Python

For the new bird, I planned for the more powerful motor by upgrading the included motor mount tube to the thicker-walled Vaughn Bros. version and cloning the AeroTech Labyrinth^® baffle system in the extension. You can see the components in the photo at left along side the blue motor mount tube included in the kit. The ejection baffle was easily done with a pair of 1" square pieces of ¹/16"-thick plywood notched half-way, and one of the centering ring holes. I also changed to a nylon 'chute from Rogue, and mounted the whole recovery system with their light duty Kevlar. Even with the added weight, she's still way over stable.

The finish is Top Flite LustreKote, and though it softened the fins pretty badly, they came back to solid after a few days, and the overall results were spectacular. I wish I would have filled that vicious body tube groove and I got a couple of "fish eyes" in the red section, but the gold radar dome and fin tips I did by hand in Testors enamel look great under the LustreKote clear coat. As I didn't want to ruin that stellar paint job with a bunch of crappy decals, I only applied the ones that wrap completely around the body. The super-smooth paint, beveled fins and long nose all combine to give this girl an unbelievably low C_d of .65, so she can run an E15, too.

Her first flight on the D motor was almost perfect, the 'chute tangled but no damage was done on recovery. Somehow, I'd gotten paint on the 'chute and it had a bit of trouble deploying, but she did fine next time. Her E15 ride was perfect; even though I loaded her with a 4 second delay engine, ejection was only a little early. I flew her on another D12-5, too, to another perfect flight, and then braved the Gods and sent her up on an E30-7. She leaped off the pad, flew rock-stable to a perfectly timed ejection. This time, though, the charge blew the baffle system out and partially melted the 'chute. She dropped a fin on landing, but she repaired easily. To test out my fin repair, I sent her up on an E15-7 to a late ejection, but good recovery. I used conventional wadding, and that seemed to work fine.

Her next flight was on a C5-3; dumb idea, but the winds were too much for anything else. She barely made 150 feet and ejected late, but recovered intact. I've stuck to 24 mm motors since, her next flight on a D12-3 going beautifully.

She languished in the box for a long time, but I finally got around to flying her on one of the new reloads in her matrix. She went on the D15, and boy, is that a mover for her. Ejection was just a bit early, but the flight was perfect and she sustained no damage. I did cut the ejection charge down just a little too much; the wading was still in the tube when I recovered her.

For her first F motor, I left the entire ejection charge in the F24-7. This flight was also a test of my PerfectFlite microAlt 4600 altimeter, so she received an ¹/8th inch hole in the payload bay just ahead of the coupler. I fitted the altimeter in the nose with a piece of R/C foam, being sure to leave the transducer exposed. She screamed of the pad to her highest altitude to date, and deployed just before apogee. Upon return the altimeter was beeping 1,460 feet, very close to what the simulations were telling me.

Her next flight was a flawless effort on the E28. Deployment was just past apogee and she suffered no damage. I managed not to screw up this time, and got flight data from the altimeter; those of you with PerfectFlite data capture software can download the file at left, or you can view a graph of the flight here. Max. altitude was 1,080 feet, well below the simulation, as was the max. velocity of 280 ft./sec. Descent rate was a quite desirable 16 ft./sec. She's gone again on the E28-7 without the altimeter.

Specifications

Statistic	Claimed	Bash
Length	33.25"	34.125"
Diameter	1.84"	1.84"
Weight	5.6 oz.	7¾ oz.

Engine(s)	AGL (ft.)	Speed (ft./s)	Accel (Gs)
D12-5	440	155	10.7
D13-4	580	195	8.6
D15-4	520	185	11.1
E15-7	1,345	325	9.9
E28-7	1,280	390	17.7
E30-7	1,290	405	17.6
F24-7	1,540	395	14.0