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-   -   Estes Star Wars Y-Wing Starfighter (http://www.oldrocketforum.com/showthread.php?t=12867)

A Fish Named Wallyum 08-22-2013 09:26 PM

Estes Star Wars Y-Wing Starfighter
 
I picked one of these up on Ebay for an almost scary good price. It arrived today, and what I thought was just a rocket turned out to be an RTF launch kit that included a pad, rod, and........SIX B4-2 MOTORS!!!!
Can anyone hide me if I have to go underground? I can sleep in a shed or under a deck. :rolleyes:
One thing I found interesting was the message on the back of the motor package. It says that the igniter plugs are reusable, and that you should pick them up and keep them as extras if you find them on the ground after a flight. :chuckle: I showed this to my son when they arrived today and he instantly remembered what I was referring to. I've always saved my igniter plugs if I could find them, so Sam picked this habit up when he was going with me to QUARK launches. Our club president saw him picking up plugs from the ground and putting them in his pocket at one of our earlier launches with the club. He asked Sam what he was doing and Sam told him. Well, Mark told Sam that they were only good one time, and Sam, who was almost eleven at the time, told him we reused them all the time. It escalated from there, with Mark, who was 40-something at the time, doing everything but stamp his foot and hold his breath during his "NO, YOU CAN'T!" part of the "discussion". Sam just held his ground and kept insisting that "Yes, you can," because he'd been seeing it done for several years. It was like they were reversing roles, and myself and several other flyers were watching and laughing into our shirts during the whole scene. When I saw the package today, my first thought was that I should scan it and send it to Mark. :D
As for the Y-Wing, it's a pretty sharp looking rocket. Anyone ever fly one with any regularity? It seems a bit fragile, and I already know I'm swapping out the shock cord, but is there anything else I should look for when I fly it?

tbzep 08-22-2013 09:30 PM

Quote:
Originally Posted by A Fish Named Wallyum
is there anything else I should look for when I fly it?

Yes. You should look for the used igniter plugs. :D



.

Bill 08-22-2013 09:41 PM

Wadding is reusable too.


Bill

A Fish Named Wallyum 08-22-2013 09:48 PM

Quote:
Originally Posted by Bill
Wadding is reusable too.


Bill

Which reminds me of another story. There's a picture of Sam and his Estes Bail Out at one of our local fields around 1995 or 96. The rocket is on the pad, and right next to the range box is a roll of toilet paper that I was using as recovery wadding. :eek:
What can I say, it's what we used on the asphalt parking lot at NKU in 1977. Part of the fun was watching the sheets come back to earth smoking. Luckily I discovered dog barf when I got back in for real in 2001.

kevinj 08-23-2013 05:59 AM

It's a bit heavy, and the chute has a tendency to not come out. I think I got 4 flights maybe.

kj

DavidQ 08-23-2013 02:50 PM

The Y-wing is reusable too - if you don't put too long of a delay in it.

My little brother (OK, 40-something), is on his third Y-wing, I think. The first two went up, came down too far and kissed the earth, then ejected. The third is a shelf queen, as a memorial to all the Y-wing pilots that perished in a too-heavy-for-the-mix-of-thrust-and-delay.

It can memorialize kevinj's Y-wing too.

Neal Miller 08-23-2013 06:35 PM

Quote:
Originally Posted by A Fish Named Wallyum
Which reminds me of another story. There's a picture of Sam and his Estes Bail Out at one of our local fields around 1995 or 96. The rocket is on the pad, and right next to the range box is a roll of toilet paper that I was using as recovery wadding. :eek:
What can I say, it's what we used on the asphalt parking lot at NKU in 1977. Part of the fun was watching the sheets come back to earth smoking. Luckily I discovered dog barf when I got back in for real in 2001.


Bill, don't fly the Y-Wing over an Asphalt Parking Lot. Your B6-4 field would be a better choice.
Also don't fall in love with the little plastic guns on top cockpit. I think they get ripped off
by the shroud lines or the shock cord. still one of the coolest flying hunks of styrene ever
molded.

dlazarus6660 08-24-2013 06:07 AM

I wish someone would clone this design using standard balsa and BT parts. Or #110 paperstock.

luke strawwalker 08-24-2013 06:10 PM

Quote:
Originally Posted by DavidQ
The Y-wing is reusable too - if you don't put too long of a delay in it.

My little brother (OK, 40-something), is on his third Y-wing, I think. The first two went up, came down too far and kissed the earth, then ejected. The third is a shelf queen, as a memorial to all the Y-wing pilots that perished in a too-heavy-for-the-mix-of-thrust-and-delay.

It can memorialize kevinj's Y-wing too.


Don't worry... they didn't score much better at the Battle of Yavin... :chuckle:

Later! OL JR :)

luke strawwalker 08-24-2013 06:18 PM

Quote:
Originally Posted by Bill
Wadding is reusable too.


Bill


Yep, reuse old wadding all the time.

When the club was flying out here regularly, Betty and Keira and I would go for a walk down through the launching field the next day and I'd return with a pocketful of used ignitor plugs and spent wadding...

The ignitor plugs sorta rain down around the pads... the densest concentration is right around the deflector, and they gradually thin out as they move outwards... Think the furthest I've found one from the pad was about ten feet away... (not that they don't go further, but there's a LOT of ground surface for them to get lost on the farther away from the pad you get, so you're probability of finding them goes WAY down...)

I got some funny looks loading burned and spotted wadding with holes in it into my rocket, topped by a sheet of new wadding... I always load the most badly burned pieces first (since they're going to take the hardest hit at ejection and thus won't be fit for another flight anyway, and it saves the newer, less damaged wadding to be recovered and used again...) Any particles that get past the ratty burned wadding just burns a hole in the stuff further up and make it ratty to be used next to the motor on the next flight...

Arguing that you can't reuse plugs... that's just SILLY... So long as it's not melted beyond recognition, OF COURSE they're reusable...

Most irritating thing was when I picked up a fistful of spent Estes ignitor wire thrown down around the pad after a launch one time... that stuff is BAD... that wire would play heck with the mouth and digestive system of our cows... So I had a discussion with the club advisor who did the setup and teardown, and he apologized and agreed to put out a couple five gallon buckets next to the pads for folks to toss spent ignitors and shooter wire into when they went to hook up their rocket for the next launch... and he made sure to bring it to everyone's attention to USE THE BUCKETS and not toss ignitor wire on the ground...

Later! OL JR :)


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