Brief:
This is an Almost-Ready-to-Fly glider using 13mm mini engines. The Zoomie is a simple "kit" that arrives already assembled. I am aware through EMRR that at least some of these rockets were sold as kits that had to be assembled. Mine was not one of those. The only real construction is the addition of the decals and the addition of clay to trim for gliding. It is ostensibly a skill level 1 kit but in reality is comparable to an Estes RTF. Trimming is the only real work involved. I bought this rocket for 2 reasons. I had never seen it before and understood that the company was gone so I was not likely to see it again was the "real" first reason. The second is that I have had uniformly bad luck with all gliders. This looked like a reasonable place to start improving my skills.

Construction:
The box contains:

• 1 prepainted rocket consisting of:
  • BT-5 tube
  • nosecone
  • launch lug
  • styrofoam wings
• Tabloid size (11x17) instruction sheet printed on one side
• 1 crack and peel sticker sheet
• 1 bag of clay for trimming

The rocket is pre-assembled and pre-finished except for the stickers. The styrofoam was died red and the nosecone was painted a similar shade of red. The BT and launch lug are both white. The nose cone was far from perfect and had a few shaping flaws but is quite serviceable considering the level of the kit.

Read the description above a bit more closely. There is no construction. It's done.

Finishing:
The foam wings and balsa nosecone are already pained red. The BT and launch lug are white. The only real finishing is in the application of the stickers.

The stickers improve the appearance of this rocket dramatically but have a few problems. The instruction say merely to see the box illustration for placement. This works for most of them and most of the rest can be inferred but there is an insect logo which is nowhere shown. By the time I had applied the others, there was no real place to put it since the red of the insect would be swallowed by the red of the wings. I decided to place in at the back of the BT and let it overlap the windows along either side by a bit.

Another problem is in the size of the peel and sticks. The "HD" logo is supposed to be mounted on the wing canards. One fit fine and the other one did not without some trimming.

My biggest gripe, though, is with the stiffness of the stickers. That, coupled with the large margins, made application to curved surfaces particularly difficult. The forward windshield was difficult since the sticker will curve in one direction but not another. The NC is an ogive and the sticker wants to neither stay down nor even fit well when pressed down. Some trimming with a razor knife helped but did not solve the problem.

I know that it is considered traditional leave gliders unfinished but I did not do that. I figured that the only hope the stickers had of surviving a flights was to be set with some Future. I also hoped that the Future would help to protect the surfaces from dings. Accordingly, I applied 2 coats and hoped that I would still be able to trim it.

Construction Rating: 3 out of 5

Flight:
The only recommended motor is the Estes 1/4A3-3T. The rocket needs no wadding so the igniter and plug were inserted, the rocket was put on the rod and the whole thing was hooked up. It launched without a problem.

I have had terrible luck with gliders and did not do well with this one either but it did do better than normal. It went up straight, not too high, but high enough to be worthwhile. The motor ejected and the rocket began to claw its way to the ground. It actually glided a little bit. It also tumbled some. It was sort of an aerodynamic tumble. I will retrim and try again but RSO duties prevented me getting another shot at it today.

Flight Rating: 3 out of 5

Summary:
It was more dependable than any other glider I have tried but that's not saying much. The only recommended motor is a 1/4A3-3. I think it could handle a 1/2A or maybe even a full A. It did not go all that high.

Overall Rating: 3 out of 5