Estes Comanche

Comanche

This Estes 3-stage rocket has become a classic over the years. With a D12-0 booster motor in the first stage, this rocket can achieve altitudes in excess of 2000' - that's pretty impressive for a model rocket on black powder motors.

In mine, I deviated from the stock paint scheme by using orange and yellow on the booster sections. I thought that would add some variety to the paint scheme while retaining bright colors for ease of tracking the lower stages.

This rocket's maiden flight was a minimal load with a C11-0 in the first stage and an A8-5 in the upper stage. I think there was an A10-0T in the middle stage, but I'm not sure. It later flew, at LDRS in 2006, on a full stack, D12 to C6 to C6. I had several people tracking stages, and was able to recover all three

The pic below is a close-up of the first stage. I added vent holes to better support the gap staging employed in the design. The dashed pink line denotes the forward end of the motor. The staging coupler doubles as the motor block.

In the pic below, the external motor hook can be seen. This was an extra I added to the design. Booster motors are notorious for ejecting themselves while the booster section stays affixed to the next stage and gets fried by that stage's rocket exhaust. So having positive motor retention in this stage ensures the booster section separates when the next stage comes up to pressure.

The hook was attached with epoxy and a little glass. While I filled over it, I failed to get good coverage and the outline of the bends in the hook show thru, although it seems magnified in this pic.

The dark green stripe is a water-slide decal. They were quite dried out when I applied them with the result that the edge flaked away leaving a jagged line

On the coupler, a short length of 1/4" masking tape can be seen. This adds a little friction to the fit of the coupler into the next stage up. This causes the booster to stay attached to the next stage a tad longer which helps ensure the next stage lights.

8-15-2010