More Mini Brutes

[bernomatic]

Always wanted to build this kit. The S.C.R.A.M. caught my eye as a kid, but the Star Seeker has it now.

[bernomatic]

This is what happens when you text while sleeping.

What I meant to say is...

I always wanted to build these when I was young and just finished putting the decals from Excelsior on them today.

Thanks for the great decals Gordo. They were much better than my attempt even with the correct fonts.

[A Fish Named Wallyum]

Very cool! I thought I had this set on Ebay a LONG time ago. Probably one of my earliest experiences with being SNIPED! :( I think I eventually won the decals in an auction lot, but never got around to building them. Gotta go hunt them up. ;)

[Doug Sams]

Always wanted to build this kit. The S.C.R.A.M. caught my eye as a kid, but the Star Seeker has it now.Good looking rockets.

I picked up the Mini Tri-Pak at a DARS rummage sale a few years ago. The only one I've built so far is the Sting Ray - I got a fondness for stagers :) But it needs a ½A3-0T booster to keep it recoverable (along with a ¼A3-3T sustainer). I have only a scant few ½A3-0T's, so it doesn't get flown much.

One mod I made on mine was to move the booster fins forward. With them all the way aft, the booster will tend to be stable and come in ballistic rather than tumble down slowly. So try to fly yours on soft ground so your booster doesn't accordion itself.

Doug

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[bernomatic]

Good looking rockets.

I picked up the Mini Tri-Pak at a DARS rummage sale a few years ago. The only one I've built so far is the Sting Ray - I got a fondness for stagers :) But it needs a ½A3-0T booster to keep it recoverable (along with a ¼A3-3T sustainer). I have only a scant few ½A3-0T's, so it doesn't get flown much.

One mod I made on mine was to move the booster fins forward. With them all the way aft, the booster will tend to be stable and come in ballistic rather than tumble down slowly. So try to fly yours on soft ground so your booster doesn't accordion itself.

Doug

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So it'll be a goner with the A-10's? :( I was hoping to get some staging experience and was all happy cuz the A10-0T had been re-released.

You know if it took them this long to re-release the A10-0T (which they still made, but in a plugged version) What are the chances of anything smaller? :( :(

[Doug Sams]

So it'll be a goner with the A-10's? :( I was hoping to get some staging experience and was all happy cuz the A10-0T had been re-released.

You know if it took them this long to re-release the A10-0T (which they still made, but in a plugged version) What are the chances of anything smaller? :( :(It's gonna be way up there when it stages, likely out of sight, or nearly out of sight :eek: You need lots of eyes. I'd have two people assigned to the booster and two on the sustainer. A ¼A3-3T in the upper stage with a small mylar streamer will help.

As for anything smaller, don't hold your breath. I can use both ¼A and ½A boosters, but there's just not enough demand for them. The ¼A boosters were dropped when they dropped the shortie motors - there wasn't enough demand back then, either.

Doug

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[mwtoelle]

Estes dropped the ¼A boosters in the 1968 catalog. One thing that changed when the motor designations were changed to metric was the maximum allowed total impulse in each motor class. The ¼ to B motors lost a little bit of total impulse, and the C to F motors gained a little bit. Here is a table with the changes. All total impulses are in N-sec.

Class Old (English) New (Metric)
¼A 0.779 0.625
½A 1.56 1.25
A 3.12 2.50
B 5.34 5.00
C 8.90 10.00
D 17.8 20.00
E 35.6 40.00
F 71.2 80.00

The reduction in the total impulse of the ¼A motors made boosters of that size impractical, even with the thinner cases used from 1968.

The Sting Ray should fly pretty well on the A10-0T/¼A3-3T combo. All the two-stage flights of my Mini-Cobra have used the same motor combo with good results. I would add a small streamer to the sustainer of your Sting Ray. A ½A3-0T would be a great booster for a BT-5 multistage rocket. :(

[A Fish Named Wallyum]

Just finished this one last night.

http://i1122.photobucket.com/albums/l529/rmortis/054-1.jpg

As with a lot of my projects of late, this one started out with a decal from a long ago Ebay auction lot. Semroc cone and a lot of shop scraps in this one. Hopefully I'll get a chance to fly it this weekend. :cool:

[chrism]

Nice Eclipse. I cloned this one awhile ago but it does not have any decals yet.

[Vanel]

Nice one Bill!

[sandman]

Nice Eclipse. I cloned this one awhile ago but it does not have any decals yet.

I have 'em.

http://www.excelsiorrocketry.com/search.php?orderby=position&orderway=desc&search_query=Eclipse&submit_search=Search

[Mark II]

Brilliant work, guys! :)

As always, small is beautiful!

[bernomatic]

Finally completed my Star Blazer (TK-31) and am once again flying into battle vs. the dreaded Russian Wolverine (which I yet have to clone).

The pic is terrible, I took it on my phone camera and will have to take better shots later, just wanted to get this up.

[bernomatic]

Finally six months later, and I get it launched. Had a beautiful day here in NE Ohio and just had to do it. Slight problem as all I thought I had were 1/2 A3-4T. Turns out I had some 1/2 a3-2T's mixed in with some other engines but didn't find out till after I launched.

I was launching at the neighborhood school yard. She went straight up, arced over and I was cringing thinking she would lawn dart, when about fifty feet off the ground the nose cone popped and the parachute deployed for a nice (if kinda nervous) landing.

Can't say I can compete with Bill in the photo department yet, but this pic is definitely gonna be a Fav of mine.

[sandman]

Finally six months later, and I get it launched. Had a beautiful day here in NE Ohio and just had to do it. Slight problem as all I thought I had were 1/2 A3-4T. Turns out I had some 1/2 a3-2T's mixed in with some other engines but didn't find out till after I launched.

I was launching at the neighborhood school yard. She went straight up, arced over and I was cringing thinking she would lawn dart, when about fifty feet off the ground the nose cone popped and the parachute deployed for a nice (if kinda nervous) landing.

Can't say I can compete with Bill in the photo department yet, but this pic is definitely gonna be a Fav of mine.

Nice but, I don't see the Wolverine. :rolleyes:

This kind of thread makes me want to make more smaller rockets. :D

[jeffyjeep]

Finally six months later, and I get it launched. Had a beautiful day here in NE Ohio and just had to do it. Slight problem as all I thought I had were 1/2 A3-4T. Turns out I had some 1/2 a3-2T's mixed in with some other engines but didn't find out till after I launched.

I was launching at the neighborhood school yard. She went straight up, arced over and I was cringing thinking she would lawn dart, when about fifty feet off the ground the nose cone popped and the parachute deployed for a nice (if kinda nervous) landing.

Can't say I can compete with Bill in the photo department yet, but this pic is definitely gonna be a Fav of mine.
Nice! I can almost see those trees licking their chops.