What Happened to the C11-5 Engine?

You remind me of when I kept on putting off getting a Leviathan. I ended up paying a lot of money buying the parts separately in order to build one. That's OK because I love that rocket and had fun building it.

I emailed Estes customer service telling them how we all love the C11-3 and especially the C11-5 engines. Let them know that you would like them to reintroduce those most beloved engines. You can find their email address at www.estesrockets.com/contact-us

Members, please take this opportunity to email Estes and tell them that you would like to see the C11-5 brought back. You can also leave a post here for Estes to see how you feel.

Who do you think started the "Estes C11-5 discontinued ?!?!?" thread on the rocketry forum (tee hee )

I did in fact contact the customer service and also complained about the apparent drought of builder kits as well.

Estes responded to my email in a very timely manner. They said that sales had declined to the point where it just did not justify producing them (C11 and E9) any longer. The decision was made under Hobbico management. New management may reconsider the decision but with the restructuring going on that will not happen this year.

I listed all the Estes rockets that I fly on the C11-5. I committed to buying a 24 pack if Estes brings back the C11-5. Perhaps if enough people contact Estes they will eventually reconsider.

Gotta love that hobbico management,

Did they have brick and mortar stores or just online? The hobby business is a tough business these days. When you go into a hobby store or the Charles Ro train store in Malden who do you see? Old guys like us. Not far from Charles Ro there was this great RC car shop. They even had a big indoor dirt track to run your cars. Eventually they closed. Pratt up in Georgetown is still hanging in there.

Hopefully the Langford Group can put Estes back on track. The President of Estes, Ellis Langford is an MIT graduate. I think he was on their rocket team. I met him at NSL 2018 and I was impressed.

You're definitely right about the business being tough. But Hobbico bought up too much too fast. I think perhaps the seeds of their destruction came from many different places... competition for time from computers, computer games, phones too much stuff that gives instant gratification... you don't finish a model (rocket or otherwise) in a day. We breed kids to have zero attention spans now. That's one reason I believe that geezers like me end up in the hobby stores. The big recession in 2008, and all that. The problem is nobody wants to get their hands dirty any more. There are a few but now there is too much stuff competing for our time.