Estes Shark #1111, Build, Follow-up

Well, yesterday's post (shown below) ended up being posted on the wrong date, last week! Don't know how that happened. You can specify what days you want things to be posted. I must have hit "Set Date and Time" button and not the "Automatic" publish button.    

I got my BNC-50AR balsa nose cone from erockets.biz

The upper pic was the Alpha style "placeholder".

The lower picture shows the new, bare balsa cone.

How the rocket looked before:

Here's the build with the correct shape, original nose cone.

Sometimes a little change makes a much better design.

New Estes Blue Origin Changes - Follow-up

I received three new Blue Origin, New Shepard builds for Estes yesterday.

I had already built two of the original, first kits. Changes have been made. I was curious what the stability changes were. 

The nose cone gets one pat of clay weight. 

A single clay pat typically weighs around .25 oz. 

Inside the nose cone, the top surface is fairly flat. Time will tell if the clay stays stuck to the top wall.

The fin span is wider now.

Measured from the root edge to the outside edge, the fin is 2 3/32" wide or 2.10".

The leading edge height is the same, 2 3/32" from top to bottom.

I have to wonder with the nose cone diameter  wider than the BT-60 body tube - 

Is the airstream spread out by the nose cone and splayed outside the smaller fins?

I would think the first (smaller finned) model could fly fine with a B6-4 motor. It might be unstable with the heavier C6-5 motor.

Estes Blue Origin New Shepard Build, Part 11, Old & New Kit Versions

On this blog, I was building the original version of the kit that was pulled because of some stability issues. I haven't seen the revised version of the kit.

According to messages from Ron (Ronz Rocketz), who has the new version of the kit:

A pat of nose weight clay is included.

These usually weigh around .25 oz.

Here's a picture of the old kit fin.

Ron wrote the fin root edge is still 2" tall.

FIN SPAN:

The original kit fin span (measured from the root edge to the outside edge) is 1 3/8".

See EDIT below - Ron said the new kit fin span is 2". That seems pretty wide but might be necessary when the airstream is spread out by the wide diameter nose cone.

In another comment, Metalhead1986 said the fin span is 2 3/32".  

EDIT: Ron agreed with Metalheads fin span. The correct fin span measurement is 2 3/32". 

If you have the new version of the builders kit, double check the fin span measurement for me and please leave a comment below.

Whoops! Airborne Surveillance Missile Follow-up

 A comment from Naoto K. - 

"Hmm.. just noticed something -- the old instructions I find on the JimZ site mention gluing pieces of dowel between the lower fins and the thick centering ring (at step 11 on the old instructions). Does the new version of instructions not have this detail?"

My response:

"The new instructions do have that step - I left it out. Not on purpose, I just wasn't paying attention!"

I looked up the older Airborne Surveilance Missile instructions (Old kit # 0867) on the JimZ website.

I probably would have noticed this in the older format - 

The illustration was much larger and it did say "Dowel".

Here's the step on the newer kit instructions. The illustration is smaller with less descriptive copy.

At the time I did wonder why I had a length of dowel left over when the build was finished. 

I honestly didn't notice that step in the instructions.

Am I going back, 

cutting dowels, 

fitting them, 

sealing, 

masking,

and repainting?

In a word . . . No.

Estes Alien Invader #3003 Build, Follow Up

In a comment, Naoto Kimura mentioned the older instructions at the Jim'z website. CLICK HERE

I should have checked the original Alien Invader instructions and face card for the correct decal placement.
Normally when I have a assembly question on a reissued kit, I'll look up the older instructions. This time I didn't.

Shown on the old face card picture -
The three line wing decal is short of the right ring pod. It sets into the fillet and up the side of the body tube.

The smaller winged decal goes on the body tube to the right side of the upper wrap decal.

Here's what I had to work with with the reissued kit. The face card shows two different three stripe decals on the right side wing, the decal spans the wing width.
They don't show where the winged decals go. Oh well! The second build will have the correct decal placement.

What's With The Blog Header?

Maybe I'm making light of a bad design?
The MPC Cadet Cruiser kit was a bad move from the start.

• The kit box lists an engine that doesn't exist. 
• The box estimates the maximum altitude at 260 feet. Mine never got nearly that high! If it were stable, a C6-5 engine should have reached at least 500 feet.
• The 18" parachute is cute, but way too large for a model this size.
• If built by the directions, the engine mount extends 3/4" out the back end of the model.
• The the front half of the fin root edges "float" above the body tube. Only the rear half is locked into the fin can.

I had flown it twice with a A8-3 and B6-4 engines. Both flights were unstable.

The engine mount was moved forward so only 1/4" of the engine extended out the back.

.30 oz. of clay weight was added to the nose cone. Both of these changes should have helped stability.

A third flight with another B6-4 showed it to be only marginally stable.

There had to be thousands of these kits produced. Were there ever any test flights before distribution?

Luckily I paid very little for the kit. That might be the reason so many are on sale.

I hate to trash a kit, but that's where it ended up!