Brief:
Excellent 2-stage rocket with tumble recovery for the booster and with the sustainer recovering on a gold mylar streamer; beautiful flights on B/B, B/C or C/C motor combinations.

Construction:
The kit contains:

• BT-50 sustainer and booster tubes
• 2 laser cut mated balsa 3 fin sets each for both booster and sustainer
• 4 CR-2050 cardboard centering rings
• 2 standard BT-20 motor mount cardboard tubes
• 1 cardboard engine block
• 24 x 1/8 inch elastic shock cord
• 3-fold shock cord attachment
• balsa nose cone
• screw eye
• 31 x 1 3/4 inch ribbed gold mylar streamer
• Beautiful Southwestern motif water slide decal sheet

Heavy weight instructions were very logical and easy to follow with illustrations for each step and included a fin marking guide and shock cord attachment pattern. Very quick and easy build as the laser cut fins will fit together perfectly with minimal sanding. Standard supplies are needed to complete.

Finishing:
The fit of the booster and sustainer fins is so perfect that the two fin decals that place over the split between the booster and sustainer fins almost look as if they're joined. An extra nice feature is that the spirals on the body tubes don't even need to be filled, seriously. Squirrel Works has found a superb supplier for their tubes. Very nice! The balsa nose cone and fins require standard finishing but even here the quality of the balsa is exceptional and finishes up nicely. My grandson and several other folks that saw the finished rocket thought the nose cone was plastic! The water slide decals are very easy to manage. They seem thicker than the standard Estes decal but lay down nicely, looking almost as if they were painted on. Overall I'm very impressed with the quality of Squirrel Works rockets. I did add a 6-inch length of Kevlar to mount in the shock cord attachment and then tied the elastic shock cord to that. The shock cords last a lot longer that way, since the part of the shock cord that stays inside the body tube at ejection is fire resistant. The only issue with using that method is that some thin CA must be soaked into the end of the body tube for strength, which without the strengthening will result in little dings at the forward end of the tube where the thinner more abrasive Kevlar pulls into the body tube. I also tie a loop at the end of the Kevlar and structure the fit so that the knot joining the Kevlar to the elastic meets the forward end of the body tube.

Construction Rating: 5 out of 5

Flight:
Standard A-C motors are used for the sustainer and B-C motors for the booster. Standard recovery wadding is required in the sustainer. I flew the rocket twice, once on a B/B combo and again on a C/C combo. The B/B combo flew really high and the C/C combo went almost out of sight! Both flights were beautiful. Winds were about 10 mph, resulting in slight weather-cocking. Motors were joined with cellophane tape and friction fit into the motor mount with masking tape. Don't use a parachute on this rocket, unless you enjoy long walks. The long mylar streamer provides plenty of protection if the rocket is built properly.

Recovery:
The long mylar streamer rolls up nicely, with plenty of room in the BT-50 sustainer for the streamer and shock cord. I place the shock cord in first and then put the streamer on top of that.

Flight Rating: 5 out of 5

Summary:
An exceptional looking rocket that builds easily and quickly due to the quality of parts provided in the kits. The graphics for the kit packaging is just outstanding, too! The face card in the kit will look very nice prominently displayed in your hobby room.

Overall Rating: 5 out of 5