Estes Phantom Electro Launch on EBAY

Occasionally I'll check EBAY for the rocket listings.
Here's a very rare find you might not see again.

The Estes Phantom Electro Launch.

You can follow the bidding HERE

The old Electro launchers were red plastic, the hand-held controller was black. The square base held the photoflash batteries.
This case and hand held controller are clear plastic.

It's a rare find to see one of these right out of the box, unassembled.

It was first seen in the 1970 Estes catalog HERE

Here's the copy from the EBAY listing:
Model Rocket Phantom Electro Launcher Astron Pre Damon Ext Rare. Mint parts sealed in packs. Don't know if you will see another like this again. Extremely rare! Buyer to pay $6 shipping. Winner to via PAY PAL ONLY. No shipping outside US. Please DO NOT bid if you are outside the USA. NY State residents will be charged sales tax. Positive feedback will be left once feedback has been received. Item will ship within a week of payment. Absolutely no bidders with feedback of less than (10). Check my other auctions for more. Hundreds & hundreds of items to come."

Hundreds & hundreds of items to come?

Starlight / Centuri Jayhawk Follow-Up

Before it's first flight, I did add some clay weight inside the nose cone of the modified Jayhawk kit.

The nose cone shoulder was already glued in place so I drilled a hole to stick the clay worms in.

I cut off two pats of clay. Total weight of the clay was .25 oz.

The clay was rolled into thin "worms" and set into the drilled hole. A squared dowel tamped the clay forward into the nose cone tip.

The Jayhawk flew on a B6-4, April 16 at the Tampa TTR monthly launch.

Even in a 20 m.p.h. wind it had a straight, stable boost. There was a slow turn of the body during the thrusting stage.

DFR Tech. Delta II Build Part 6 Seam Filling

In this kit there is a lot of tubes to fill!
One main tube and nine SRMs!

Here I'm dragging a small drop of thinned Carpenter's Wood Filler down a body tube seam with a dull knife blade.
This method uses less filler and directs the filler right into the seam.

The SRM Attachment Mounts are 1/8" square basswood.
I want to sand them smooth before gluing onto the body tube.

TIP: To help keep track of what side has been sanded, I marked all four sides with a pencil.
You'll have to trust me on this. While you are sanding, it's easy to lose track of what sides have been sanded.
If you mark it with a pencil, you'll know what sides are left to be sanded.


A smooth side has already had the pencil marking sanded off.

Here's an SRM mount before (top) and after smoothing. (bottom)

DFR Tech. Delta II Build Part 5 Engine Mounts

This is the finished central engine mount.

You can use as many as six A10-Pt (plugged 13mm engines) in the SRMs.

Six engine blocks are glued into six BT-5 SRM tubes.

I used a dowel to get the glue into the tube.
The dowel was marked a little short of 2 1/2".
A glue ring was applied around the edge of the dowel end.
The glued end of the dowel was inserted into the tube being careful not to get glue along the inside of the tube.
When I reached the pencil mark, the dowel was rolled inside the tube, transferring the glue at the correct location.
An engine block was inserted and pushed into position with an engine casing. The casing overhangs the body tube by 1/4".

TIP: Half the job of getting an engine block into position without freezing in the wrong place is simply having everything ready and at hand.
Have your marked casing, marked dowel and engine blocks in sight before even thinking about using glue.

More Shock Cord Ideas Part 3

Continuing on with Jason's shock cord design, Here's what it looks made with 24 lb. paper.

The shock cord was laced through the three holes.
The lower half was folded over and glued over the shock cord.

I like this design because it is thinner than the Estes Tri-Fold design. The shock cord is not folded over itself two or three times.

Even from the back you can see how the cord lays beside itself. I did thread the cord under the top weave.
The low side of the mount (facing up) is less of a obstruction and more of a "ramp" before the low side of the shock cord.
The parachute would pass by this style of mount easier at ejection.

Jason uses the "Double Glue" method to attach the mount in the body tube. Use a rounded dowel to press the mount into place.

After the glued mount is dry, Jason recommends a coat of glue over the top of the mount - Good advice.

TTRA Tampa LAUNCH! April 16, 2011

Here's the official wind speed indicator of the day.

Judging by the turned back ears on Q.T., the winds were 15 - 20 m.p.h.

PIGASUS! made it's Tampa debut flying true with a Estes C6-5.
The picture proves I "stuck" the landing.

Astron Mike came with plenty of impressive gliders.
Here's his BOMARC LV flying with a long burn Estes E9-4.

Brent and Aaron Rubinow know how to get a mirror finish on rockets!
This WILD BLUE YONDER didn't fly today, the winds were too strong. Behind Brent you can see the tent cover blown off by the wind.

It was built from an extended Basic Blue kit from AAR.
It usually flys with a K454 engine.




Roger Smith flew the U-BEE (upscaled Odd'l Rockets Break-Away) with a K550. The boost was impressive!
At apogee the first deploy separated it into five tethered sections.
As it fell we noticed the tether had broken near the upper section and nose cone. We still can't figure out how the 1500 lb. test nylon line broke!
All fell without much damage and should be ready for another flight soon.

Also flown:
The UP! CUP on a C6-3. With today's high winds, this was a great test for stability. It flew straight and true.
The rolled streamer on the engine didn't unfurl this time.
The Micro BIG BERTHA drifted too far on a A3-4t engine. Even with a small streamer it was picked up 200 yards away.
My last flight of the day was the blog build Starlight JAYHAWK. During boost there was a slow rotation. The Apogee website estimates the altitude was 686 feet with the B6-4.

DFR Tech. Delta II Build Part 4 Engine Mount

The forward ring was marked bagged separately. It is pre-drilled for the screw eye.

The screw eye is set into the hole.
Don't screw it in past the threads!

Be sure it is turned to the side so it'll fit into the body tube!

Set the screw eye with epoxy. This is the underside view of the forward ring.

Glue the ring in place so it sits opposite the engine hook.

Looking down from the front end you can see how the screw eye is facing. Look inside the tube and you can see the top of the engine hook is opposite the screw eye placement.