Brief:
This is a 10 foot 4 inch tall rocket that is the same diameter as the Estes Mean Machine. It was one of the first I had seen available on eBay and it arrived in about a week. It was well packaged and complete.

Construction:
The components included were of overall high quality. Four 30" BT-60 airframes, 4" couplers, balsa bulkhead, D size 24mm engine tube, fiber centering rings, two 15" silver mylar chutes, a few feet of 1/8" elastic and a piece of Kevlar cord, and nice quality laser cut fin stock that appears to be from BMS were included in the kit. I was pleased to see that it included a 4" long balsa bulkhead as that is a must for the 10+ foot configuration.

The instructions are very detailed however I did not use them. One thing that I was initially disappointed about is that it only came with an Estes D length motor tube (only 70mm long). Another thing that I was disappointed about is that it was advertised as easily transportable and able to fly in 4 different lengths. This was very important to me as I needed to transport it in a small two-seater sports car. The instructions state that you should "pressure fit" the body tubes and nose cone, yet they do not explain how to do that. I assume they mean with masking tape, but I would not feel comfortable launching a rocket with body tubes and the nose cone not adhered properly.

I decided to build this rocket to fly in the 10 foot 4 inch format only, to use larger E-G 24mm motors and recover in two sections.

Construction began with securing the nice balsa nose cone onto one of the four 30" body tubes/airframes with yellow wood glue and then connecting a second airframe/coupler to that. The nice balsa 4" long bulkhead to the bottom of that section with yellow wood glue as well. I then coated the nose cone with some Elmer's Fill 'n' Finish and sanded it down to look smooth. I then glued the screw eye that was provided into the bottom of the bulkhead with CA. I discarded the short 1/8" wide piece of elastic that came with it and tied a 15 foot long piece of 1/4" elastic to the screw eye. I set aside the two 15" mylar chutes that came with it and instead selected two Anchor brand 12" rip-stop nylon conical chutes with spill holes. With one of these attached to the upper half of the rocket, the top 5 foot section with nose cone and recovery was complete.

Using my own 24 x 95 mm Estes "E length" motor tube and clip, I used the nice fiber centering rings that were provided and yellow wood glued them on. I then discarded the provided short 1/32" strand of Kevlar and used my own 11 foot section of 1/8" Kevlar to form a double looped fireproof mount to the motor. If one side ever burns through the other side will still hold. This is my own personal favorite method and I have never seen it used before. By cutting tiny V-shaped slots into the inner edges of one of the fiber centering rings I adhered both ends of the Kevlar to the motor mount with two small knots at each end with a drop of CA on them. I then coated the inner connections of the motor mounts to the motor tube with fillets of yellow wood glue. I then glued the final coupler and tube to the body tube that would host the motor section, making certain that my 11 foot double loop of Kevlar cord with a snap swivel at top was just shy of coming out of the top of the body tube. This will cause only elastic to come into contact with the body tube making it zipperless. You will need to measure very carefully before making your two knots (one 1" from the top and one near the middle) to make sure you do not have Kevlar coming out of the top of the tube, as having the Kevlar contact the body tube could cause a zipper.

To build the fins I sanded off the glassine layer and used an X-Acto brand pin (like a map pin or thumb tack but with a handle) to punch small holes along the airframe where the fins would go. I did not use a fin alignment guide and just eyeballed it. I then built the four fins from the 12 pieces by adhering them to the airframe one at a time with CA. This made little CA "rivets" in the holes I punched to help strengthen the fins at their root connection to the airframe. Much to my pleasure, just eyeballing it still works and they came out perfectly aligned.

Several days later after the yellow wood glue was dry, I used a small brush and 30 minute epoxy to coat the motor tube and rings and secure the motor mount inside the airframe with a light coat over the fillets and all fiber sections of rings on both edges. I then coated the fins with a 1/2" brush stroke of 30 minute epoxy along all root edge sides and fully covered the entire bottom of the fin can equal to the length of the fins plus one inch also with a thin layer of 30 minute epoxy. Once dried and inspected about 12 hours later, the fin can, fins, and motor mount section appeared very strong and ready for larger motors than the kit was designed for. I completed construction by adding 15 more feet of 1/4" sewing elastic to the snap swivel connected to my double loop of Kevlar to the motor mount and added my second Anchor brand 12" rip-stop nylon conical chute with a spill hole.

Finishing:
To finish the rocket, I removed the foam from a Quickburst 12" rocket rack and painted the rocket in two sections laying on the PVC rack. First I used Kilz white sandable primer. Sanded the fins down some more and coated them again with Kilz. I then used Rustoleum Specialty International fluorescent orange. It took nearly two cans and came out looking extremely bright.

Construction Rating: 4 out of 5

Flight:
The first flight was on July 24, 2004 at Rushing Park in Katy, Texas at an event with my local Challenger 498 club. Club members helped me to install rail buttons on the field and build a rail launcher. It was extremely hot with the heat index being about 107-108. If it had not been for the help of my club members it would not have gone up that day. I had only used CA to attach the launch lugs (forgot to add yellow wood glue fillets) and they both broke off right after I set it on a pad. Within minutes club members showed me how to install rail buttons and had this monster on a rail pointed straight up.

The Aerotech single use F21-4 is about a perfect motor for this rocket when built in this manner. With a nice orange flame and smoke the affectionately named "10 footer" shot straight up and fast just perfectly. With no wind to speak of it went up clean as an arrow to around 1000 feet. It appeared to gently lay over at apogee and separated into it's two sections.

One thing that was very interesting, and something I have never seen happen before, is that the bottom of the rail launcher was just feet from an underground aquaduct that was about 2.5 feet in diameter and about 60 feet long running under a dirt road. A wind draft sucked in most of the exhaust smoke and as the rocket was in the recovery phase, all of the exhaust smoke started to blow out of the other end of this aquaduct making it look like some sort of NASA draft tunnel. That was very cool!

Recovery:
I can not comment on the recovery system that came with this kit as I did not use any of it.

With 30 feet of 1/4" sewing elastic (in two 15 foot sections) connected to the two Anchor brand 12" nylon rip-stop conical chutes with spill holes that I added, both sections came down gently about 10 feet from each other and landed side by side about 100 feet from the rail launcher. The flight and recovery were just gorgeous.

Flight Rating: 5 out of 5

Summary:
It's contains very nice quality balsa laser cut fins and nose cone. I was not pleased with the small motor tube as I do not think a D is enough power for this in a 10 foot configuration. The recovery system, while slightly better than average with mylar chutes, did not include enough elastic. The kit did not come with decals but that was no big deal to me. The instructions look much better and more detailed than average. I really enjoyed building this and modifying it to my own desires and I love how it flew. I plan on flying this more and I highly suggest this kit to anyone as long as you use the build techniques that I have outlined in this review.

Overall Rating: 4 out of 5