Renegade Extreme

Jason Hommrich's DESCON-14 Entry

Ever since I first saw a picture of the Estes Renegade, I knew that this was a rocket that needed more power then Estes gave it. When the Renegade finally came out I immediately picked up 2 kits and was overjoyed to see that the body tubes were BT-60. When I got home, I went straight to the computer and fired up RockSim to see how I was going to modify these 2 Kits. The first kit I kept pretty stock(except for adding C6's to the side pods on the booster). But the second kit I had something special planned for.

Originally, the plan was going to be to put E9's or F21's into the side pods along with 3 C6's in the body tubes for the booster and sustainer. But I quickly decided to make the side pods for D12's instead so I could more closely match the burn duration's of the motors. First order of business to redo the fins out of a stronger material and to change the fins from surface mount to though-the-wall mounts. I ended up cutting a set of fins out of 3/32" aircraft plywood and sanded a small 1/8" bevel on the leading edge of the sustainer fins

At this point, I cut the slots in the body tubes and checked for fit with the fins then I put the fins down and went on to the motor mounts.

Since 3-18mm motor mounts fit nicely in a BT-60 tube, all I needed to do with the booster was to cut a couple more tubes the same size as the one that Estes supplied. But for the sustainer I cut new, 6 inch long, tubes so I would have plenty of room for the TTW tabs to be epoxied in-between the tubes. After lining up the TTW slots and the valleys in the MMT's I epoxied the fins into place, checking regularly to make sure that they were straight and in line-with the matching fins on the booster, then to seal off the gaps between the MMT's and body tubes I used wadded up toilet paper coated with epoxy.

Flight Log

After a month of waiting for a clear launch day, I finally launched on August 29th.

Engines used:

Booster: 3-Quest C6-0's, 2-Estes D11-P's

Sustainer: 3-Estes C6-7's

Launch went great with all 5 motors in the booster lighting but I did notice a bit of a corkscrew motion as it went up. The Quest C6-0's had no problem lighting the Estes C6-7's and the Sustainer was lit but flying slightly at a angle then its flight path on the booster, but it still flew good and ejection and landing was perfect. Unfortunately, the booster was damaged on landing with on of the side pods and nacelles coming off but it is easily repaired. The only reason I could see for the corkscrew action is that the only thing keeping the booster up to the sustainer was the taped together motors. In the future, I am going to modify this so that there are toothpicks glued in the booster to help align the booster and sustainer and to keep the sustainer from flexing too much.

GUEST's OPINION:
01/05 - "This was a great modification/review. After my Renegade's booster section finally suffered serious damage to the motor mount and booster tubes I decided to try something similar to this review, but I also wanted to slow the tumble recovery of the booster section. Mine was going to use a 24mm mount for a D12-0 in the center of the booster, plus one D12-5 on each side in the booster tubes. I made new booster tubes out of some BT-50 tubes I had lying around and epoxied an engine block up inside of each, using a D12 to push the block up inside so that only about 1/2" of engine was exposed. I re-used the nose cones from the first build since they were okay. I attached the booster tubes to the rocket in the same manner as Estes' instructions stated, but used epoxy the time. I made the center motor mount from the "D" engine mount kit, cutting the motor tube down so that the sustainer motor would fit right inside the top of the D12 booster motor. I did not glue the nose cones into the new booster tubes, but attached each to a shock cord to aid in slowing recovery. It flew perfectly, and recovered beautifully, but two fins popped off since they were only attached with Elmer's. Now they are attached with epoxy, and I will try a small streamer to slow recovery even more. The tubes are just too short for a chute. A picture of the launch can be seen on my review of the Renegade kit at http://www.rocketreviews.com/reviews/all/est_renegade.html#RD" (D.S.)

SPECIFIC ROCKET TIP:
"" (x.x.)

Date	Name	Motor	Ejection/ Altitude	Wind	Notes
01-15-2005	Robert Davis	3x Est SU D12/1x Est SU C6-7	Apogee - NC Up	Calm	- 3 D's is awesome. Lift-off was fast, but squirrely since CG is too far back. Need to add nose weight. Side boosters had 5-second delays with a streamer--no damage this time. Went to nearly 1800', by estimate.
02-19-2005	Robert Davis	3x Est SU D12/1x Est SU C6-7	Didn't See	5-10 mph winds	Event: Alamogordo Winter RSL - Added 1/2 oz BB's to the nose cone for stability. Flight was absolutely perfect--straight up. Booster separated at over 400' and drifted almost 1500'. Sustainer went so high it drifted 3/4 to 1 mile away. Found it!