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-   -   Estes “Follow Apollo” (http://www.oldrocketforum.com/showthread.php?t=16373)

georgegassaway 12-11-2016 10:58 AM

Estes “Follow Apollo”
 
Estes had a “Follow Apollo” promotion in during the Apollo lunar program. The idea being to launch a model rocket on the same day as a Saturn-V Apollo mission.

Seems like they mentioned it in Model Rocket News. But of the few scans of old issues I looked in, I do not see it there.

Can anyone post a link to anything in MRN or elsewhere about Estes “Follow Apollo”?

I did find a link to this brochure:



The rest of the pages to it are found on a link on this page: http://www.vintageestesrockets.com/...tron-markII.htm

But I do not recall seeing that brochure back then. I thought I saw Follow Apollo in MRN or some other Estes publication.

For that matter, does anyone have a better scan of that brochure? The scan is pretty small, have to enlarge it to 200% for most of the text to be readable.


ghrocketman 12-11-2016 02:06 PM

George-
My memory of this is about the same as yours.
I have the old issues of MRN and think this went about as far as the Cylon Raider kit did...a bit of hoopla then nothing.

eljefe 12-11-2016 08:04 PM

You should try filling out and sending in that application form. With a note apologizing that it got stuck on the bottom of your "to do" pile...for almost 46 years.

Heck, I wasn't even alive when Apollo 14 happened.

mojo1986 12-11-2016 09:01 PM

MRN Vol 11 No 1 had a special 'Follow Apollo' order form insert, but no reference in the copy itself to 'Follow Apollo 14'.

MRN Vol 11 No 2 did have a short reference to 'Follow Apollo 15', with a suggestion to launch a rocket (any rocket, not necessarily a Saturn V) within two weeks of the planned launch date for Apollo 15 of July 26.

Joe

rocketguy101 12-12-2016 10:25 AM

1 Attachment(s)
Quote:
Originally Posted by mojo1986
MRN Vol 11 No 1 had a special 'Follow Apollo' order form insert, but no reference in the copy itself to 'Follow Apollo 14'.

MRN Vol 11 No 2 did have a short reference to 'Follow Apollo 15', with a suggestion to launch a rocket (any rocket, not necessarily a Saturn V) within two weeks of the planned launch date for Apollo 15 of July 26.

Joe


This must be why I couldn't find the order form :D :D

Vol 12 No 2 had a similar blurb about following Apollo 16.

mojo1986 12-12-2016 10:41 AM

Also: Vol 12 No 4 'Follow Apollo 17'.

georgegassaway 12-12-2016 11:20 PM

Thanks for the replies.

The only one I’ve found online was Vol. 12 #4, for Apollo-17



But that was very fitting, because Sunday, 44 years later, I Followed Apollo 17 with a flight of my own model, to the minute! And that is why I was asking about Estes' Follow Apollo promotion here.


But unlike the original Follow Apollo, I didn’t fly the day the mission launched.


Because Sunday the 11th was not the 44th anniversary of the launch.


Here’s my re-creation of what Apollo-17 did on December 11th, 1972:




“Challenger” with Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt, landed at 2:55 PM EST. This model’s first takeoff was before 2:55 PM EST, and last landing was after 2:55, so it was flying (or maybe just landed) at 2:55). It was too cold to mess around with trying to land at exactly 2:55, and I wanted to try a few landings on the same battery so as to try to get some good landing footage “kicking up some dust” (yeah, a quote from Apollo-11, but all the landings dealt with the dust). And hey, one of those landings might have been at 2:55.

Here it is higher up:


Here is a link to a YouTube video of the Apollo-17 anniversary model flights/landings:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YqrBkXjkWgY

The 1/16 scale model, which I’ve posted about elsewhere, is a “work in progress”, getting more accurate over time. A recent upgrade was a facelift for the crude Ascent Stage, till the pretty Ascent stage is done up. Have a mold curing for casting more accurate landing pads.

More info on the model here: http://tinyurl.com/LunarModuleQuad






Next "Follow Apollo" Lunar Landing I'll try for, weather permitting, will be Feb 5th, Apollo 14.

mojo1986 12-13-2016 07:56 AM

Very cool, George!

Joe

ghrocketman 12-13-2016 04:46 PM

Very impressive, George !

It's amazing what can be done with micro R/C equipment now for so little $$.
When I first got into R/C aircraft in 1978 equipment was totally reliable, but other than the EXTREMELY expensive Cannon R/C micro gear, R/C gear was still quite bulky and heavy.

georgegassaway 12-14-2016 01:15 AM

Quote:
Originally Posted by ghrocketman
Very impressive, George !

It's amazing what can be done with micro R/C equipment now for so little $$.
When I first got into R/C aircraft in 1978 equipment was totally reliable, but other than the EXTREMELY expensive Cannon R/C micro gear, R/C gear was still quite bulky and heavy.


Thanks. Yes, R/C gear used to be so big and heavy, at least for digital. My first R/C gear was an ACE "Baby" rudder-only system with a magnetic actuator. IIRC it was about 1.5 to 2 ounces all-up. I made a rudder-only R/C B/G in May 1980 which was my first successful R/C B/G. By August, I got a Cannon 2 channel flight pack and built a model for it. 1.5 ounces for 2 servos and one receiver, plus 1.25 ounces for the 110 4.8V mAh Nicad pack, for around $200. Used that in a 144 sq in R/C B/G that flew so nicely that I had my first R/C thermal flight, over 10 minutes, which was stunning as i'd never even flown an R/C sailplane in a thermal before.

Nowadays, for R/C gear that will work very reliably for E6 powered R/C R/G's, the servos are 5 grams each, long-range receiver about 6 grams, and 110 mAh LiPo 7.4V Battery pack weighing about 7 grams, for an all-up weight of 23 grams (I will note the servos are Dymond D-47's that can accept 7.4 volts. Most other servos fry their feedback pots on 7 volts so would need to add a 5V voltage regulator).
The total cost for those components would be about $80.

Of course there is much smaller radio gear, and lighter, which can be suited for lower power R/C RBG's. And less expensive servos than the D-47's ($20 each), but they are superb servos with great quality, reliability, and power for their size/weight. Some of the tiniest servos have reliability issues (like dying). And some of the ultra-cheap Rx's have crappy range, and I do not mean ones meant for indoors or “park flyers”, I mean ones that are supposed have "full range" that crap out at 1000 feet or less.

To end this message..... I made up an animated gif of the last landing on Sunday.



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