Brief:
An Estes classic, this tiny rocket that has been bought, built, and sacrificed to the rocketry Gods by many.

Construction:
My mosquito is the one with the balsa nose cone, I believe that the later one was a plastic nose cone.

The kit comes in a clear bag with the usual art card and instructions.

Components consist of:

• 2 inch of Bt20
• Balsa nose cone
• Launch lug
• Strip of balsa 0.5 inches wide
• Insructions.

The rocket is a very fast build, but is a tad harder than the level one kits you get today.

The fins need to be cut out from the balsa strip, a template is provided. The fins where then sanded and had the leading edges rounded.

As everything is so small, you need to take your time in setting the fins.

I used the fin marking guide and a door frame to mark the body tube, and then tacked on the fins using CA gel, which sets hard in seconds. The fins were then given three fillets of wood glue.

The nose cone was then white glued into place and the lug glued into the join on the bodt tube and one of the fins.

The entire rocket was then coated twice in sanding sealer and sanded down smooth.

Finishing:
The mosquito was given two coats of primer, sanded, and then given two coats of yellow spray enamel.

If there is any hope of seeing this rocket again, it has to be painted brightly, or coated in mylar reflective tape.

No decals are provided with this version of the mosquito, although one version did come with a minibrute decal. As I liked the decal, I was lucky as Excelsoirrocketry has some decals. As this mosquito was the first of several upscales I am doing for my winter project, Excelsoirrocketry were kind enough to reproduce the decal in various sizes.

Even with the heavy paint job, my rocket came in at an empty mass of 0.09oz, just under the 0.1oz on the kit.

Construction Rating: 3 out of 5

Flight:
Check out the flight logs below.

You are lucky to get this thing back, and if you fly on a field that is anything but bowling green flat it could land 5 meters away and be hid from you.

For the best chance of recovery, fly on 1/4 A or use an adaptor for a MMX motor.

Recovery:
Uses tumble recovery. But you'll be lucky to see in in the recovery phase.

Flight Rating: 3 out of 5

Summary:
I like this rocket, and I hate it. It is a rocket that lots of us have had in the past, and many companies have mimicked its design. There are lots of upscales of the mosquito around.

Main pro's are that it's cheap, although it costs £6 in the UK, and it's cute, my two years old daughter loves it and I have now got to clone one for her, so I can have mine back.

Main con is that you will lose it.

Overall Rating: 3 out of 5

Other:
The SpaceCAD file I made (version3) does not allow for the curved ends of the fins, and the rocket is unstable according to the software, where the Mosquito is anything but.