Peak Of Flight PIG!

The Odd'l Rockets PIGASUS is featured in the current issue of the online newsletter, the Apogee Peak Of Flight #365 HERE
The Pigasus kits sold out quickly, more litters are on the way.

You gotta' love free advertising!

Pigasus Decal Adventures!

Some of the earliest Pigasus decal sheets were sealed with a new acrylic.
That acrylic made some thick decals. They look fine and transfer easily, they are just thick skinned.
Last night, I thought I had the decal problem ironed out!

I visited a vendor who had a new Roland brand printer that supposedly does decals on regular Bel style decal paper.

The art was sent and week had passed without a price per sheet quote.

Yesterday I called. I ended up driving out 45 mins. one way to her place.

She had already printed up five sheets.

While the decals slid off the backing sheet okay, they were so thick it was like an embossed (raised ink) print.

This Roland printer prints the color, then a flat clear coat and finally a too thick cover coat!

Shes' on the phone with tech support and there is no way to change clear coat coverage.

The Roland printer does a UV drying pass that puckers things up.

Five printed decal sheets in the trash!

This is why so many kits have stickers. Unless you are Estes doing a run of 10,000 decals printed in China, you are out of luck.

Non hobby vendors don't know exactly what you want and give you something substandard.

On the other hand - Carl at DFR Tech has a laser burner and got everything right, the first time!

Pig centering rings, ply NC plugs and nose snout cap pieces all perfect!

The decal adventure goes on!

Next vendor please!

Pigasus Kit Now Available!

Here's one that took too long to get produced!
The Odd'l Rockets PIGASUS kit is now available from JonRocket.com
HERE
Kit Features:
Parachute Recovery
Decals and Printed Wings and Goggles
Windswept Ears and Balsa Razorback!

When Pig's Fly!

EDIT:
The initial six kits at NARCON sold the first day.
The second litter of five kits listed at JonRocket.com on March 17 sold out within hours.
More are on the way - I hope!
Anyone have a line on ST-18 tubes?

Pigasus at NARCON!

Along with that new parachute - 

PIGASUS will debut at NARCON!
It's about time, I haven't been able to produce new Odd'l Rockets stuff lately.
Hard to believe, but banjo playing can pull you away from rocket production.

This model always turns heads and is favorite with wives and girlfriends that were dragged to a launch against their will.
At NARCON, JonRocket will have the kits on Saturday.
My other distributors should have the pigs soon.

Pig Nose Cones!

This one kit production seemed to take forever.
Pigasus nose cones have finally arrived from BMS - Thanks Bill!

Just in time for NARCON!!!

Pigasus Tweaks

Here's how the PIGASUS model has looked for two years and __ flights.
I knew it needed a little more detail and the wings needed more feathers.

A little rouge on the cheeks and a shadow on the ear. More feather lines were added to the wings. (In the kit the wing shape will better match the outline of the overlay.)

Pigasus now has a few visual upgrades and is closer to becoming a new Odd'l Rockets kit!

Pigasus! Reborn Part 6 Finished!

PIGASUS!

This was my third try making a "Gooney" Pigasus. The first was built in the mid 1970s.

I tried again a few months back, but had problems getting the fins to align properly.

Most of the framework was from the Semroc Groonies series.

The head was already finished from the previous build.

The upper arm (or pork shoulder) decal extends from the main body onto the nose cone. After it was applied and dried, the joint was cut with a sharp knife.

As you can see, it's ready to fly with a C6-5.

Lately, I've been marking all igniter tapes with the engine types. (Thanks to Mr. Gibson!)

The "X" reminds me there is wadding installed.

UPDATE: Pigasus finally flew at the N.E.F.A.R. launch in Bunnell, Florida on March 12.

I was concerned the goggles and swept ears would redirect the airflow and cause it to turn. I called for a heads up. There was no problems, the flight was stable and true!

Thanks to Roger Smith for the great launch shot!

Pigasus! Reborn Part 5 Printed Trim

I'd already drawn up the wings from the first build attempt.

I simply printed them up on 110 lb. cardstock and cut them out.

They'll be glued on the wing fins using a glue stick.

The goggles took a bit of tweaking to get right.

These are a double thickness of 110 lb. cardstock for rigidity.

These will be set on the nose dry.

When I am sure of the right position, they'll be tacked into place using a drop of thick Super Glue on a toothpick.

Pigasus! Reborn Part 4 Masking

The wings were to be left white.

Scotch tape was used along the root edge. Above that, masking tape and a piece of plastic grocery bag was folded over the top.

Where's that pink spray paint?

After the mask was removed, here's the result, waiting for home made decals and wing feathers.

Pigasus! Reborn Part 3 Fin Positioning and White Spray

Here's a rear ham hock view to show the leg and wing positions.

You can see why I wanted the wing's root edge joint to be strong.

The open front end simply got a roll of paper to keep the paint out of the tube.

Here's how the backside was masked.

Gluing the engine mount, the rear centering ring was recessed 3/4" from the rear of the tube.

Masking tape was set sticky side out around the inside edge of the body tube. Paper towel pieces were stuffed into all recesses.

