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  #21  
Old 02-29-2008, 04:44 PM
Rocket Doctor Rocket Doctor is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Shreadvector
A year os so ago, the instructions were only the current kits/sets and the PDFs were modern (like they were distilled directly from the original Word document) rather than scanned versions. The instructions now online are old kits and they appeared right around the time feelers were sent out looking for copies of the CATO and other kits from the not so distant past. I have no idea if this was in anticipation of 50th anniversary re-releases or an attempt to protect intellectual property rights. All I know is that the instructions online today are NOT an attempt to provide online support for current offerings.


The CATO was going to come back out, and, not for the 50th. But, when they didn't the cost evaluation, it was much too high and that project was scrapped. I had provided two CATO kits for that project, but, never got off the groud.

Another things about the instructions, when I did instructions, I put on them the most information possible, especially part numbers and dimensions. They were almost deleted from any future instructions for the fear of possible cloning, but, they stayed anyway.

There is enough sources for instructions such as JimZ to clone, my point was, there was no order to listed instructions and the wording could have been much better as to the kit names.

You can always contact Estes customer service and request instructions for a particular kit.
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  #22  
Old 02-29-2008, 04:50 PM
Rocket Doctor Rocket Doctor is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Daniel Runyon
The policy makes no business sense. If it is because they cannot favor one vendor over another then they should have an alphabetical listing of ALL of them that have online stores, and then also a state by state listing of ALL brick and mortars, including a "also check with your local Wal Mart". It just defies logic to not make it easy for your customers to get your products.



Yep... I noticed that too... it is just not a common sense way to organize things.



Agreed, and I made that very suggestion on the old forum. They should have clickable thumbnails that show larger images, and they should have complete descriptions of each rocket. As a matter of fact, it was the brief little "slow, realistic liftoffs" description that raised my curiosity and ultimately led me to fall completely in love with Berthas, which without said description I would probably have never been "inspired" by the model to begin with... even though the love that grew for them is not at all based on the liftoffs. In essense, the description matters... it is a significant inspirational trigger.



Using the right motor, the Baby bertha will take off like a bat out of .............!!!!!
I was working on a "D" powered Baby Bertha, lot's of nose weight, I have a few prototypes, I'll have to try ojne out someday. I was going to call it the Silver Bullet, because, that rocket would be smoking.........
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  #23  
Old 02-29-2008, 05:25 PM
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Mark II Mark II is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Rocket Doctor
It is/was Estes policy NOT to advertise, suggest or point you to their retailers. In part because of WM.

Also, if you go to the Estes website and look for instructions, they are not in numerical order, nor do the titles make any sense. Each name should start off with a capital letter. Check it out.
www.estesrockets.com clikc on educations then instructions Let me know what you think

Als, with the curent fromat, better descriptions and information should be proviced about each item, way too vague.

I have perused the instructions page quite extensively. I know what you mean by the filenames, but then, filenames are rarely consistent on any system. At least they have posted a lot of them, including those for classic kits, and other kit instructions that have not been previously available on any of the archive sites.

And I did unearth at least a couple of real jewels there, too. The set of instructions for the Astron Nighthawk from the Estes site is much clearer than the set at JimZ's site; you can actually read the Estes set (either JimZ, or Scott should get the Nighthawk instructions from the Estes site - they really are that much better.) The same is true for the Astron Invader instructs, even though the set at JimZ's site is fine, too. Many of the sets at the Estes site don't include fin templates, but some do (including the two that I mentioned). One other thing I noticed was that there seems to be some repetition there; I found plans for the same kit posted more than once, under different filenames. But that's a minor quibble. And I did find one or two sets of instructions - with fin template scans - for kits that are marked in red on the Expanded Estes Kit List from you know where. I even found instructions for the Centuri Micron there, too. And I'm not even close to being done with looking at all of the stuff that they have there.

Although there are still a lot of things that I wish they would post there (like, for example, decal scans and header card scans), all in all, I'm glad that they made the resource available. It's a good place to go mining for product documents (not just rocket kit instructions).

Mark
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  #24  
Old 02-29-2008, 07:32 PM
Rocket Doctor Rocket Doctor is offline
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at least they should be in numerical order with the proper titles. You shouldn't have to scroll down the entire list looking for something
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  #25  
Old 03-03-2008, 02:53 PM
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timorley timorley is offline
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[QUOTE=Rocket Doctor]Also, if you go to the Estes website and look for instructions, they are not in numerical order, nor do the titles make any sense. Each name should start off with a capital letter. Check it out.
[QUOTE]

Try this URL http://www.estesrockets.com/instructions/ and you can browse the directory and get a little better sort order. Numerical, uppercase alpha, and then lowercase. There are 391 files.
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  #26  
Old 03-03-2008, 04:42 PM
Rocket Doctor Rocket Doctor is offline
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[QUOTE=timorley][QUOTE=Rocket Doctor]Also, if you go to the Estes website and look for instructions, they are not in numerical order, nor do the titles make any sense. Each name should start off with a capital letter. Check it out.
Quote:

Try this URL http://www.estesrockets.com/instructions/ and you can browse the directory and get a little better sort order. Numerical, uppercase alpha, and then lowercase. There are 391 files.


Excellent....
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  #27  
Old 03-31-2008, 11:51 PM
GIJoe GIJoe is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Rocket Doctor
Using the right motor, the Baby bertha will take off like a bat out of .............!!!!!
I was working on a "D" powered Baby Bertha, lot's of nose weight, I have a few prototypes, I'll have to try ojne out someday. I was going to call it the Silver Bullet, because, that rocket would be smoking.........



Hey Doc just finished my "E" powered Baby Bertha, planned to fly as a Motor Alphabet project. I call it A to E Flat Jam. I flew it on an E in March and it really did scream. In April at our club launch I will fly it on from A to E. The nose weight will make the "A" Flight the hardest. If I get that nailed down the rest will be easy. Great design, I am also planning a 4" diameter version for 38mm motors G-I.
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  #28  
Old 04-01-2008, 01:28 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by GIJoe
The nose weight will make the "A" Flight the hardest. If I get that nailed down the rest will be easy.

Maybe you could just get a second Baby Bertha nose cone (PNC-60MS, I think), paint it to match your current one, and leave out the nose weight. Then just swap it in instead of the weighted one when you are flying the Baby on an A (or a B4).

Mark
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  #29  
Old 04-01-2008, 05:40 AM
Rocket Doctor Rocket Doctor is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by GIJoe
Hey Doc just finished my "E" powered Baby Bertha, planned to fly as a Motor Alphabet project. I call it A to E Flat Jam. I flew it on an E in March and it really did scream. In April at our club launch I will fly it on from A to E. The nose weight will make the "A" Flight the hardest. If I get that nailed down the rest will be easy. Great design, I am also planning a 4" diameter version for 38mm motors G-I.


You could get additional Baby Bertha nose cones and change the nose weight. I was working on a "D" powered BB and I was going to call it the "Silver Bullet", plenty of nose weight and I'm sure it would had flown like a "bullet" .

I have three prototypes, never finished them off.
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  #30  
Old 04-01-2008, 01:27 PM
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Tom Swift Tom Swift is offline
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You got me trying to figure out a way to add adjustable amounts of nose weight to a single NC. After a while I had an idea worked out involving epoxy, all-thread, a spacer tube, a nut, and varying numbers/weights/diameters of washers.

Then I used Google and found an almost identical solution had been done already.
http://www.chmara.com/bt/rocketry/m...gnosecone.shtml
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