NewWay Angled Invader, Part 5, Pod Tubes, Engine Mount & Jigs

The outside pod tubes glue onto the outside edges of the main wing fins.

I don't think most builders would fill the (visible) inside seams. It's easy to do. 

Apply CWF using a hobby knife, let dry and sand.

You can only go so far until you can't reach the interior seams with sandpaper.

The engine mount is glued in place. 

Test fit before using any glue and sand the centering squares if needed.

The round central tube is even with the low end of the square main body tube.

The upper ring area got a line of glue applied with a Q-tip.

Here's all the assembled jigs.

Apply some glue to the outside joints to hold them together. The fit is good without any glue, but they will fell sturdier if glued together.

I found the wing jig (at the bottom of the picture above) and the "nose guide" very interesting.

NOTE: The horizontal brace at the bottom of the nose guide is a double layer to better fit the angle of the nose cone.

More 18mm Odd'l Rockets Sputnik Tests

I drove to the Orlando ROCK club launch afterward the early morning June 10 soccer field launch. I delivered a large order of Odd'l Rockets kits and supplies to Roger of jonrocket.com. 

Pigasus and Little Green Man kits are available again!

I did two more tests of the Odd'l Rockets SPUTNIK with 18mm B6-2 and C5-3 motors. 

Both were very stable and high compared to the usual 13mm A10-3t motors. 

After five test launches - Some considerations -

1. 18mm motors are an inch longer which doesn't leave much foam above the top of the motor. The second flight today (June 10) blew the bulkhead disk and top off the Styrofoam ball. The 18mm ejection charge is more powerful than the original 13mm engine.

2. The larger, heavier motor casing could be considered a danger when ejected. 

3. That 3/4" cavity is more difficult to drill compared to the 13mm mount.

So the Sputnik kit will remain a 13mm rocket. 

It's still a great odd-ball design, an easy build and good "first launch of the day" rocket.

Schoolyard Soccer Field Launch! June 10, 2023

I already had plans to go to the Orlando R.O.C.K. Launch today. 

I couldn't sleep and found myself checking the alarm clock. So, I got up early and headed to the schoolyard soccer field.

The Estes Aerospace Club FIRECAT was launched with a A8-3.

It was inevitable, one of those overhanging fins was cracked off on landing. Estimated altitude was 250'.

My burst function in my camera isn't auto-focusing. I found and fixed the problem once I got home.

The Estes PATRIOT was next using an Estes B6-4 to an estimated 325'.

Perfect flight.

I think my shock cords are a little too long.

 

Getting a little close to the trees. 

That's the same tree that ate my Battlestar Galactica Viper on it's first flight.

A personal favorite is the Quest FLV or Future Launch Vehicle.

Today a B6-4 at the B6-4 field. Altitude was a guess at 325'. 

There was some rod whip - this landed even closer to the trees.

When building the kit, I beefed up the thin kit fins and nozzles. Both low end details were too fragile.

The Estes AIRBORNE SURVEILLANCE MISSILE got great altitude on a A10-3t motor. 

At ejection I heard a "whack" and knew there would be some damage. Two fins were knocked off. 

As I left the field I found one of the small orange fins. The black fin will have to be traced, cut, filled and painted. Arrrrrg!

To finish off the soccer field activity, I launched a MicroMaxx rocket.

Another favorite is the ASP CORPORAL.

Even with the nose weight, this tiny rocket performs. I would guess it to be above 100 feet. Little models look like they are going much higher!

Good thing it had a shiny streamer, they can be hard to follow after the quick boost.

Five up, all recovered with two needing fin repairs.

NewWay Angled Invader, Part 4, Filler Primer & Engine Mount

These are the square "dowels" that are glued on the outside tubes.

Here the pieces are sprayed with filler/primer.

Two of the smaller fins, there are four in total. These are glued as ribs over the open area on the wing.

Before with filler/primer sprayed on the left, 

On the right, sanded to surface leaving a bit of the filler/primer in the remaining balsa grain pores.

The engine mount has a slip over engine hook retainer band.

The Kevlar line is tied around the top of the tube.
 

Notice the square centering "rings" at the top and bottom of the tube.

A great feature of recent New Way kits is a heat shrink tube to protect the the Kevlar line from the ejection charge heat.

For all the "newbies" - Kevlar is flame resistant, not flameproof. It can deteriorate and fail after 10 (or so) flights.

NewWay Angled Invader, Part 3, Gluing Up The Wing & Filling Balsa

The kit includes a variety of jigs to help alignment when gluing.

These are cleverly laid out on thick cardstock.

The first piece is used to align the two piece wing fin. The alignment piece is to the right in the first picture.

After glue is applied, use some weight to hold the two pieces even and flat.

On this small fin piece, the grain runs down the leading edge at the right, wider end of the fin. The tip on the left side broke off! Not a big deal, glue it back on and sand flat.

Here's the balsa after a brushed on coat of CWF was sanded. The pieces were then taped to cardboard and sprayed with filler/primer.

NewWay Angled Invader, Part 2, Parts Prep & Seams

This was very tight balsa - I thought at first it was basswood.

The filling should turn out very well.

As always - 

I sand off the laser cutting ash also removing the hold-down tics.

The inset picture shows the upper arm of the wing fins.

Laser cutting is not perfectly square but flares out at the bottom side. 

Carefully sand and square up the edges but without changing their shape for a better fit.

The square tubes don't have concave seams. There are layer overlaps about 3/32" wide.

I sand these down with some 220 on a block. Later on, filler/primer should take care of any roughness after sanding with 400 grit.

The square launch lugs have a definite seam.

Brush on some CWF filler and sand with 400 grit.

The CWF stays in the indent seams.

On the right side is a before and after sanding.

NewWay Angled Invader, Part 1, Parts

This will be a fun one!

All parts are clean and well made.

The bright yellow nose cone and detail pieces are 3D printed. The fit in the square tube is very good.

Different assemblies are in separate sealed plastic.

Parts of interest:

The New Way sandpaper, emery board and Q-tip set.

A large heavy cardstock assembly jig piece.

A large piece of 220 grit sandpaper

Engine centering squares, engine hook, shrink wrap and square launch lugs. 

Here's the 3D printed nose cone detail pieces.

These are a squared version of the rounded "bubble" areas on the Estes PNC-50CA nose cone.