Estes Soaring Eagle #1373
 

Been looking to get another one of these for a while now. It was the flex wing glider made in the early 80's. I plan to build it, so if you have an opened version it's fine. I did a demo for my grade school back in '83 and kept flying that kit for a long time, but got lost years ago. Wish they kept making it because it was a neat kit to build and fly. Send me a message if you have one you'd be willing to part with. Thanks

There's one listed on Ebay right now. High bid is not outrageous (yet).

trying to win it, but my rocket funds don't allow me to go crazy.

The Estes Soaring Eagle was the ONLY boost glider I ever built that I could NOT ever get to fly properly. I had a ton of R/C building experience under my belt when I built mine too. I got more glide time out of the orbiters on my Scale 1284 Space Shuttle, SST Shuttle, and Orbital Transport and those are LOUSY gliders.

Yeah, it took forever and some to get mine to fly right, I built it as a school science project, and spent too many hours getting it to fly decently. if I get another though it will be a display model only. I do presentations to different CAP squadrons and the kids love to see the different stuff..

looks like I'm not winning this one.....Got to hit the lottery or something...****!

Check your inbox, I think I can help.

I never had any problems getting the one I built in 1982 to glide. In fact, it glided too well. I lost it on the second flight on a C6-3 when it caught the wind and sailed out of sight to land somewhere in Hood county TX north of 377.......

I took some time today and combined the tif files of this kit from JimZ into a single PDF. I've sent it off to Scott for possible inclusion into the Ye Olde Rocket Plans site.

If you'd like a copy, shoot me a PM.

kj

Somewhere in the vortex, all of our missing gliders still fly.......

My semroc swift did the same, caught a thermal and went.....

You have a couple of options for the nose cone for this one - one is to use the nose from the Screaming Eagle Jet Fighter kit - there's one included in the Science Fiction Nose Cone set. The other option is to download the canopy I created a while back and sent to Scott: http://www.rocketshoppe.com/info/PNC50SP.pdf

You can add this canopy to the Skywriter No. 2 nose cone, coat it in CA, and sand it smooth. Once painted, you won't be able to tell the difference. You can use garbage bag plastic for the wings (they won't have the graphics, but it should work the same).

Lucky me, I bought a bulk pack of Venoms before they went away.

You can also get up or downscale versions of the cone here http://meatballrocketry.com/classic-nose-cones-2/

BT-80 version anyone?


Or a repro here: http://www.siriusrocketry.biz/ishop...products_id=147

which might be too heavy for the glider, but hey, you never know.

kj

That yay-hoo wants $225.76 for one in BT-80 size !!
He must have LOST HIS FARGIN' MIND.
I'm sure Gordon at Roachwerks would charge no more than $100 for this in balsa with a custom carved balsa canopy attached to boot.

A BT-70 version is an EQUALLY INSANE $141.84 !!!

Where did this demented nit-wit get his pricing advice from ?
Al's House of RIPOFF Rocketry and Used Cars ?

At those jackwagoned prices, they better come with a free Aerotech 29-180/240 motor system and at least 3 reloads.

Even the BT-5 version is a ridiculous $9.95 !

PULLLEEEZ !!!!!

Pretty sure the reason for the insane price is due to it being made on a 3D printer. Wish I had one of those!

Or, you could make it out of cardstock, soak CA or glassing resin into it and sand that smooth. The nose is just a simple cone attached to a cylinder, with a canopy attached. You can even upscale the canopy I mentioned earlier. For that matter, you don't really need to do anything to the cardstock nose cone except paint it - it will be strong enough as is.

Another one on Fee bay @$33 NOW

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Estes-Soari...3-/111152125254

A new thread on the Soaring Eagle led me here.

I didn't know you guys were talking about me. :rolleyes:

Yep, a BT-80 version in balsa about $80 and that would include shipping.

Basswood would be about $100.

Decals for that size would be pricy.

Vinyl would be better for a BT-80 size.

My best flying B\G was (surprisingly) the Crusader Swing-Wing. I may still have the booster pod somewhere, but the glider landed on a road and was killed. :(

Can't believe it... went for $126 bucks! :eek: :chuckle:

Reminds me of something old man Barbee told me one time when I bought an Estes Maniac for all of $6 or 8 bucks back in about 1990... (he was Wharton County Constable for decades and also ran an electric service, and sold hobby stuff out of the front of his electrical service company store to fund his model airplane hobby, which for some reason included rockets which he wasn't fond of-- guess it was a cheap moneymaker to sell too)

"A fool and his money are soon parted..."

Of course with an attitude like that, didn't take me too long to find somewhere else to buy rockets from...

Later! OL JR :)

Didn't a Heinlein character say something long the lines of:
A fool and his money can't be kept together. Trying is a wasteof energy and annoys the fool.

The proper strategy is to get in line early, and don't take so much that the fool can't survive to come back again next payday.

I am restoring my thirty year old clone, that I built after it was discontinued the first time. Can anyone tell me what the width of the sail is? The plans I downloaded did not have that info, just the lengths of the angled sides, peak, and overall length .

Did you download these plans?

http://www.spacemodeling.org/jimz/est1373.htm

There is a .tif file of the sail with dimensions on that page. Print the file to full size and you can measure the width. Or just use it as a template and cut out your sail.

Again does anyone know the measurement of the width as it is supposed to be. As measured from an original sail.

Okay, let's try this again.
PRINT the .tif file below
MEASURE the total length of the sail printout and divide into 24", the actual length. This is your scale factor
MEASURE the width of the sail printout
MULTIPLY that number by the scale factor

It comes out to exactly 3 inches. And I would wager you that if you are lucky enough to find someone with the actual kit, their measurement will be the same.

I'll have to look in my spare parts bin, I think I remember seeing one last year

I have a Soaring Eagle kit #1373 I will be selling soon.

Since that is your current restoration, I could set it aside for you.

The average selling price is a bit outrageous at $67.00 but I would be willing to accept (not except!) an offer.

I appreciate the offer sandman, go ahead and get a good profit for it. I really want to treat what I've already done like a rescue rocket. Plus I felt a sense of accomplishment having cloned it with nothing more than a xeroxed copy of the instruction sheet a protractor ruler and a few assumptions about sizes from those decades ago. Cloning today is much easier with friendly folks tracing fin patterns, scanning and posting them online for everyone else to enjoy.

To bar geezer yeah I could do it your way, waste the paper, and measure. I can also take the listed measurements and do a couple of minutes worth of geometry or trigonometry. I could also load the file up into an image editor, assume it's geometrically accurate, count the pixels , do some multiplication based on one of the known lengths, and have my answer. Or I could hope that someone on the forum was nice enough to just take a ruler out to there shelf bird and post the answer to the question that I asked. For which I would thank them.

Understood, no hard feelings. Just didn't want to see you waiting forever. This is a rare bird, and surviving ones are few and far between. Cheers.

I've got one I measure tonight.

Here you go.

Thank you eagle , I believe that my clone will look really good with a mylar sail.

You're welcome. Post a pic of it when it's done. :)

If anyone would like to part with their soaring eagle, I'm a willing buyer. Had one as a kid and would like to fly this bird again!