NEW! Heavy Duty Engine Mounts

HDEM - Heavy Duty Engine Mounts

are now available from Odd'l Rocket vendors!

Now at JonRocket.com - at more vendors soon!

Features:

Extended Length Spring Steel Engine Hook

        3" long engine hook allows engine block to be positioned under the top bend

        of the hook. No more worn tube slots or loose engine hooks!

Replaceable Kevlar Line Design

        Kevlar tie is looped under lower centering ring.

        Small guide tube along the side of the mount allows you to check the 

        condition of the Kevlar and replace if needed.

Heavy Wall BT-20H Engine Tube

        Stronger BT-20 tube for long life

        Works great with the new, more powerful 18mm Quest Composite engines

        and general model rocket use. 

Now at JonRocket.com - at more vendors soon!

Estes Vanguard Eagle, Kit # 2193, Part 10, Masking the Silver Engine Tops

The round top of the fin can engines is painted silver. This will be a tough mask.

Here's my patio door glass again.
I used my old cheap compass to scribe a half circle on some marked Scotch tape. There are some layer of masking tape below the Scotch tape to hold the center pivot pin on the compass.

Enlarge the picture and you can see the arc on the tape.

The tape was lifted off and repositioned on the glass at an angle for easier cutting.

For easier placement the tape arc was cut in two.

Each half was placed around the round end.

More small pieces of Scotch tape were added to round out the mask.

On the left is the complete mask.
On the right is the complete mask after the tape was removed.
This mask was a pain to get right.

Estes Vanguard Eagle, Kit # 2193, Part 9, Stickers! I Hate Stickers!

I did use some of the stickers. I thought using the blue bands would be easier than another mask.
These blue stripes are translucent but look okay over the white paint.

On the low end of the fin can there are four blue strip pieces. These are stair stepped to fit around the round engines.

Look to the root edges of the fins. The fine point line down the root edge overlaps just a little onto the main body. I could have got a cleaner root edge mask using just the Scotch tape. It was worth a try!

The roll pattern adapter sticker didn't totally cover the length of the adapter. There is white showing through on the top and bottom.

The fit wasn't perfect, there was some raised areas along the top. I tried slicing through the bubble and that closed it up. After it sat for an hour the cut area rose again! A fix will be made later . . .

Orlando R.O.C.K. Launch, February 2, 2019

With a wet field and the possibility of rain on launch day, things weren't looking good.
Saturday morning the ROCK website said launch was a "GO". Club president Brian said to bring your boots. I put on some old tennis shoes.

My usual first flight is the near indestructible Estes CURVILINEAR with an A8-3.
Textbook flight and recovery. Altitude was probably 175'.







Lou Mertus joined us today with an old Estes V-2 Maxi-Brute.
Loaded with an E30-4 it had a great boost.
The ejection broke the shock cord. The body came down close but the nose cone and parachute was lost high in the trees!




Here's two of my B6-4 launches.

On the left is the Quest STRIKER AGM with the Enertek decor. Altitude was 325'. One cracked fin root edge at touchdown.
The Estes VANGUARD EAGLE is finished, the build continues on the blog tomorrow. It ended up heavy at 3.3 oz. The B6-4 delay was alright, a 3 second delay would be perfect. Estimated altitude - 280'.

Brian Coyle is usually busy handling RSO duties and rarely launches a rocket. I gave him a new, finished Spaced Needle. This new version breaks at the center for easier transportation.

Boost was actually pretty high for a A8-3. A strong ejection broke the shock cord. The long, lower end fell horizontally with no damage.

This'll give you an idea of the wet launch field.
My Semroc MMX BLUE BIRD ZERO landed too close to a large puddle.
The Micro Maxx engine probably got 65' in the air.




On the left is my Estes SUPER ALPHA launched today with a B6-4 to 325'.

To the right is Gary Dahlke's original Centuri Nike Smoke. The Nike Smoke flew with a B6-2 engine.

The Nike Smoke drifted back to the flight line allowing Gary to catch it!

(I know we're not supposed to catch models, but us "old-schoolers" still do when the opportunity presents itself.

Parting shot:
Kirby is always on call to retrieve rockets from the trees that surround the field. He's holding whats left of his "Spinner" rocket.
The body is the plastic tail unit from a Fourth of July firework. The fins are canted, normally spinning fast on the way up. Kirby has launched it many times before.

Today the Quest D16 Q-Jet was too much for the brittle plastic. Centrifugal force sent the canted fins everywhere. The engine casing continued up, spinning fast.

Kirby found all the pieces and will attempt a rebuild.
By the way - Kirby's beard doesn't grow to the side, that's just the wind.

What should have been a windy washout turned into a pretty good launch day. I launched six, the only damage was one cracked fin root edge.

Estes Vanguard Eagle, Kit # 2193, Part 8, Fin Masking

Here's a rare look through my patio door.

Scotch tape was set on the glass. To see the tape on the model, a wide point Sharpie line was drawn through the middle of the tape. The tape was cut down the middle of the line giving me two sharp, clean edges.
Don't press hard on the glass, you don't want to scratch it.

On the left is the mask for the lower fins on the plastic fin can. The Scotch tape was set on the fine line drawn earlier. Once again, this pen line idea was an experiment and didn't get good results. Masking tape was set down outside of that.

On the right are the upper fins on the BT-55 tube.

The leading edge of the upper fins were rounded. Look at the above right picture and you can see small pieces of Scotch tape placed around the leading edge.

On the left you can see small "corners" around the leading edge where the tape pieces were placed.
On the right the raised areas were pushed back with the flat side of my knife. I usually do this when the paint is still a bit sticky.

Streamers - Food For Thought

Streamers were mentioned in a Facebook post. In a response, Bradley Lawrence Smith said he uses Kite Tails for streamers.
At ROCK club launches, I've always like the streamer Tom Dennon uses. It's a very colorful rip-stop nylon streamer his Mother sewed up for him. It is very easy to follow after ejection.

A quick search brought up these 2" X 60" rip-stop streamers for what seems to be a reasonable price.
There is a grommet, the description implys that all five streamers are joined together at the top.
You could get quite a few strong streamers from this array. The efficient 10 to 1 ratio could yield 15 nylon streamers for $5.49!
Here's the link: CLICK HERE

And for all the "Children Of The Sixties" there's even a three strand Tie Dye!

Estes Vanguard Eagle, Kit # 2193, Part 7, Miscellaneous Stuff

I tried to slide in a finishing wand dowel into the engine mount. That tight fit of the BT-20 tube in the plastic centering rings made for a very tight fit. I had to sand down the end of the engine casing to get it inside.





After spraying the eight larger nozzles some touch up was needed. Instead of brushing I used a Sharpie to darken up any areas not covered with black paint.








The upper small fins were glued onto the BT-55 tube.
Fillets of Titebond M&TG followed.






The fins on the lower plastic fin can are painted black. I thought it would be tough to get a good mask with the raised half rounds so close.
To get a good line I ran a fine point Sharpie down the root edge. I wouldn't recommend doing this, I was trying something new. More upcoming . . .