New Way Firecat 4 Build, Part 9, Shroud Line Tying TIP

On the back of the small "Recovery Kit" envelope face card there is instructions for a shroud line knot.
I tried the knot but it didn't work for me. This knot will slide up and cinch up around the middle of the Tyvek attachment strip.
I went back to my usual Square Knot tie.

TIP: Shroud line ties normally face each other at the parachute attachment points.
You can have the long end loops face each other on the flat side of the chute.


For the left side of the parachute "flat" side -
Start as shown on the upper picture, tie a square knot for a shroud line end that will face to the right.

For the other right side -
Start as shown on the upper picture for a shroud line that will end up facing to the left.




I tie shroud lines this way to make the tangle free final attachments easier.

New Way Firecat 4 Build, Part 8, Shroud Line Barbell Labels TIP

The shroud line attachment strips are new and different.
Tim at Apogee once called them "Nasal Strips". While they do look like the Breathe Right Strips, they are actually Jewelry Square Barbell Labels made from Tyvek.
If you've ever shopped for jewelry, you've seen these wrapped around the back of the ring with the size and price written on them.
You can't tear through Tyvek paper making these good for shroud line attachment. 

They are sticky backed.
So you can see where the adhesive is, I lightly marked the sticky area with pencil. There is no adhesive in the narrow center area where the shroud line is tied.

One half goes under the hole in the chute corner.
Fold the other half over the top leaving a open loop in the middle.

The open middle loop is where the shroud line is tied on.

This small open loop won't tear! The reinforced Tyvek paper is very strong.

Hobbico Bankrupcy Comments From John Boren

Lots of conjecture on the forums about the future of Estes and the Hobbico bankruptcy. Some of this below relates to how many trademarks names Estes owns.
Here's an exchange from YORF:


LeeR
"I thought the list of trademarked kit names was surprising small. Lots of kits not listed. About the only classics I saw listed were Alpha and Bertha. No Farsides, Tridents, Orbital Transports, Goblins,"

Astronwolf
"I believe that Semroc owns them. I may be wrong, but not far off wrong."

LeeR
"Interesting. I had assumed it was a “gentleman’s” agreement, but it makes more sense if it’s a more formal agreement. I wondered about trademarks when I’ve seen releases like the Spaceman and Farside-X."

Sheryl@Semroc
"Randy does own many now. Most of you might remember Carl's letter on the forum when Hobbico first took over. They wanted to stop our production of the OOP kits (which was most of our kits). Barry Tunic comes into play here as when he first took over Estes, he did not reapply for any of the trademark names. After the dust settled, Carl and John communicated often about kits Semroc was going to "bring back". If Estes was going to do a certain kit then we wouldn't and vice versa. All worked out well. Estes/Hobbico does own all the instructions for their kits."

Astronwolf
"Everything that Estes owns and owes, all of its assets and liabilities are visible now. Read for yourself the hand full of kit names Estes owns; names like the Alpha, Big Bertha, Sizzler, and others. And if names like "Goblin," or "Nike-X," or any Centuri kit names aren't on the list, then who has rights to them? Shrewd and careful businessmen like Carl and Randy got them."

The bidding rules have been posted. Anyone want to make a bid on the rest of the kit names or any of Estes intellectual property rights? You can do that. Somewhere within the $320,000 of tooling assets are the motor making machines. You can bid on those too. Makes me wonder what sort of Estes Industries is going to emerge by summer.

Jumpjet
 "You can bid on those too. Makes me wonder what sort of Estes Industries is going to emerge by summer.”  

"This is NOT true. Parts of Estes are NOT being sold separately. Someone or group of people out there will soon be the new owners of Estes and product will continue to be produced as before. This new owner may have ideas on what direction to take the company like getting back into Pro Series II models or bringing back the old B14 motor, or only making ARF models, you simply never know. This will all be over in a few weeks, so lets just wait and see what happens.

I will say the ONLY reason Estes is in Chapter 11 is because we are owned by Hobbico."

John Boren

______________________________________________________________________

My thoughts:

With all the rumors flying, it's nice to see some optimism from John Boren. He is there, he would know.

I did think it was interesting that Estes/Hobbico still owns all the old instructions for their kits. There is (and has been in the past) small vendors who simply copy the older Estes and Centuri instructions and use them in their clone kits. 

New Way Firecat 4 Build, Part 7, Gluing Up the Nose Cone

I tried the nose cone base on all four sides to find the best fit.
The pencil line was a reference when the top and bottom were glued together.

The body tube corners are slightly rounded.
After the nose cone base was glued on, the corners of the NC were rounded to match the tube.





The screw eye is turned and glued into the nose block with a washer.









It took two applications of CWF to get the nose cone assembly filled and the surfaces even.

Estes Assets and Liabilites

So you want to buy Estes?
AstronWolf posted this on YORF -
"Here's a schedule of all Estes' assests and liabilities. Want to know what kit names Estes had retained trademark rights for? Read this:" CLICK HERE

Go to page 33 to see the kit and product names that Estes owns. Not as many kit names as you would think. I was surprised to see how many times the Estes logo has been trademarked in other countries.

New Way Firecat 4 Build, Part 6, Fitting The NC Base

Here's a dry fit of the nose block, short tube and main tube.
Do a dry fit can sometimes give you a better gluing order.





The instructions have you glue the square base directly into the nose cone base.

I slid the short tube over the nose block dry, then glued the bottom NC assembly onto the block.
The short tube was slid up into the lower NC half to assure it had a good fit against the body tube.

After the lower assembly had dried, the short tube was glued in place against the lower assembly.

 

The ends of the body tubes are laser cut. I sanded the ends square with a sanding block for a cleaner finish and better fit of the nose cone assembly.

New Way Firecat 4 Build, Part 5, Fitting The N.C. Shoulder

Here's the before and after fitting the built-up base to the solid nose cone.
On the left is before the top of the pieced base was sanded.
The right side picture is after the top of the base was sanded flat. You'll want the best fit of all the parts so there will be less to fill later on.





There is a short length of body tube at the bottom of the nose cone assembly. A square nose block fits into it.

Holding it up to the light you can see where the sides of the nose block should be sanded to fit the short tube better.







Here I'm slightly rounding off the corners for a slip fit into the short tube.