..this kit is for you. In the mid-power (F/G motor) range, this is about the tallest rocket kit out there. This was the first Aerotech kit I bought and built, and I was impressed by the ease of construction -- except for finishing and painting, you can pretty much build the whole thing using CA glue in less than a day. Like all Aerotech kits, the fins mount using the Fin-Lok system, which ensures that all of the important lower rocket parts are locked together, thus sharing the thrust load and helping to ensure that there aren't any points over-stressed to failure. This isn't a huge concern with F or G motors, but if you plan to go bigger, it may be. I built mine with a combination of CA and epoxy -- using CA to join the parts per the instruction (plastic to plastic and plastic to the included fiberboard centering rings), but I reinforced the fins with epoxy fillets. The design of this rocket is such that the top and bottom halves separate at apogee (motor/delay separation) and come down individually. I'm not a huge fan of hiking to two different places, or long walks, so I have always flown this rocket in an H configuration, with a piece of nylon rope tied between the two shock cords, attached at roughly the mid-point of each. That way, everything comes down together. I also think this slows everything down a bit more, and makes for a nice dancing motion during recovery. This rocket became my TRA L1 certification rocket, flown on a Cesaroni H54 white long-burn motor. Minutes prior to that, I did a shake-down flight on a G-something, and the chutes failed to deploy. Broke one of the fins. After some 5-minute epoxy was judiciously employed, I successfully completed my L1 flight with no issues, and have flown it several times since. I also added another 12-inch section between the upper body tube and nose cone, which usually carries an altimeter (altitude only), making it 8 ft 3 inches tall on the pad. The best thing about this rocket is that it won't go very high, and launches are usually very slow and impressive. Still one of the favorites in my inventory! One other note: in the kit I got, one of the body tubes had a manufacturing flaw (bubbles in the outer wrap) that would have ruined the finish. It took about 2 days to get a response from Aerotech via email/web, and another 4 or 5 days to get a replacement tube, but I can't complain -- they came through and stood behind the product.

This is a very tall rocket but don't let that scare you and you definitely don't want to launch this bird in ANY medium to strong wind. The potential of this bird to nose over into the wind is much greater due to it's height. This rocket is very simple to build for it's size. There isn't any more to this rocket than most other Aerotech kits so even if this is your first one, I'm confident that you will do just fine. It's important to use epoxy on the motor tube assembly and fins on this bird because of the higher impulse motors you are sure to use in it. This one really isn't for experimenting with motors. You want this bird to build up speed as fast as possible for stability. I like slow dramatic take-offs just as much as the next guy but that is reserved for shorter birds with the same size fins. Stuff a G76 in this baby and enjoy the action of a fast, stable, and safe launch! Something I do with rockets that employ two parachutes is I pack into the lower body tube the chute for the upper body tube. Doing this insures that one chute pulls the other one out and gives you the greatest chance of a successful recovery of both sections. This is a really great looking rocket and performing rocket but if you really want it to stand out against all others, you are going to have to do it with your paint job because you only get one decal with this kit. Good luck and fly safe!

This is one of my favorite kits. It is simple to build. You do have to sand the joint between sections so the parachute will deploy but other than that, you can't go wrong. I love Aerotech's Fin-loc system.