Estes Blue Sapphire BT55 Upscale Build.

[Back_at_it]

Finally made some additional progress on this build. The weather held out just long enough to get paint on the fins. Not too bad of a job but I did have a little bit of bleed through in one spot. It should clean up with a little alcohol.

Tomorrow will be vinyl and the recovery system. Hoping to fly this one at our club launch Sunday.

 

[bad_idea]

I am not generally a fan of cosmetic fins, and I was initially quite underwhelmed with the Blue Sapphire, but I have to admit those are some damned rakish fins, enough that the design is growing on me in spite of myself.

 

[Back_at_it]

I am not generally a fan of cosmetic fins, and I was initially quite underwhelmed with the Blue Sapphire, but I have to admit those are some damned rakish fins, enough that the design is growing on me in spite of myself.

I agree that the fin design on this rocket is certainly a love it or hate it. I personally didn't care for it when it was first released which is one of the many reasons I passed up on buying one. When I logged on they were still available but at $21 for a BT50 I passed. Funny thing is that I liked the paint scheme on the face card but now that mine is painted, I'm not sure I really care for it. For the time being I will finish this one out in stock Estes colors but my 3.0" upscale will be something different.

 

[Back_at_it]

Bringing this one to a close. Cut vinyl for the roll pattern and stripe. Anniversary decal was printed by StickerShock23.




Next I added approx. 6' of 1/8" elastic for the shock cord.



Final weight with wadding and a 15" nylon chute is 3.7oz or 106g.

 

[Back_at_it]

Back to wrap this build thread up with a flight report. First flight was on a C11-5. Rocket left the pad hard. Flight was dead straight with apogee around 450ish feet to my calibrated eye Flew with a 15" plastic chute and had a nice soft landing about 200ft from the pad. No damage to the rocket.

 

[bobby_hamill]

8.25" upscale.

that would make a nice plug for a 2 part fiberglass mold