I liked the MASH episode where Klinger attempted to eat a JEEP.

I think it was Dick O'Neill that played an Admiral that stated "Nuts, Bolts, Screws ?!? This man is full of machinery ! ".... After reviewing his goofball X-ray.

Funny story MarkB. Why wouldn't you want to do it again for a long time? Kits not your thing?

Do you plan to fly it with the chute? I now use streamers in my Cherokee-D builds, except for upscales, since they're flown exclusively on D12 motors. Streamers take a *lot* less time to make, and they're much less likely to drift away.

I've built 7 Cherokee-D's, including a couple upscales, and have lost most of them. Lost my first one as a kid, on a D12-7 with the supplied 18" chute, on it's maiden flight. Built a second, didn't launch it until I became a BAR, circa 2005, and promptly lost it. Built & flew a Thrustline clone quite a few times, then started cloning my own.

I have 2 different magnifications of the Donegan Opti-Visor, 1.75x, and 2.5x, use them all the time, as my eyesight is horrible (~ 11 diopters of nearsighted correction). They're still made with glass lenses, though do now offer a cheaper plastic lens version.

Druziv:

So a picture was requested. Here you go.

But I thought the group would like to see the other artifact: From an eBay rescue group I got last year: a short body, two-piece fin, balsa nose, stand-off lug, Cherokee-D now in the restoration pile. No chute, no shock cord but it will fly again. I enjoy deep-diving the old posts on this site and there is a surprising amount of data on Cherokee-Ds which I confess to never having given much thought. I was reading through them and then I remembered I had this out in the pile and sure enough . . . . So apparently, this is a very rare beastie to have survived over 50 years.

The new build is coming along. I'll seal the fins over the next few days and then it's ready for paint.

I have built at least 7 Estes Cherokee-D kits, all with the full-length BT-55 and PNC55AC cone.
Never built a short-tube Estes early kit.
The only short -tube kit I built was a PDR or Thrustline clone.
Did the early Estes kit use a balsa BNC55AC cone ?

I’d get going on that MicroMaxx Cherokee pretty soon. If you wait until your my age, working with those tiny parts is close to impossible.

I think that Cherokee-D switched to plastic nose cone sometime in late 1974 or during 1975.

Oh, I'm WAY more advanced than you are. Those parts have been impossible for me for over 20 years now. :D :rolleyes:

Very cool. I'm bummed that the number of worthwhile eBay lots has dropped off precipitously in the past couple of years. This is a great find. :cool:

Yes. It started its life as an ARCAS balsa nose cone.

Druziv:

Nothing, and I mean NOTHING, helps the outgassing like 104 degrees in the shade with 20% relative humidity. Three on the paint sticks drying this afternoon. My Cherokee-D with the alternate black nose, the school project Aerobee finally getting a "real" paint job after 50+ launches and five or six years of launching and an eBay rescue Bandit that I'll post more about in the Rescue thread after I get the decals on.

It is definitely sunny outside.