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Old 09-10-2021, 06:35 PM
tdracer's Avatar
tdracer tdracer is offline
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Default Estes Pro Patriot

I know it's long OOP, but I love this rocket with the 4x24mm cluster. I got my first one ~15 years ago. I'd gone to a hobby shop in Colorado that was going out-of-business, hoping to maybe find any collectable OOP kits. I struck out on kits, but there was a built Pro Patriot hanging from the ceiling. I asked if it was for sale - guy said "Yea, $35." SOLD!!!
It wasn't terribly well built or finished, but it was flight worthy and I immediately started flying it on a regular basis with 4x D12-7s.
Unfortunately about 10 years ago, at a late October launch, 3 of the four D12's CATO'd - two of them case ruptures. It pretty much blew the lower half of the rocket to pieces. I'd left the D12-7 motors in the car overnight, and it got below freezing. Apparently BP motors don't like that
Loving that 4 engine cluster, I built another using recovered bits (nose cone and the engine mount centering rings) and a generic 3" body tube. It required some mods since the 3" body tube was a little bigger in diameter than the Estes 3" tube (Estes is basically 3" OD, while this was a 3" ID), and I modified the engine mount for 3.75" long motors, and skinned the built up fins with 1/32" plywood instead of card stock. The result was even better - the four engine cluster E9-8 with the 3+ second burn was very impressive. Unfortunately Estes discontinued the E9 in favor of the E12, so the burn got a bit shorter but it was still an impressive flyer.

Unfortunately, at NSL earlier this year, the kevlar shock cord burned through - resulting in the nose cone and parachute floating off towards New Mexico and the rest coming in very hard - damaging it beyond reasonable repair.

I'd long had an opened but complete Pro Patriot kit as part of my collection, so I figured it was time to build it. I made a few mods during construction - once again it's provisioned for 3.75" motors, and I salvaged the plywood skinned fins from the crashed Patriot. When I cut apart the crashed Patriot to salvage the fins, I was shocked at the burn damage to the engine mount - with two engine mount tubes burned through, one so badly that the engine block was gone with only the engine hook preventing forward movement of the engine - and considerable burn damage to the centering rings. Since there was never a known CATO on the rebuilt Patriot, I assume the burn damage was due to the multiple ejection charges. So I used some aluminum tape to line the engine mount tubes above the engine block.

Pro Patriot kits are going for pretty serious money on ebay - but cloning one would be straightforward aside from the engine mount centering rings. Estes now sells the 3" body tube, and the PS2 Doorknob kit uses the same 3" body tube and nose cone (although you'll need more body tube, the Doorknob isn't long enough).
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Old 09-10-2021, 07:20 PM
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LeeR LeeR is offline
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I had that kit, but sold it to a fellow flier that hounded me forever to sell it. I gave in. I should have kept it.

Love clusters, but have not done a 4 x24mm. I have an upscale Astron Cobra that is 4x24, which makes it easier to build a big 4-finned Cobra with thru-wall fins than a 3-motor like the original (thru-wall to the valleys formed where motor tubes meet. The main body tube is BT-80. I have not flown it yet, but it was designed to fly on D12-7s. Initial flight might be C11s.
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Last edited by LeeR : 09-10-2021 at 08:11 PM.
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Old 09-10-2021, 09:28 PM
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jeffyjeep jeffyjeep is offline
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I built this one back in 2010. Great model!
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Old 09-11-2021, 05:47 PM
Initiator001 Initiator001 is offline
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Here's a thread on MY history of the original Estes Pro Series for those who have not read it before:

https://forums.rocketshoppe.com/sho...?t=8736&highlig
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