Brief:
This rocket is a free download in .PDF format. You just have to print on cardstock and build. (Some additional parts required.)

Construction:
This rocket prints on two pages. It has a hexagonal body tube and nose. Its 3 fins are cut from two layers of cardstock and glued together. Fins include attachment tabs that make it easier to glue them to the body tube. The directions recommend 110 lb cardstock. I've built several paper rockets in the last couple of years, and have always found 67 lb Bristol Board entirely adequate. User supplies several other parts. (See list below.)

Instructions were simple and straightforward. I had no trouble understanding or following them. I have built Fliskits' Caution Rocket, Midnight Express, and Nebula, and all of Art Applewhite's free paper rockets, and found the Tricarrow among of the simplest paper rockets to build.

Model Minutes suggests the following supplies:

• Use a transparent glue. Mod Podge Paper with a small brush works well.
• Non-Drying Modeler's Clay
• Small square of 1/4" Foamboard
• Small eye-screw with 1/2" long threads
• Small plastic bag (or left over 8" plastic parachute)
• 60" Thin string
• 12-18" rubber band or 1/8" elastic
• 1" length of a drinking straw, at least 1/8" in diameter

I made a few substitutions:

• Elmer's Washable School Glue No-Run Gel, which I use on all my paper rockets now. It wrinkles the paper less than anything else I've tried.
• 5 minute Epoxy for nose weight.
• I used a Semroc chute I had lying around. It was larger than 8", which was my downfall.
• 5 feet of 3/8" polyester ribbon for a shock cord.

I had to run to the hardware store for a screw eye. Most rockets used them when nose cones were made of balsa, but it's just not something I keep on hand anymore.

I scored the dotted fold lines with the back of the blade in my hobby knife and using a steel ruler as a straightedge. Folding the hexagonal tube and nose was easier than rolling the cylinders and cones of other rockets. I found it worked best to spread the glue with a flat toothpick like butter with a butter knife then wipe off the excess with my finger.

After folding the nose, I filled it with 5-minute epoxy for nose weight. Be sure to coat it thoroughly using two coats of glue if needed or the epoxy may soak through just enough to discolor the outside. I cut the foamboard carefully, but I still had to sand it down to fit the tube--a tradition that continues from the days of balsa.

I elected to skip the clear plastic fin cutouts. Like the earlier reviewer, I could not get my fins perfectly flat. The glue tabs, however, made attaching the fins the easiest of any paper rocket I have built so far, and combined with the hexagonal tube, the fins were self-jigging so they went on perfectly straight.

The PDF now includes an engine block and a launch lug, although you have to provide a drinking straw as a form to roll the lug--why not just CA the straw to the rocket? I used the full length of the lug pattern, but I thought it was a little thick, more than twice the thickness of the body tube.

Instructions for balancing have been added: "Always perform a swing test on your Tricarrow prior to flying for the first time with a B4-4 loaded. " There are no instructions for prepping the rocket. Not that any explanation is needed if you've ever built a rocket before and this is just your first paper rocket.

The problems in the instructions have been fixed and this is a good introduction to paper rockets. The only thing I didn't like about the construction was that it required more user supplied parts than most paper models.

Finishing:
There is no finishing needed, but there is a blank pattern if you want to choose your own colors and the unusual transparent plastic fin insert option for those who want more customization.

Construction Rating: 4 out of 5

Flight:
The recommended motors are A8-3 and B4-4 only. "Larger thrust motors are not recommended." I noticed in the flight logs that the bad flights were on higher thrust motors, so I bought a pack of B4-4s, which is a motor I don't usually keep on hand.

Boost was straight with no weathercocking, but enough spin to leave a clear corkscrew in the smoke trail, possibly from the fins' slight warp.

Recovery:
Ejection was at the top of the arc with the nose horizontal. I had packed the chute too tightly, so the ejection blew a hole in the side of the body tube and the rocket came in ballistic. There was some mud on the nose but no further damage beyond the hole in the side.

I give the rocket 5 flight points. It did what it was supposed to. The damage was my fault for using too large a chute and not checking to see that it would eject freely.

Flight Rating: 5 out of 5

Summary:
Not everything is done the way I would do it, but it is an easy build, a good flyer, and a good introduction to paper rockets.

Overall Rating: 5 out of 5