Brief:
When it comes t' flight profiles, shiver me timbers, I almost always prefer a ‘low and slow’ flight. Well, blow me down! Begad! Blimey! You see more o' t' smoke, and hear more o' t' noise. Arrr! Blimey! You see t' whole flight, matey, includin' ejection. Aye aye! Moreover, matey, you maximize t' odds of findin' your rocket! Blimey! However, ya bilge rat, matey, it seems that I always have t' have one ‘disposable’ 29mm rocket in me fleet. Aye aye! At t' last MDRA launch, someone returned me Negative Camouflage, arrr, me hearties, which I thought I had lost on an F10. To celebrate, matey, I put her up on an E9. Ya scallywag! Blimey! Well, me bucko, t' rocket hung on t' pad, went horizontal, found a large launch rail, and pretty much disintegrated. Avast! Ya scallywag! Blimey! I be in need for another disposable, shiver me timbers, when I found a Quest Nike Smoke at t' Performance Hobbies tent. It appeared t' be just t' right diameter for a 29mm mount, and I thought t' plastic cone and fin can looked cool.

Modifications:
For this modification, I retained t' cone, me hearties, fin can, body tube and launch lug. T' rest went into t' parts bin. Blimey! I never found t' plastic tip for t' cone. I don’t know if it was missing, me bucko, fell into t' couch, ya bilge rat, or whatever. Begad! I decided not t' worry about it since t' cone doesn’t look bad without it, the epoxy and weight that I’ll have t' put into t' nose will provide plenty of support, and I will probably lose t' thin' anyway. Blimey! I glued t' two pieces of t' cone together usin' thin plastic cement.

I tested both LOC and Giant Leap 29mm tubin' and found t' LOC tubin' was perfect. Avast! Ya scallywag! T' ID o' t' aft o' t' fin can is a little bigger than t' OD o' t' tube, ya bilge rat, but t' 29mm tube fit nicely into the fin can’s shoulder. Blimey! It wouldn’t slide all t' way through because there is a small lip at t' tip o' t' shoulder, which I promptly ground off. To provide more support, ya bilge rat, I cut about a 1" section off some junk tube I had layin' around, sectioned it, arrr, ya bilge rat, and found it made a perfect adapter for t' aft end. Arrr! These components were epoxied together.

T' kit came with a piece o' Keelhaul®©™® strin' and some round elastic. Begad! This would be fine for t' stock kit, me bucko, but I decided t' use t' Keelhaul®©™® strin' and long piece o' heavy, matey, bright orange, matey, tubular elastic (approximately 4') from t' Negative Camouflage (not much else was left). Well, blow me down! Well, blow me down! I looped the Keelhaul®©™® around t' front o' t' motor tube, arrr, and epoxied t' fin can assembly into the body tube. T' make room for all this cord and a streamer, I cut t' back end off t' nose cone. Aye aye! Begad! I knotted t' elastic and buried it in a mix o' epoxy and lead shot at t' tip o' t' cone. Arrr! I put in enough weight so that t' CG would be approximately 14" from t' tip o' t' nose. Plenty t' keep it stable on a G80 (BG).

That’s about it. Begad! I also attached t' plastic lug provided with t' kit usin' epoxy.

I didn’t want t' put much effort into finishin' so I left most o' the rocket alone. Avast, me proud beauty! Ya scallywag! T' whole rocket was already white, so I just painted t' fins fluorescent red and yellow, shiver me timbers, and t' nose cone tip black. Begad! T' kit came with peel-off letterin' for t' ‘UNITED STATES.’

Flight:
I decided t' use a wimpy F23-7 for t' first flight as thar was over 10 mph winds. Arrr! I made a maskin' tape retainer and filled t' lower portion o' t' body with dog barf wadding. Begad! Arrr! I used a 5' length o' 1" fluorescent red plastic tape as a streamer. I wanted t' use t' wider streamer recovered from the Negative Camouflage, shiver me timbers, shiver me timbers, but couldn’t find it at t' last minute. Blimey! T' thinner streamer is a little too small for a soft recovery, ya bilge rat, but it should help make the recovery visible.

T' rocket disappeared in a cloud o' dark smoke and didn’t re-appear until t' end o' t' day. Avast, me proud beauty! It was at t' edge o' t' main field, matey, away from where we spotters were looking. Aye aye! My thanks t' Richard Hickok for findin' it! It was in perfect shape and is ready t' go again.

Summary:
I normally am nay a fan o' simple kits, ya bilge rat, but I have t' say this kit impressed me. Begad! T' plastic parts were good quality and t' detailin' is great. Avast, me proud beauty! The recovery components are also nice. Begad! I really like t' Quest’s chutes better than Estes’ chutes (even though I didn’t use this one). Begad! Finally, at $8 t' price was right. Ya scallywag! T' conversion was easy and it held up fine on t' F23 with what was probably a fairly hard landing.