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Having a fetish for the Estes Midgets, I
decided to upscale
the K-40 for D motors. This one had several flights, but the
upper stage was lost
at NARAM 45 in Evansville, Indiana, last seen heading into the sun on a
D12-7. RIP.
The decals were Tango Papa,
and were really sweet. As can be seen below, they look like they
were painted on.
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| Not to go without, a replacement Bidget
was soon in the works.
This one is a little truer to scale being a tad shorter than the
original
(which was stretched just a bit over scale height).
The booster was reused, and the new sustainer was
bashed from a
Baby Bertha kit picked up at a Hobby Lobby half-off sale.
Here's a closeup of the USA logo. A little
patriotic decor always
seems perfectly natural.
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Download plans for this rocket:
o Directions
and patterns, pdf
o Patterns
in
tif
format
(in case the pdf doesn't want to print right)
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The
replacement
Bidget
was
ready
to
fly at LDRS in Amarillo back in
2006. During staging, the pressure at booster motor burn-thru was
too much for the booster section, and the side of the tube ruptured,
destroying the booster. The tear was too close to the fin root
to possibly be repaired, so a new booster, to go along with the new
sustainer, was in order. Fortunately, the new sustainer lit, so
it
was not damaged.
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 Here's a liftoff
shot of the new sustainer atop the old booster prior to LDRS. |
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Here, the Bidget is loaded
on the pad just before its fateful flight at LDRS.
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Here's a good shot of the
new rocket and new booster on the pad.
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The Bidget climbs the rod
and accelerates skyward.
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Here's another liftoff
shot, this one courtesy of Tim Sapp.
There's no motor block in the sustainer - I can fly it on the longer E9
motors. So, it's possible to stage this thing D12 to E9, but I've
never done that. I want to some day, but the winds need to be
dead calm and I'll need lots of extra eyes to track it.
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8-26-2010
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