Brief
The Bullet is a single stage, parachute recovered, scale-look sport bird.

Construction
My Bullet came in the now-familiar sturdy plastic bag with a 4-color stuffer card. All parts were in good shape but I think the motor hook is kind of flimsy. The balsa should be of a harder grade considering the performance this bird is capable of. Mine got painted with thin CA before sanding and sealing, which in turn was done before they were installed on the rocket. Custom is now using a nice tough grade of fabric elastic in their kits, but the piece in my kit was too short!! It was replaced with 3' of sewing elastic and set aside for a smaller bird. The mylar chute, body tubes, and thick plastic all look very tough.

Instructions are very basic and well laid-out, they even advise the builder to take time on the motor mount assembly! The template was accurate and was used to layout lines on the bottom of the the main body tube for the strap-ons. I deviated from the instructions in that I left the lower tube off the rocket 'til after painting. An article in Sport Rocketry described building it this way, and with the kit on my bench it made sense. I glued the strap-ons in place before painting. The nose cone is hollow and has a molded in lug for a screw eye.

Overall, no major surprises in building this kit, if it weren't for the flimsy parts and short shock cord, I'd give this a 5 for construction.

Finishing
The upper tube w/ strap-ons was sprayed white and set aside to cure while the lower (fin) tube was prepared. 4 thin lines were masked off ahead of the fins for the strap-ons, then it was shot with bright red and set aside. The upper tube was masked and shot silver per the instructions.

After everything cured, the waterslide decals were placed with no problems, Custom's decals are improved over their first kits! The lower fin unit was installed on the rest of the rocket, then the whole thing was given a coat of clear. A 1/8" black pinstripe was placed at the junction of the white and silver to cover where I botched the masking tape removal.

Overall, the finishing was somewhat tricky, but not too bad. This bird looks really tough!

Construction Rating: 4 ½ out of 5

Flight
This bird is completely standard in prepping methods. I stuck 5 squares of wadding in the tube, prepped the chute and installed the motor. The motor hook didn't look like it had the beans to survive a D ejection, so I wrapped the motor with masking tape to help it out!

Given the comparatively light weight of this rocket, I didn't feel comfortable with the recommended D12-3 for the first flight, so it got a D12-5. Liftoff wasn't as quick as I expected, but this bird gets upstairs FAST and straight as an arrow. Very exciting flight! Ejection was just about apogee, the chute deployed a bit slowly but worked fine.

A bunch of school kids with parents in tow came over to observe, so I installed an adapter and flew it with an Aerotech D24-7 reload. It LEAPED off the pad and zipped to about 800-900 feet. Ejection was slightly after apogee and again deployment was slow with good recovery. This flight generated some applause and set off a Q and A session, so it didn't get flown again.

Recovery
This kit uses a standard tri-fold paper mount, which works fine as long as it is soaked well with glue to make it conform to the inside of the body tube. The chute was installed about 6" down from the nose cone with a snap swivel to prevent the shock cord from twisting too much, and to help avoid tangles. The Mylar chute is supposed to attach with some not-too-sticky looking tape rectangles. Throw them out and put vinyl tape reinforcement rings (office supply store) in their place. Punch a hole through the center of each, then tie on your shroud lines a la Estes. Presto, no stripped shroud lines! The chute got a dusting of talcum but still deploys a bit slow. However, it works perfectly and the Bullet was recovered in perfect shape after both flights. No damage or wear to the recovery system was seen. In addition to being tough, mylar reflects sunlight making it easy to keep an eye on it as it descends.

Flight Rating: 5 out of 5

Summary
The Bullet is a slightly unconventional kit to build and paint, but offers no unusual challenges to a builder with some experience. This reviewer feels that it looks awesome, and it's a REALLY entertaining flyer! My only gripes are with the shock cord (too short), flimsy balsa, and motor hook. It never failed, but I still suggest using tape to bind it to the side of the motor and tube. It seems to be sturdier than most rockets of its size, and it will be flown with some RMS "E" motors at the next CMASS launch.

Overall Rating: 4 ½ out of 5