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  #21  
Old 03-21-2011, 12:38 PM
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gpoehlein gpoehlein is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ghrocketman
The REGULAR Maxi-Alpha was much better than the Maxi Alpha 3 as it had WOOD fins instead of those DUMB easily breakable ring-lok plastic jokes.

The best would be to offer the ORIGINAL Maxi-Alpha (not 3) with either basswood or ply TTW fins that can take some REAL power.

Shredded the fins off my buddy's Maxi Alpha 3 on its 2nd flight with a Compsite Dynamics 24mm Pro-Jet F something in 1988. He was displeased with the 125' on a D12-3 and I handed him the Composite Dynamics 80 n-sec F that stuck out of the mount bottom by like 4". Fins shredded off at about 250' but kept going up fairly straight.
His response was "Geez, thanx !". I told him to GLUE some REAL fins on with epoxy and quit whining.


What I did was download the Maxi Alpha plans (I think from Jimz) and kitbashed the Executioner into a Maxi Alpha. It was easy to add the TTW tabs to the Maxi Alpha fins, and I went ahead and installed E length motor hook as with the Executioner. Now I can launch my Maxi with Estes Ds and Es, as well as Apogee reloads (the 1" orange spacer to fly D motors in an E mount lets the RMS case fit fine even without modifiying the motor hook). Still want a Maxi Alpha III just because I like Alphas!

Greg
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  #22  
Old 03-21-2011, 01:51 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by John Brohm
Well that's what I did, and I also ended up changing the paint scheme as well. Flies great on an E15-4.
John,

Have you shown that pic to Doug Holverson? Ya know, his grandfather had a tractor

Doug

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  #23  
Old 03-21-2011, 02:03 PM
BoosterDude BoosterDude is offline
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I have two of the Maxi Alpha 3's that I fly often and have never broken a fin. I tend to only fly them in the warmer weather so maybe that helps. They fly great on Aerotech E18's.

But for a rocket you can throw together and fly, they're hard to beat.

My sons


My daughters
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  #24  
Old 03-21-2011, 02:17 PM
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I have an old Colossus, which is just a stretched Alpha 3. I never broke a fin with it during the time I was flying it. The plastic is brittle from being stored for years in the attic, so it can't be flown now, but it had quite a few flights on it years ago.

If you don't want to add a second chute, make sure you only fly it where it will land in thick tall grass or on broken ground. Don't recover on pavement, closely cropped lawns, or freshly grazed pastures. The more calm the wind, the better. Yep, I'm repeating stuff that's been said, but that's what everybody else does.
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  #25  
Old 03-21-2011, 03:09 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by tbzep
If you don't want to add a second chute, make sure you only fly it where it will land in thick tall grass or on broken ground. Don't recover on pavement, closely cropped lawns, or freshly grazed pastures. The more calm the wind, the better. Yep, I'm repeating stuff that's been said, but that's what everybody else does.


Or concrete feed lots and metal roofs... wanna guess how I know that?

Greg
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  #26  
Old 03-21-2011, 03:17 PM
Captain Ron Captain Ron is offline
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yeah Ive been upgrading my older Estes chutes by replacing the dot stickers with 1/4" label reinforcement circular stickers that we see on pre-made chutes now. I had several shroud lines pull out upon ejection with the older disk stickers..
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  #27  
Old 03-21-2011, 04:04 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Royatl
Stick-on, like the 2000 version. The original, indeed, had waterslide (which was a b***h to deal with out in the field when you were building one an hour for a demo flight!)


That's what I thought, and I hear you, with that much surface to cover, waterslide could be a pain.

I'm still not a big fan of the stick on decals though. I've got a few Estes Silver Comets laying around and I'd like to build at least one, but without waterslide decals I'm just not too excited about the prospect of building the rocket.

With the Maxi Alpha 3 though I can definitely live with the stick-on's.
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  #28  
Old 03-21-2011, 04:39 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Doug Sams
John,

Have you shown that pic to Doug Holverson? Ya know, his grandfather had a tractor

Doug

.


So I've heard. But if I understand things correctly, my Maxi Alpha is the wrong color...
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  #29  
Old 03-21-2011, 06:04 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by John Brohm
So I've heard. But if I understand things correctly, my Maxi Alpha is the wrong color...
His color scheme was Allis Chalmers?

I seem to recall several threads on Old Rockets about tractor paint and rockets, including John Deere, but couldn't remember who liked which brands. But I love the JD color scheme.
...
When I was a kid, we had a garden in the back yard. There was a small farm, maybe a mile from the house, and the old farmer would come by every spring and turn the garden for us. He had one of the old 2-cylinder diesels from John Deere. Those things were famous for their slow RPM (rate of fire ) and the loud popping noises they made under load..

Doug

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  #30  
Old 03-21-2011, 06:58 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by gpoehlein
Or concrete feed lots and metal roofs... wanna guess how I know that?

Greg


You'd think the manure would cushion the fall on the feed lot.
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