I recently purchased an Explorer Aquarius rocket and am currently in the process of building. Attaching the fins to the main body tube is on Step #6 in the instructions. This step is missing a vital piece of information. It does not specify the distance to place the fins from the rear edge of the main body tube. The illustration just simply shows placing the fins on the tube along the alignment lines. From the illustration, it looks like the distance might be around 1/2" to 1" from the rear edge of the body tube but I would certainly like to know the exact distance. I have e-mailed Estes but ( of course ) no response. I hope someone can help me out. I have been to a few other websites that have the plans for this rocket but they contain what I already have...no new info on this matter. Thanks

Tuck

Well, surprise, surprise, surprise !!! I ( Tuck ) just received a reply from Estes and the distance the fins should be from the rear edge of the main body tube is 5/8".....

Thank you for sharing that info with us, Tuck.

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Scott D. Hansen
Ye Olde Rocket Shoppe - Your One Stop BAR Shoppe!
Ye Olde Rocket Plans - OOP Rocket Plans From 38 Companies!
Ye Olde Rocket Forum
WOOSH NAR Section #558

No kidding? I'm amazed that they acknowledge the existence of a non-current kit. I'm in the middle of this build also, so this info will come in handy.

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Bill Eichelberger
NAR 79563

http://wallyum.blogspot.com/

I miss being SAM 0058

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Ready to fly: Estes - Solar Sailer II Semroc - Earmark, Groonie Der V 1/2

Well, I must admit I have to question the length given by Estes. I'd bet they have a built kit somewhere and just roughly measured the length.

Usually Estes have "clean" lengths like 1", 1/2" or 3/4".

I would wager that in this case the actual length would be 1/2"

@Tuck: Thanks for the guest book entry

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Leo

My rocket fleet and more @ Leo's Leisure Site and on YouTube - My latest project: ALTDuino

I ( Tuck ) went to the Estes website ( Contact Us page ) and filled out the information and they replied in less than 2 days. The answer given was 5/8" from the rear edge.

Leo makes a good point. Most of the mesurements on Estes rockets are multiples of 1/4" but there are certainly instances of interesting distances like 1-1/8" and 9/16". My "Starship Vega" and "Super Vega" for example have their fins placed 7/8" and 1-3/8" from the rear edge of their main body tubes, respectively.....Tuck

Can anybody give me the dimensions of the external tubes? I have the nose cone and wanted to build a replica, but can't translate the body tube sizes from the JimZ instructions.....Eric

You need 6 - BT-20B (8.65") and 12 - BT-20DJ (4.0") for the external tubes.

Check out and download these links:
http://rocketshoppe.com/info/Estes_...be_List_3.1.pdf
http://rocketshoppe.com/info/Estes_...erence_10.1.pdf
http://rocketshoppe.com/info/Nose_Cones.pdf

All priceless sources of info, IMO.

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Dave
Fire is the leading cause of fire.
Was once SAM#0132

What is the fin size? root edge height, grain edge length ?? The pic at Jimz has no reference just 3 rectangles.