Back in 2001, one of my duties at work at night was running a large printer. It was pretty fast, but had an unfortunate tendency toward page breaks and jams, so I needed to be back in the room with it for several hours a night. I had my radio to listen to Loveline, and would bring in my building supplies and cut out fins. This was the start of my Estes Astron Orbital Transport. I used basswood for the whole thing, (not the glider,) and even bought a set of OT decals from the legendary JimZ. I worked on it over the years, but finally finished the project this spring. I'd been concerned about how it would fly with all the added weight from the basswood that was gathered at the butt end of the rocket. Because of this I kind of lost interest in getting it flying before now. It would be flight #6 on the day for me, the second first flight kit in a row. C6-5 powered, the OT left the pad laboriously, and immediately started wiggling its butt as it struggled skyward. The flight path was on an arc to the right of the pad, and it never came close to maxing out the potential of the C6-5, but at ejection, everything came apart as it was supposed to, the body coming down via chute and the glider fluttering to earth. Yeah, needs some work.

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__________________
Bill Eichelberger
NAR 79563

http://wallyum.blogspot.com/

I miss being SAM 0058

Build floor: Estes - Low Boom SST Semroc - Marauder, Shrike, SST Shuttle

In paint: Canaroc Starfighter Scorpion Centuri Mini Dactyl Estes F-22 Air Superiority Fighter, Multi-Roc, Solar Sailer II, Xarconian Cruiser Semroc Cyber III

Ready to fly: Estes - Solar Sailer II Semroc - Earmark