Uncle Mikes Rocket Shack to continue Starlight Rocketry.
 

Well, this is good news!

Good news, Mike & Bob!

I am very heartened and pleased to hear this news, Mike! Also, I have a suggestion (please see below) that would make your re-issued Starlight kits even more attractive to model rocketeers, and particularly to group users such as schools, Scout Troops, 4-H Clubs, and other youth groups.

I hate to see good products disappear from the market *only* for want of the means to continue their production rather than lack of demand. While I like plastic nose cones, I have no problems with balsa ones, and since Bob's kits began with balsa nose cones, you would simply be taking them "back to their roots," so to speak. Please keep us posted here as you bring them back into production! Here is my suggestion:

Since many of the Starlight kits fly well on 13 mm mini motors, offering mini motor adapter mounts with them (which need not include motor clips, if they are built as described below) would enable group users to save significant amounts of money on motors, *and* it would also enable them to fly the rockets from smaller fields if necessary.

The Starlight Sparrow "flying wing" boost-glider would also benefit from this, since it could use an ejectable, streamer-recovered 13 mm motor mount (whose motor mount tube would be as long as an 18 mm motor) that would prevent the littering of flying fields with spent motor cases that might not be easy to find and pick up after flying sessions.

For the other 13 mm mini motor-compatible Starlight kits (as well as for the Sparrow kit), the mini motor adapter mounts could be built so that the motor mount tube extends 1/4" behind the rear centering ring. This would enable the motor to be secured in the mount simply by wrapping masking tape around the end of the motor mount tube as well as around the protruding end of the motor. For several kits other than the Sparrow, Apogee, Queeze-Bee, Asteroid Probe, and Micro (and the booster stage of the Whiplash 2), the mini motor adapter mounts could be their normal, shorter length if glued in place. The other Starlight kits that fly well on mini motors include the following:


Apogee (although BT-50 size, it could use A10-3T motors)

Firestar (it could use a normal, shorter 13 mm motor mount)

Hyperon (it could use a normal, shorter 13 mm motor mount)

Micro (it could use a "tied-on" rear-ejection motor mount with streamer recovery)

Nano (it could use a normal, shorter 13 mm motor mount)

Nimbus (it could use a normal, shorter 13 mm motor mount)

Spike (it could use a normal, shorter 13 mm motor mount)

Asteroid Probe (although BT-60 size, it could use A10-3T motors)

Whiplash 2

Jayhawk

Queeze-Bee (although BT-50 size, it could use A10-3T motors)

Zippy (it could use a normal, shorter 13 mm motor mount)


I hope this information will be helpful.

I second the mini-motor ideas.

I would not want the kits to include both 18mm and 13mm mounts as that would increase the cost.

The ideal would be separate 18mm and 13mm versions, but that necessarily doubles the number of SKUs.

Would having a bulk pack of 13mm mounts or adapters available serve your purpose? I also note that Estes does not currently sell a 13mm motor mount outside of kits, so this may have a broad appeal.


Bill

That is what I had in mind (UMRS offering 13 mm mounts in bulk quantities, to be sold with [but in separate packaging] bulk-packaged Starlight kits if the buyers so desire), and I apologize for not expressing it more clearly in my posting above. This 13 mm motor mount option would enable the Starlight kits to be of service to group users with large flying fields (who could fly them on 18 mm motors) as well as to group users with small flying fields and/or small budgets.

One other suggestion, Mike, if I may indulge--please keep the brown virgin kraft paper body tubes in your re-issued Starlight kits. This would give both your customers and you two advantages:

[1] The brown virgin kraft paper tubes are stiffer and stronger than the white tubes (they're made of recycled kraft paper, whose shorter, chopped fibers make the tubes softer and less strong). The brown tubes make for more durable rockets.

[2] Because they are stiffer and stronger, the brown virgin kraft body tubes are more resistant to being "ovaled," creased, and dented in shipment and storage. This would save you money and time from replacing damaged body tubes. Bob has mailed me boxes of kits that were packed so full that the kits "acted as their own cushioning," and even though the boxes often arrived with dents and creases that were picked up in transit, the kits' body tubes (as well as their other parts) were undamaged.