Here's the new engine mount incorporating the BT-20H HEAVY WALL TUBE. Stronger for general use and great for the new, more powerful Q-Jet composites.

These Odd'l Rockets engine mounts have a 3" long SPRING STEEL engine hook. That extra 1/4" length hook allows you to glue the engine block in under the upper bend of the engine hook.

The REPLACEABLE KEVLAR mount ties the cord underneath the lower centering ring. Pull it out, check the condition of the line and replace if needed.

I was given a new Quest C12-6 Q-Jet engine for testing (Shown above). I went back to the hotel to get the products together and test the fit of the engine. The newer, slightly smaller diameter Q-Jets are a perfect fit with the labels on!
During the presentation I said: "Look how well the new Q-Jets fit in the BT-20H tubing! A perfect slip fit!" I wish I had a picture of the smiles on Gary Rosenfield and Dane Boles faces. They appreciated a positive mention of the new engines.



My third product unveil was a long time coming.
The Odd'l Rockets FIN TOOL will finally be sold after I return from NARAM. Many were interested in a demonstration after I was meeting participants at the front of the hall. These should show up on the Odd'l vendors websites in September.

3 comments:

  1. Your mention of strap on boosters has me intrigued...could there be a future Odd’l Rocket model featuring them?

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    Replies
    1. Hi Openroad,
      That's just a suggestion. I have had an idea for a model with three tubes on the side but they wouldn't have engines in them . . . more later.

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