Sticking to my roots

batjac Sun Jul 10, 2022 12:50 am

A couple of months ago I posted about getting my Level 1 High powered Rocketry cert. Launching HPR is fun, but when one launch costs as much as two years worth of 1/2A fuel, I can’t do it often. So, I need to stick to the smaller rocket motors.

Besides, I’ve always been a 1/2A and 1/4A guy. You know I loves me some Babe Bees and Pee Wees. And, like Cox, Estes makes 1/2A and 1/4A motors. I realized a couple of days ago that since I moved into the new house, I haven’t done anything modeling related. So I grabbed a small Estes rocket kit from the shelf and threw it together in a couple of hours. It’s an Estes Swift 220. It will fly 330 feet up on a 1/4A motor and 600 feet on a 1/2A. It’s so small, I don’t think I’ll fly it on anything larger than a 1/4A because I doubt that I’d be able to see it if it went up to 600 feet.

The 1/4A rocket compared to the HPR rocket:

And the 1/4A motor next to the “I” size motor the Possum Rocket flies on.

Yup, the “I” motor has 1024 times the energy of the 1/4A motor. Kinda the equivalent of a Pee Wee engine vs. a 36HP Kawasaki ultralight airplane engine.

The Consistent Mark

balogh Sun Jul 10, 2022 4:05 am

Back in the 70's my friend's father, a tech teacher in a primary school, flew model rockets, that parachuted back to the land when the fuel was spent..do your rockets also have the parachute inside? The chute dome gives it visibility as it sinks, I guess, and you will find the ship even if blown in the wind, easier than without the parachute?

rdw777 Sun Jul 10, 2022 8:05 am

I’m liking smaller these days as well both for space saving and costs… My shop space is 8x16 so I have to make my projects count….Those big rockets have to be awesome with both sight and sound …. But think how many 1/4A shots you can get off for the cost of that I….

Back in the day I had the Estes V-2 24” version with a single D…. Had it painted up in the black and white tracking scheme…. I had access to large open cotton fields at the time… It flew many times…..

If I did any rocketry at all today maybe a small boost/glide would be fun…. Maybe RC to get it back home …,

The more conservative these days Robert Very Happy

getback Sun Jul 10, 2022 8:39 am

That is one big rocket and Alot of $$$ for one flight But does sounds like fun , would bee better to watch for me LOL Very Happy

batjac Mon Jul 11, 2022 12:00 am

rdw777 wrote:…. But think how many 1/4A shots you can get off for the cost of that I….

I can do 19 launches on the 1/4A rocket for each "I" launch.

The Calculating Mark

batjac Mon Jul 11, 2022 12:07 am

balogh wrote:..do your rockets also have the parachute inside? The chute dome gives it visibility as it sinks, I guess, and you will find the ship even if blown in the wind, easier than without the parachute?

Yes. The rocket motor has an ejection charge that kicks out the parachute. For "H" motors I let the parachute open up at apogee with the ejection charge at the lower altitude. For the 'I' motors that take the rocket almost twice as high, I use a separate chute release. The ejection charge kicks out the chute, but the chute has an elastic band around it holding it closed until it reaches a pre-set altitude (500 feet for now), and then the elastic is released and the parachute inflates for a normal touchdown.

The Coasting Mark

NEW222 Tue Jul 12, 2022 9:24 pm

That looks too cool seeing the size comparisons. When I used to fly rockets, I also loved the little Estes 'Mosquito'. They are tiny at about 4" tall from my recollection.

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