ORIGINAL: Carl.E

Hahahahaha..... ah, the memories.

Mike, that member was me. I had a Shrike 10 with a 25FP for starters..not fast enough. MVVS 28 with a rear pipe, better, but I wanted more. Estes D rocket engine in the back with an electronic switch made from a servo control board to fire it using a spare channel and the servo battery. Now we're talking.[8D]

I started off using C-sized motors to make sure my thrust angles were good enough to keep the plane from doing anything funny when I lit the rocket, then moved up to D's. I don't remember how much thrust they put out, but it's plenty to see the plane accelerate from full throttle and hear the engine unload even more when it's touched off. My first one just had a balsa wedge with the rocket mounts epoxied on top between the fins. That one had a spectacular crash when the spars in the left wing failed during the 5th or 6th time using the rocket boost. I built another using spruce spars and LE's and integrated the rocket mount into the fuse right under the elevator, keeping it as streamlined and as close to the thurst-line of the engine as possible. I had an E-sized mount in it, but couldn't find any E's, so I stuck with D12's. (E motors are the same diameter and D's, just longer) That one worked great, but ended up going straight in at full throttle when it didn't pull out of a split-S. I found the remains of that Shrike and took a picture to show the rocket mount.

After the 2nd one went in I'd had my fill of speed for about a year or so.... then I built a Diamond Dust. I'm on my 2nd one of those now too now that I retired the first one after over 100 flights. No rocket boosting in those though.

Carl