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  #1  
Old 06-25-2018, 12:25 PM
burkefj's Avatar
burkefj burkefj is offline
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Default Skylab RC Rocket glider

I always thought the Centuri Skylab rocket from the early 70's was neat but never had one. Being left alone for the weekend my mindsim got the better of me and decided to do an RC rocket glider themed version.

I sat down and did some mass balancing Sims to convince myself weight and dimensions would work and the location if the wing and lateral stability, then looked in my parts drawer. I had some 2" tubing and 2.6". I picked up a bt20 nose cone pack and two white motor tubes for the tail thruster.

I thought styrofam coffee cups might work for the transition and nose and lo and behold the base of the cups were 2", same as my body tube. I also found some small paper cups and they nested in the base of the foam cups to extend the nose. I doubled the foam cups for support and used a Depron disk in between them for stiffness and glued a coupler through the base for a shoulder. I doubled the cups on the transition as well.

I'm using an 11" chord Depron wing with two carbon spars. Glide tests are done and it is looking good. I picked up some gold monokote trim for the wing/solar panels because I think it looks better than silver. It's 43" long and 27.5" span and 7.25 oz dry, rtf should be right around 12.5 oz , no nose weight was required. the RX and battery are mounted in the transition section.

I picked up some aluminum tube for rail button standoffs because the nose diameter is larger than the rear by 1/2". I put some skids on the bottom to make it level with the nose when landing. Here she is with most of the markings, just need some lettering from stickershock to finish it off. I was surprised the gold trim is quite a bit thicker/heavier and added an ounce to the weight, but quite a bit of stiffness as well. It's much thicker/heavier than silver trim.

Frank
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  #2  
Old 06-25-2018, 08:07 PM
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As always Frank that came out beautiful. Totally different vibe from your other stuff. Look forward to the flight video!
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Old 06-28-2018, 09:55 PM
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Got the stickershock decals to finish off the skylab RC RG and got in some test flights today, was a bit more windy than I wanted and I had to keep the nose down into the headwind to keep it from balooning but overall not bad.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6YC...eature=youtu.be
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Old 06-28-2018, 11:30 PM
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Very nice!

Glad it didn't burn up over Australia!

Later! OL J R
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Old 07-09-2018, 05:51 PM
Saxguy1000 Saxguy1000 is offline
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Very good looking model. Do you fly it on the launch, too?
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Old 07-09-2018, 05:54 PM
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Thanks, yes I do, it was particularly windy that day and it tends to pitch away from the wind so you have to push it up wind, I did one downwind launch and it did the opposite, with no wind it's fairly straight boosting, that's part of the problem with tail mounted motors, you launch slightly tail heavy and then it's nose heavy on burnout. The tail heaviness tends to accentuate the pitch due to wind. It's not a problem just need to be ready to drive it where you want. Once it has the boost angle it's pretty hands off.

Frank
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Originally Posted by Saxguy1000
Very good looking model. Do you fly it on the launch, too?
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