Estes Olympus - 46mm body tube?

[George Rachor]

Picked up an Estes Olympus kit at Hobby Lobby. Noticed that it has a Body tube that is 46mm in diameter. Planning to upgrade it to 29mm motor mounts so need resized centering rings and considering TTW fins. Is 46mm unique in the Estes line?

 

[mh9162013]

It's probably Estes truncating the decimal and the Olympus uses a BT-60 tube.

 

[BEC]

It's probably Estes truncating the decimal and the Olympus uses a BT-60 tube.

George,

Nope, not BT-60.

Olympus is BT-65. It and the Green Eggs are the only two current models that use that size tube. The plastics are identical except for color between Green Eggs and Olympus. Olympus is longer and set up, stock, for a 24x95mm motor (Estes Es) and has four fins. Green Eggs is set up for 24x70 motors (C11, D12) and has three TTW fins.

So….almost unique.

 

[mh9162013]

I stand corrected.

I confused 46.1 and 41.6...

 

[George Rachor]

Ah.. Great to know..

 

[BEC]

I stand corrected.

I confused 46.1 and 41.6...

Yeah…can’t get a large egg into BT-60. Olympus and Green Eggs are egg lofters by design.

 

[George Rachor]

Ah.. Saw the Green Eggs in the catalog but didn't realize the body tube size was 46mm. That explains it. Green Eggs looks fun!

 

[BEC]

I’ve built them both, but I actually favor Green Eggs. I just like the look better, and the TTW fins add some strength. My Olympus has uncharacteristically soft balsa for fins, too.

You’ll find that you’ll need to build up the shoulder of the nose cone and the payload tube end of the payload adapter to get a nice firm fit of the parts. Otherwise, not much to mention. Straightforward builds, both of them.

 

[sl98]

I'm pretty sure the Olympus body tube was also used in the Estes D-Region Tomahawk (2037). Package specs on the D-Region are 1.8" (45.7mm). I've fit a D-Region nose cone in Olympus BT and Olympus nose cone in D-Region BT and they are a match.

 

[techrat]

I like the look of the Olympus, as long as you eschew the suggested paint scheme and don't bother with the Zeus decal. Unfortunately, mine managed to find the only body of water for miles, and I didn't swim out to retrieve it. But, a trip to Hobby lobby and it was entirely replaceable. Flies very nice on a D12-5, but unless you've actually got an egg in the payload bay, cut a decent sized hole in the parachute.

 

[K'Tesh]

The D-Region Tomahawk's body tube was a HBT-1800, but it could be considered to be a heavy walled version of the BT-65.

The Cineroc's plastic camera body was a plastic version of the BT-65, and except for being clear, the Omega's payload section is a perfect fit.

 

[mh9162013]

Estes uses a BT-65 body tube for the Olympus, the Green Eggs, and a plastic version for the camera body of the Cineroc. These are not BT-60's

I know, BEC already corrected me (see above).