Yeah, more to this Max Saturday than meets the eye. I got tired of looking at the open post on my computer, so I made the executive decision to split it into two parts. I came pretty close to hitting the halfway point without even trying.
The next Max to chase glory would be the 2007 Estes rerelease. Talk about a no brainer. Surprised it took as long as it did to bring it around again. Still the same classic lines as before. A decal quibble or two, but overall the same great kit. I felt like I had to have an actual, official Max in the fleet, especially considering how beat up my clone had become.
This one left the pad going in the same direction as the previous flight, but stayed on our side of the flightline. Ejected as expected at apogee, then began heading quickly away from us. Some were thinking that it was heading for the trees on the side of the road, but it appeared to be dropping at a rate that would bring it down well short of anything approaching trouble.
The Excelsior Goony Max flew next. This was a very early build for review back in the EMRR days. I treed the first one, low hanging fruit, but far enough out of reach that I'd need to come back the next day with a pole to snag it. When I got back the next day, someone else had done just that. Phred didn't like that and sent me another decal sheet so I could build it and maybe not lose it this time. With that being the plan, I opted for a 24mm motor mount instead of the 18mm that came in the Baby Bertha kit. (This came as a big surprise in a Goony drag race at NARAM one year.)
This rocket gets it done. It's somewhat overpowered, but the monster fins make it very forgiving at the same time. This flight looked like trouble almost as soon as it left the rod. It windcocked right at a fairly extreme angle. We were set up fairly close to the north edge of the field and the Goony Max looked like it was going to easily clear the road, and actually appeared to. At ejection it began drifting back toward us, but at a rate that appeared too lazy to actual make it. Then the wind picked up and it began to move more swiftly back our way. In the end it landed surprisingly close to the entrance, easily my longest walk on the day.
Sticking with the Excelsior theme, next flight would be the Fat Max, the Estes Fat Boy based bird. I'd long since run out of my Fat boy stash, but another flyer was divesting himself of low power kits and had one available. I built it while watching a movie with my wife.
Fat Max was another that I forgot to take a glamour shot of. Too bad. It's a great looking decal set. Flight was on a D12-5 and followed a similar path to the Goony Max, although not as severe an arc to the right. After topping out near 1000', ejection came as it tipped over and Fat drifted over the flightline, coming to a soft rest in the thick grass behind us.
Next max in the lineup was the E12-6 powered Der Big Red Max, which hadn't flown since NARAM in 2013. This project was a no-brainer, perfect for me. In 2007 when Estes reintroduced Der Red Max, I bought two with the express intent of building one as a DBRM. I also swapped out the 18mm motor mount for the 24mm mount and installed the longer engine hook to accept the E motors.
No doubt this one was the straightest flight of the day. An absolute arrow to 1200'+, winding up as a dot in the sky with a smoke trail. Very Goblin-esque. Appeared to eject just as it slowed, then dropped straight down to recover behind the pads. If it gets any better than that, I missed the memo.
The next three flights would be StickerShock Max variants, starting with the newest, Der Blue Max. I'd finished this the previous week and hadn't initially cared for the blue I chose for the nose cone. Still not my favorite feature of this bird, but it's growing on me.
This had originally been a Max without a paint scheme and I'm not sure how that happened. It was a well built D motor body and had been finished in a metallic orange, so it's possible that I'd built it with the intention of making it the Orange Max, only to go with a more traditional orange for that decal set. Instead I sprayed the body with a coat of silver, then candy blue metallic. I was really happy with the finished product. It shows off the StickerShock decals nicely.
D12-5 flight. Followed the same arrow straight path as the DBRM to around 1000', and looked good doing it. Ejection occurred as it slowed down and it recovered nicely in the grass behind the pads.
At this point I was really starting to question the wisdom of attempting this on an asphalt parking lot. In August. I was starting to drag, and I still had three Maxes to go. Not willing to be a buttercup, I grabbed the Dark Max, another StickerShock product. This decal set was bought in a two-for-one sale along with the Orange Max. An excellent deal. The Dark Max had a 24mm motor mount, and flew on an E12-6. Definitely a high altitude bird.
No windcocking here, at least not that we could see. The Dark Max left the pad heading straight. For the sun. I assume the altitude was impressive, but all I saw was nothing. I scanned the skies for a parachute, but saw nothing. I had no idea where to begin looking, but since the previous flights had all recovered pad left, I headed out that way. I'd been smart enough to use a small nylon chute for this flight, so I hoped my forethought would be enough for the Dark Max to not reach the road. As luck would have it, I was heading straight for it. There were two baseball diamonds built back to back to meet in the outfields. The Dark Max split the difference and landed without drama in the no man's land between the opposing outfields. I was never a power hitter, so it was good to clear the fence for a change.
It was nice to have the Stickershock Orange Max up next because I thought we might be able to see the flight, unlike the Dark Max. The Orange Max drew the cluster card and would fly with a 2xC6-5 load. And look good doing it.
Compared to the Dark Max flight, the Orange Max was a sedate walk in the park. (Provided that the park was asphalt that was baking you slowly but thoroughly.) A mostly straight flight that angled back over the flightline slightly, the Orange Max flew somewhere close to the 1000' mark, popped the chute perfectly at apogee, and drifted back across the field to the left, nowhere near the baseball field.
The Mega Red Max was supposed to be the penultimate flight of the day, but it didn't quite turn out that way. Still, the G80-7 would be the largest of the day by a longshot. There's always a lot of nerves involved in a project like this from start to finish, then flight to flight. I don't trust myself working with epoxy, although I've gotten better with time. Everything about the MDRM was epoxy once I got the Fin skins in place. It was beyond sturdy, and had previously flown on an F50 on this same field, so I was fairly confident that it could survive the G motor. Fairly. Yeah.
The MDRM left the pad into the wind to the right, which was expected with those sail-like fins. It made a slow climb to an estimated 750', tipped over, and popped the massive chute. Absolutely no drama after all the drama. Then again, I guess that's good. Drama would likely leave a mark that wouldn't sand out. It landed near the access road, but not close enough to cause a pucker. Very much a carbon copy of the first flight on the F five years earlier, but quite a bit higher.
At this point I could have called it all finished and dropped into the seat of the Toaster for a cold drink from the cooler, but while I was readying things for packing I found my missing super glue. Thirty seconds later the broken fin on my Miniscule Max, a Mosquito-size BT-5 creation that was supposed to start the day, was fixed, loaded with a 1/2A3-2T, and on the way to the pads.
I swore I took an on-pad picture, but one has never appeared, and it's possible that I was so tired that I just thought I took it. At any rate, it flew dead straight off the pad to 300ish feet. I heard the ejection, but never saw a thing. No one did, but someone said they thought they heard something hit over behind the cars, which is exactly where I found the Miniscule Max. Now I was REALLY done, in every way.
In the final tally, I wound up flying 19 Max flights on the day, from motors ranging from 1/2A to G and everything in between. Someone mentioned, too late, that if I'd made the last flight on a 1/4A I would have completed a 1/4A to G brace, a term I'd not heard since my QUARK days. Would have been a cool nod back to the guys I don't seem to see anymore, but there's always my upcoming Goony launch. I should be ready again in a few short years.
Awesome flight posts and pictures!!
ReplyDeleteThanks. Most exhausting day I've ever spent flying. The combination of the heat and trying to get everything flown wiped me out, but still a good time.
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