Brief:
Nice two-inch diameter MPR rocket from Yank Enterprises. It is single staged, has a 29mm mount and uses a 20 foot streamer for recovery.

Construction:
The kit included a flexible phenolic body tube, 9 inch 29mm motor mount tube, nose cone, centering rings, three 1/8 inch baltic birch ply fins, launch lugs, tubular nylon shock cord, 20 foot plastic streamer and instructions.

The instructions were fairly easy to understand, but the print and illustrations were so small even with my perfect eyesight, I had to hold them close to my eyes to understand them. Could use some improvement.

This kit is fairly easy to build and would make a nice first or second MPR kit.

For all construction, I used NHP 12 minute epoxy. I started by assembling the motor mount. The rings needed some sanding to slide into place. I mixed some epoxy and glued the shock cord to the motor mount tube. Before the expoy set up, I used masking tape to secure it as described in the instructions. Since the shock cord material likes to pull apart, I highly reccomend taping the ends to prevent from pulling the material out.

Once the epoxy on the motor mount dried, I glued it into the body tube and then applied fillets to the rings. The biggest challenge for me was getting epoxy down to the forward centering ring without making a big mess.

I then sanded the leading and trailing edges of the fins round. The instructions reccommended doing this during the finishing but I found it a lot easier to do so before they were attached. I attached the fins one at a time without any problems. There were some small gaps at the bottom but I easily filled them with epoxy. I sanded the body tube at the points were the launch lugs were to be attached and then attached them. I then applied generous fillets to the fins and launch lugs. Now on to finishing.

PROS: Easy and quick construction, excellent parts fit.

CONS: Small print in Instructions.

Finishing:
I started by sanding the nose cone to remove the molding lines. I used Squadron White Putty to fill the rather deep sprials in the body tube. This took about two applications. I used Bondo putty on the nose cone to fill the rest of the molding lines that I couldn't sand out. I applied sanding sealer to the fins and sanding between coats. I sprayed the entire model with Krylon Grey Primer and fine sanded between coats. I sprayed the upper portion of the rocket with Krylon Copper Brilliance Spray enamel. I now painted the bottom of the rocket with Krylon Gloss Black enamel for a fine feathering look. I then applied about two coats of Rustolem Clear enamel to protect the finish. No decals were provided but that that proved to be fine to me.

Construction Rating: 4 out of 5

Flight:
The reccommended motors are the E23T, F20W, F39T, F40W, F52T, F62T, G25W, and the G33J.

The kit did not include motor retention, so I pre-fabricated my own. This rocket does require wadding as the motor tube is not long enough to accommodate a baffle.

For my flight, I felt confident about using my RMS 29/40-120 casing for the first time. I loaded up a F52-8T. The rocket zipped off the pad arrow straight and very fast to about 1500 feet. After motor burnout, I heard a nice whistle all the way to appogee just like the video on Yank's website.

Recovery:
I really did not feel comfortable using the streamer so I replaced it with a bright yellow Top Flight Recovery 18 inch nylon chute as I really did not want to repair anything. The 'chute did a great job bringing the rocket down in one piece to a safe landing.

Flight Rating: 4 out of 5

Summary:
I really enjoyed building and flying this kit. The only change that I would make is adding a 'chute instead of the provided streamer to prevent a recovery hazard. This kit is availible from Yank Enterprises for $45.00, worth every penny.

Main PROS: Great parts and construction.

Main CONS: No motor retention included, streamer, and small print instructions.

Overall Rating: 4 out of 5