Brief:

I got this one at Walmart for $10. It was a Glider so I had to have it.   

Packaging:

Full Color Box (nice for storage to build later)

Parts:

This is the ONLY area where I down-grade this kit. The hinges (explained later) for the wings are tape and prone to slop and failure. In addition, I had to do a lot of work to get the wings made e.g. cut my own shapes for wings and glue multiple pieces together for others.

For parts I rate this 2 out of 5.

Construction:

Instructions, on the other-hand, were very clear on exactly what I had to do and how to do it so. Even with some extra scratch work, the instructions would allow "above novice but not quite expert" modelers to build without a problem if they take their time.

A lot of plastic parts made VERY complex construction, VERY easy. If not for the plastic parts this kit would have been many times more complex and prone to failure. For this, I commend Estes on.

The part I did not like was that I had to cut out my own Wing Panels. Since this was a purchased kit I think Estes should have done that themselves, however, the instructions were very clear and the process went quickly and without a problem. I also like their choice of stock hard, high quality, thick balsa wood. It was hard to sand but can take a beating.

I sanded an airfoil into the wings (instructions only says to round and you DO need to round to fit them into place). The airfoil will greatly increase performance.

The Fuselage was [as easy as] "cake". I glued the dowel into the slot, glued on rear plastic and it looked flush. Very nice, clean and strong Boom. Although I thought the plastic on the weak side, it has stood up well to many a hard landing in trees with no damage, so I guess I thought wrong.

The second sore spot on parts was the Tail assembly. The horizontal Stabilizer was pitifully thin and so I replaced it with something thicker. The vertical Stabilizer has stood up, but I did not like having to glue multiple parts to make one (don't be cheap Estes). This is a glue joint which is probably why this THIN wood stood up to impact. I would rather have a thicker single piece.

The really nasty part was the Wing Hinges. You see on this Plane the wings are actually 4 panels with the outer panels folding over on top of the inner panels and being held like that under boost by the booster. When released [at ejection], rubber bands pull the wings panels out and they deploy to a full 2 foot wide Glider (impressive). Unimpressive is the way they attach.

I have to cut out tape hinges. They work great and are light for about 2 flights . . . as they loose stickiness and get sloppy and when the wings get sloppy the flights get sloppy. This makes them hard to impossible to trim.

So as a modification I went overboard and replace the hinges with metal hinges. I used little, tiny, metal ones like on jewelry boxes. I CA'd them into place right at the Center of Gravity so no extra weight would need to be added to the glider. I then added 4 pennies to the nose cone of the booster to keep the rocket's CP/CG relationship correct. Although the hinges don't weigh the same as 4 pennies, I wanted extra stability and I got it with very vertical Boosts.

Construction 4 out of 5. EASY and hard to mess up except where I have to cut my own wing panels and the tape hinges.

Finishing

The picture at the top left shows the Booster in black. I did not paint mine. The Glider is also unpainted for weight savings and is not even suggested in the instructions.

Trimming

Trimming is easy, like a normal glider, but don't throw too hard for it is a heavy glider and if you try to "heave" it, it may land hard! Trim like any other glider with a small turn.

Flying

Personally I say nothing but C engines for it is in reality a rather heavy rocket. I fly on C6-3 engines C5-3 as well B6-2 might work, but would be low altitude . . . A NEVER.

First flight was great. Nice 30 second spiraling decent. The spiral was a little too tight but not bad. Good glide.

Second flight was much better . . . 40 seconds . . . easy.

I flew this a couple of times at NARAM-40 and got the same, "Uh O here comes . . ." and then, "HEY, it works and pretty good too!"

On the 5th flight at NARAM-40, I broke a wing panel off. No damage just separation when one wings did not deploy and it came in hard. Easily fixed.

I think the next time, I will fly it on that Apogee D10-5 I still have left over from D Dual Egg Loft.

Performance 4 out of 5. Great Kit, great boost, great glide . . . just not a competition grade glide. Even with the tape hinges, it does very well. The first two flight were with the tape hinges, but I saw a problem was coming. I saw that in a few more flights this would require maintenance (Estes even specifies in the instructions that you get extra tape hinges). To avoid the tape maintenance I decided to add the metal hinges.