RocketReviews.com - Estes - Super Shot - Review by James David Reyome

Construction:
The Twister came to us as a part of the Super Shot starter set, which also includes the Super Shot rocket (looks like a Bandit with a different decal set) along with a launch controller and pad and three motors. Fins are die-cut balsa and the easy to follow instructions will have this one up and running overnight, allowing time for painting.

Pros: simple, easy to follow instructions. Cons: Some of the instructions are printed on the reverse side of one of the fin templates, but nothing earth-shattering. Nothing but standard tools needed.

Finishing:
Nothing fancy here. Prime and paint as you like it. My son chose a multi-colored flat acrylic design (the random abstract brush work of a seven year old!) that was probably not the best choice paint-wise but it is certainly eye catching. The provided self-stick decals are nice enough, but they're meant to go on an all black paint job, and believe me when I say you don't want black on the Twister. Better to paint it something bright, like a day-glo red or green. This would be an easy one to lose otherwise.

Flight:
This is a very sweet flier, arrow straight off the rod and up almost out of sight even on an A8-3. Don't consider anything more powerful unless you have very, very good eyesight. The motor is taped to the lower body half, which is okay if, like me, you still use masking tape to hold igniters in place. I find that those little plastic widgets Estes provides don't always seat well, even in Estes' own motor nozzles.

Recovery:
The Twister's recovery method is supposed to be 'helicopter' but in our experience it's more like 'plummet.' At ejection the upper body portion (which bears the launch lug and one fin) and the lower body (which has the other two fins and a pair of small canards along with the motor) separate and are meant to twist down in sort of a maple-seed fashion. In theory this probably works, and maybe it does in the wind tunnel (does Estes have a wind tunnel?) but in practice it just isn't so. The lower body more or less tumbles, and the upper body does spiral down, albeit fairly quickly. If either were to land on a hard surface they would almost certainly sustain at least some damage, but on grass they seem to do pretty well. Just be sure to watch both halves carefully on their descents or you're liable to lose one or the other.

Summary:
As part of a starter kit this is probably the rocket everyone puts together second, as the Super Shot is much larger and uses the standard parachute recovery, but once you've burned through the shock cord of the Super Shot a few times and finally crashed or lost it as a result, you'll get around to building the Twister and you'll wonder why it took you so long to come around to it. Providing you don't get over ambitious on the motors it'll be in your collection for years to come.

Flight Log

Date	Rocket Name	Motor(s)	Altitude	Notes
1998-02-08	Alex Shim's Estes Super Shot	B6-4	-	This was my second rocket launch and I just launched the rocket after it survived the first...
1998-02-08	Alex Shim's Estes Super Shot	A8-3	-	This was my first rocket and the begining of my rocketry hobby. Unfortunately I packed the...
1999-08-15	Scott Smith's Estes Super Shot	A8-3	-	1st flight, went straight up and fast even with the A8-3 motor.Landed safely near launch site.
1999-08-15	Scott Smith's Estes Super Shot	C6-5	-	2nd flight - this rocket really screamed off the launch pad, straight up and out-of-sight. ...
2000-01-13	William Beggs's Estes Super Shot	C6-3	-	Great flight and recovery.
2001-06-22	MikeyR's Estes Super Shot	B6-4	-	23.6 sec. Nice.
2001-07-04	Patrick Scheirer's Estes Super Shot	A8-3	-	Straight boost off the pad, but then it started to spiral very badly. About a foot from the...
2001-10-17	MikeyR's Estes Super Shot	C6-5	-	Caught the wind up high. Landed in the trees, lost.
2002-07-04	MikeyR's Estes Super Shot	B6-4	-
2002-08-27	Robert Vaughan's Estes Super Shot	B6-4	-	Again, very nice flight. I was so impressed with the performance I decided to go higher.
2002-08-27	Robert Vaughan's Estes Super Shot	A8-3	-	(smaller rocket)Very nice flight, found easily. Decided to go with the bigger motor.
2002-08-28	Robert Vaughan's Estes Super Shot	B6-4	-	(larger rocket)Rocket is too light for a 12 inch 'chute! It drifted across the street from the...
2003-01-24	P.J. Watterson's Estes Super Shot	B6-4	-	Great flight. Landed right on the road in the parking area at our school. Broke part of two fins...
2003-01-31	P.J. Watterson's Estes Super Shot	C6-5	-	My friend had put the engine in the rocket and told me it was a B4-4. It turned out to be a C6-5....
2003-01-31	P.J. Watterson's Estes Super Shot	B4-4	-	Good flight. It looked really cool going up so slow. Landed in the parking lot again, but the fins...
2006-05-13	Geoffrey Kerbel's Estes Super Shot	B6-4	400 feet	Great small field flyer on this engine. Solid straight flight with damage free landing.
2006-07-01	Scott Turnbull's Estes Super Shot	A8-3	-	Modified with paper shock mount. Great small field flight.
2007-04-22	Scott Turnbull's Estes Super Shot	C6-5	-	Big motor for little rocket. Oops. Outta sight. Heard a charge, never saw a chute (or anything...
2010-04-10	Andy Wong's Estes Super Shot	B6-4	-	Perfect first flight.
2011-06-11	Andy Wong's Estes Super Shot	B6-4	-
2011-06-11	Andy Wong's Estes Super Shot	C6-7	-	Out of sight flight, didn't hear ejection, never saw it came down. Found it 300+ feet away.

Estes - Super Shot

Flight Log

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