One of the things that I was a little dissapointed about upon returning to the hobby were the kits available from Estes. From my earlier days I rememberd them having some great imaginitve kits. Most of the current kits they offer look almost identical to but with different paint jobs. The "new for 96" AIM-9 Sidewinder is a great exception!
Construction was fairly straight forward like all Estes kits. I was surprised to see that Estes now does "Through The Wall" mounting. Even so the stock motor mount can only accept 18mm motors, not somthing I'd expect to worry about ripping a fin off with. I hear that a lot of people on r.m.m are changing this to a 24mm mount. I wish I had thought of that before building it.
I still haven't gotten around to finishing the model but I do plan on following a relativaly authentic paint scheme. I also stuck with the stock two piece recovery so as to avoid any "Estes dents". I did add my own homemade launch lugs so I could fly it on my larger launch rod.
CURRENT STATUS:
Ready to fly! It's not painted but I normally give my rockets one flight before painting them anways.
| Flight Log | ||
|---|---|---|
| Date | Engine | Comments |
| No flights yet | ||
Back to Rocketry page
back to
hobbies page.