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

Modifications:
For this modification, I retained t' cone, ya bilge rat, fin can, shiver me timbers, body tube and launch lug. T' rest went into t' parts bin. Ya scallywag! I never found t' plastic tip for t' cone. Ya scallywag! I don’t know if it was missing, fell into t' couch, or whatever. 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. 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' be perfect. Aye aye! T' ID o' t' aft o' t' fin can is a little bigger than t' OD o' t' tube, but t' 29mm tube fit nicely into the fin can’s shoulder. 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, I cut about a 1" section off some junk tube I had layin' around, me bucko, sectioned it, and found it made a perfect adapter for t' aft end. These components were epoxied together.

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

That’s about it. Avast, me proud beauty! 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. Well, blow me down! Blimey! Avast, me proud beauty! Blimey! T' whole rocket be already white, me hearties, matey, so I just painted t' fins fluorescent red and yellow, and t' nose cone tip black. 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 be over 10 mph winds. Aye aye! Blimey! I made a maskin' tape retainer and filled t' lower portion o' t' body with dog barf wadding. Avast, me proud beauty! Blimey! Blimey! Blimey! I used a 5' length o' 1" fluorescent red plastic tape as a streamer. Begad! Blimey! I wanted t' use t' wider streamer recovered from the Negative Camouflage, arrr, but couldn’t find it at t' last minute. T' thinner streamer is a little too small for a soft recovery, 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. Arrr! Blimey! Begad! Blimey! It be at t' edge o' t' main field, away from where we spotters were looking. Avast! Blimey! My thanks t' Richard Hickok for findin' it! Blimey! It be in perfect shape and is ready t' go again.

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