Brief:
a neat little rocket that separates into two halves for recovery, one maple seedling and the other tumbling head over heels. I got this rocket from The Model Shop in the UK after coming second in the 2006 EMRR Challenge. (Thanks to EMRR and Paul Lavin from The Model Shop/Deepsky.)

Construction:
The kit consists of two body sections, a two part plastic nose cone, a sheet of balsa fins, and a 18mm retention ring. All came in the usual plastic bag with an art card. The kits goes together easily with a little care to align the rear fins between the two smaller fins on the top half of the rocket. Unlike most Estes rockets, you do not shape the leading edge of the fins. The instructions are of the normal Estes quality with clear diagrams to aid the modeler. Estes put this as a skill level two, which it is, but only just barely.

Finishing:
Finishing was done with two coats of primer with sanding down between coats. The body tubes had hardly any spiral to fill. I sprayed the top half a crimson red and the base a pale yellow. The decals are the waterslide type and went on easily. A layer of varnish finished things off. The only "gotcha" is that you have to be careful not to build up too much paint between the two smaller fins on the top half or you may have problems getting the two halves together smoothly.

Construction Rating: 5 out of 5

Flight and Recovery:
This is a light rocket and it flys off the pad fast. All three flights where straight and true.

At ejection, the two halves separate the top half has a maple seed recovery, which is relatively slow. The bottom half tumbles a bit quicker. Both recovery systems do slow the rocket down. Both parts recovered side by side and all three flights where crowd pleasers. This is definitely are rocket that provides something out of the norm.

My third flight was on a B6-2. The sensible member of my club said that it would put the rocket too high and it would drift into the nearby woods (and home to several of my rockets). I chose to ignore him and I am now thinking of buying another Tornado

Flight Rating: 5 out of 5

Summary:
This is a rocket that everyone should have in their fleet or at least one like it.

Overall Rating: 5 out of 5