Pigasus! Reborn Part 2 Better Root Edge Adhesion

Because the wings are not being glued straight away from the center line of the body tube, I had to be sure the root edge mount was strong.

The fin lines have been marked and extended down the body tube. many instructions have you extend the lines all the way down the body tube. This is usually unnecessary, I don't want the pencil lines to show through light color of spray paint.

The fin root edge was used to mark the intersection or front of the leading edge intersection. I only extend the line a little forward of this tick mark.

To get a better grab of the glue, the alignment lines are sanded off.

If you concentrate on just sanding off the pencil lines, you won't rough up any more of the tube than is necessary. Keeping the block square on the line, you should be sanding off an area about 1/8" wide. Sand from the front tick mark all the way back to the rear of the tube.

Re-draw the lines back on the body tube.

It's easy to continue redraw using what little of the alignment line is left, forward of the tick mark.

Pigasus! Reborn Part 1 Fins

Did you ever design a rocket, and after gluing it all together wish the fins were bigger or smaller?

This was the case with the first Pigasus build. I condensed the length of the wing fins and pig legs.

As the glue dried on the first build attempt, the wing fin tips rotated to the center line. Those first fins were glued not on the root edge, but the side surface wall of the fin was glued on the body.

This time an angle was sanded on the root edges to correct this.

This picture shows a dry fit of the root edge, checking the angle against the body tube.

Pigasus! Reborn

If you've followed the blog, you might remember the PIGASUS project.

I'd built a Gooney Pigasus (the winged pig) back in the mid 1970s. I tried to design a new version a few months back.

Then I ran into a few problems. When the glued wings had dried, they had fallen into the center at the top. I tried to cut them free to reset them and ruined the model.

When I looked at the naked model (no paint yet) the wings were too big.

I got frustrated and set it aside.

I salvaged the nose cone "head", motor mount, razorback and even the launch lug from the first try. I was very happy with the way the head and facial expression turned out.

Here we go again, this time the pig will fly!

Pigasus! Build Part 15 Nose Cone

This is the first time I've ever used pink paint on a rocket.

Now the pig is really starting to look like a pig.

This is where all the design work starts to pay off.

The decals and goggles really finish off the nose end well.

I'll have to go back and do some reworking of the goggle to get a better fit.

Pigasus! Build Part 13 Fins

When the wings were glued into place, the outside tips gravitated in and to the center of the tube in an inverted “V” shape. While this wasn’t the original plan, I went with it thinking it looked good at the time.

To make a smoother joint between the wings and legs, an angle was sanded along the root edge.

Pigasus! Build Part 12 Fin Prep and Gluing

Here’s the razorback piece.

Before gluing on the fins and razorback, the primer was sanded off the body tube for a stronger gluing area. (This was shown in a previous post) The razorback piece was set on the body tube and it’s root edge length marked. I want to be sure not to sand beyond the root edge span.



This is one of the wing fins.

Look at the top edge and you can see how the flat side was slightly sanded down to expose the balsa for a better gluing surface. The side of he root edge glues to the body tube.

Pigasus Build, Part 11 Fins

These are the pig legs, one before and one after sanding down the primer.
Some builder's lay down more coats of primer than me, sanding between coats. Before the first color overcoat, their surfaces will be gray overall. I spray and sand just enough just to fill any imperfections left after the Carpenter's Wood Filler.

Next up, the gluing lines for the wings and legs were sanded down on the body tube for better adhesion. The root edge gluing line was wider than usual so I was able to use some 220 grit on a sanding block.

Pigagus! Build Part 10 Fin Primer

Here’s the balsa and launch lug ready for their coat of primer.

I’ll usually place masking tape, sticky side up on a scrap piece of cardboard and lightly set the fins on the tape. I make the tape less sticky by setting the tape on my jeans pant leg and removing it. Lint is left on the sticky surface making it less tacky.

Smaller fins are stuck standing up with the root edges on the tape.
Larger fins like these are set down flat, rather than running the risk of them falling over under their own weight.

I'll shoot one side with primer and let dry. Everything is flipped over and shot again.

Pigasus Build Part 9 Ears

I wanted the pig's ears to have a blown back look.

To get the correct angle of the ear on the nose cone "head":
1. 220 grit sandpaper was wrapped around the main body tube.
2. The ears were held at what I thought was the correct angle against the sandpaper.
3. The inside edge of the ear was sanded down by going in a straight line, back and forth, over the sandpaper.

Here's the inside angle (or the gluing surface) of the ears, ready to be glued to the nose cone.

After checking the ears on the nose cone, I ended up sanding more off the edge so the ears would lay back farther. This picture was taken before the second sanding adjustment.

Pigasus Build Part 8 Nose Cone Weight

The 1/2 oz of clay weight is formed into a snake and pressed into the pre-drilled hole in the nose cone base.

The dowel was used to press the clay forward and level out the top.

The screw eye is turned into the plywood plug, just far enough until where the screw threads aren't visible.

Don't screw too far in or there won't be any threads to hold the eye in the disk!

The disk edges took a little bit of sanding to fit into the pre-drilled nose cone hole.

After the disk was pushed in as far as it could go, a fillet was applied around the edges using a dowel as an applicator.