I bought this kit for attempting streamer duration flights, working towards my NARTREK Bronze. The tiny rocket is a minimum-diameter airframe for 18mm motors. The streamer that comes with the kit is not sufficient for duration flights. On the 8th flight, I tried using two streamers identical to the one that came with the kit, but the second one didn't unfurl and the added weight just made it fall faster. I used a large paper streamer on the 9th flight, but the rocket went unstable. This is the second time the rocket has gone unstable for no apparent reason; if it happens again I'm going to retire the rocket as unsafe. Construction was expectedly trivial. All the bonding was done with CA, with the exception of the fillets which were done with wood glue. The streamer was a bit smaller than I was hoping for and may be insufficient for long durantion attempts. On the other hand the pip squeak is exceptionally light and should go crazy high on a full B motor. The suggested color scheme was somewhat bland so I improvised with some spraypaint. I painted it with three coats of Krylon grey sandable primer. Next came several base coats of Krylon "Farm & Implement" yellow high gloss (I think it is supposed to match John Deere yellow). For visual flair I sprayed some "Premium Decor" brand hot red fluorescent spray on the fins and faded it out to the base yellow about half way up the airframe. The generic paint was noticably inferior to the Krylon and given the choice I wouldn't have used it, but the only color Krylon paint the hardware store had was yellow. The last thing to go on was Krylon high gloss acrylic crystal clear coating. This was my first time painting a rocket and I like the results! This is a very hot looking little rocket. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
