| Model |
Flt
# |
Recovery Type |
Motor |
Comments |
| Super Firefly |
7
|
Glide, with 18" streamer in pod |
Estes 1/2A3-2T |
This was the first contest flight for the 1/2A Boost Glide contest
postponed from September due to wind. All the test flights and careful
trimming paid off, as the glider boosted almost straight, ejected level
and upright, stalled only once on transition, and turned in 38 seconds
with no help from lift. This time was about four seconds longer than
the Delties I was flying against were getting without lift. |
| Super Firefly |
8
|
Glide, with 18" streamer in pod |
Estes 1/2A3-2T |
The second contest flight was almost identical to the first.
I had taken about 1/3 of the clay off the left wingtip to widen the glide
circle, but doing so didn't help the flight time any; this time, with a
glide I'd call perfectly trimmed and a nominal boost and transition, the
time was 36 seconds, for a 2-flight total of 74. That looked like
a lock on first place, since the better of the two Delties I was flying
against had a 34 and needed 40 to tie -- and then the other Deltie, sanded,
filled, and painted, went up and caught lift. Two minutes and thirteen
seconds later, I was in second place, and there I stayed. If you're
entering 1/2A or A BG, I'd recommend you have a well-made Deltie available
as a backup model. These things have as much chance of catching lift
as anything, and if you catch lift, you can win with anything -- and they're
so easy to build and trim you can be assured of a good flight unless you
have a CATO or a Red Baron. |
| Spike |
3
|
18" nylon parashheet |
AT Econojet F20-7 |
After getting the Spike back from the power lines, I figured it was
charmed, so I put it up on an Econojet, aka E-CATO-jet. First, I
found (as others have also learned) that the F20-7 was too big to fit into
the motor mount tube in the Spike. I had to peel off the label, dust
the leftover adhesive with baby powder, and carefully chamfer the inside
of the mount tube to get the motor in. Once that was done, though,
all was well. The new-type "heavy duty" Copperhead lit quickly, and
the rocket took off with a loud roar. Unfortunately, there was a
little bit of a chuff, probably due to the igniter slipping back from the
front bulkhead; this allowed the rocket to tip off the rod and fly downwind,
instead of slightly upwind, and resulted in a long walk for recovery.
The parachute got slightly toasted , possibly due to not enough cellulose
wadding; I may pull the stock chute out and replace it with one of the
X-forms I got from American Science and Surplus, which will also slightly
reduce drift. |