Brief:
The Phoenix Dark is a two-stage BT-55 downscale of the Estes Phoenix. It is named such for two reasons: 1) it is an homage to the movie Mystery Men, which I saw for the first time recently, and 2) I wanted to paint it a dark color instead of white in order to maximize my chances of getting it back.

Construction:
My primary components were:

• 9" BT-55 body tube (sustainer)
• 2.75" BT-55 body tube (booster
• PNC-55 (Bullpup NC)
• 2 sets of 4 hand-traced and cut balsa fins
• 2 18mm engine tubes
• 2 sets of BT-55 to BT-20 cardboard centering rings, scratch made
• elastic shock cord
• 2" x 24" plastic streamer

This was my first attempt to use RockSim, which I did as part of the EMRR Challenge. I had the idea of this rocket (or some variation thereof) for some time and decided that this would be the perfect time to do this. One reason was to make sure that it would be stable in that the Phoenix can have some stability issues.

This was a relatively simple and straightforward build. All of the construction was done with Elmer's wood glue. To be honest, the quality of this build was not quite up to my usual standards. I tried to get it done quickly to get in under the timeline. Also, one of the primary things I wanted to see was whether or not it was stable as simulated with the largest motor combination. Consequently I was pretty sure that either it would be an unstable disaster and therefore unwanted, or it would fly well and would disappear. It turns out the latter was true.

Finishing:
After construction I primed the rocket with Wal-Mart primer (all the paint used on this one was from Wal-Mart) and sanded it, following with a few coats of black spray paint.

Flight and Recovery:
I flew this rocket once on a C6-0 to C6-7 combination. The flight was nice and straight. Unfortunately it went too high and the weather was too breezy. Long story short, the sustainer was lost.

Summary:
This was an enjoyable build for me. I enjoyed working with RockSim and look forward to moving past the free trial in order to use it in the future. While most of the rocket was lost, I was still pleased with the outcome. I will build another version of this rocket and dress it up a little more. I'll also be sure to do a better job of matching up field size, motor options, and weather conditions.