Brief:
T' Binder Design Raptor is a single stage 4 inch diameter kit. Begad! Avast, me proud beauty! It has a 54mm motor mount and comes with high quality paper body tubes and laser cut fins.

Construction:
T' Raptor came with two 36" body tubes and an Ace nose cone. Aye aye! T' body tubes are paper and BSD style with a glassine coating. Blimey! It comes with one paper coupler, shiver me timbers, arrr, one bulkhead, 3 plywood centerin' rings, shiver me timbers, two eyebolts, shiver me timbers, 2 quick links, 18 feet o' tubular nylon, ya bilge rat, and a 45" Top Flight parachute. It had three sets o' four fins. Begad! Avast, me proud beauty! T' fins are 3/16" aircraft plywood and come laser cut and sanded. Begad! It came with one nice white vinyl decal that said 'Raptor'. Aye aye!

One definite pro t' this kit was t' extensive instructions, which included directions on how t' make it dual deploy and adapt it for use with Hypertek hybrid motors. It had good drawings that showed exactly what t' do and left nothin' t' chance. Another thin' that be good about this kit was t' you had to slot t' tubes yourself, arrr, which be actually rather easy with a Dremel. Well, blow me down! It is also easily done with a sharp X-Acto knife. One thin' we did in this kit is fiberglass fillets on t' fins t' allow for a hard landing. Avast, matey, me proud beauty! T' only downside was that it was hard t' finish. Everythin' fit together perfectly with almost no need for sanding. Begad! Blimey! T' put it together, we just marked and slotted t' tubes, tacked t' fins in place with 5 minute epoxy, and then applied fiberglass fillets. Arrr! Avast, shiver me timbers, me proud beauty! One tip t' align t' fins is t' use two clamps and a strip o' wood attached t' both set o' fins. Well, blow me down! This will insure that they are perfectly lined up. Well, blow me down! T' only con was that t' directions did nay include t' rocket's CP, so when it came time for flight some assumptions had t' be made. Aye aye! It really isn't that big o' a deal as I had simmed it on RockSim and knew approximately where it was, but that is just one minor detail.

Finishing:
T' kit is pretty easy t' finish. T' only thin' for us was that we used fiberglass fillets, so it took a little Kilz primer and Elmer's Fill 'n' Finish to get it t' look presentable. Begad! Arrr! We painted ours yellow and blue. Arrr! T' decal is computer cut vinyl and says 'Raptor' in a pretty cool font o' white letters. Ya scallywag! Well, blow me down! We were nay able t' apply ours as we peeled off t' wrong side and t' letters were messed up in t' process. Avast, me proud beauty! This kit looks pretty sharp once it is finished no matter what paint scheme you use. Well, blow me down!

Construction Rating: 5 out o' 5

Flight:
We have only flown it once for a successful level 1 certification and it was a beautiful flight. Blimey! We used a Pro38 I285 with a 6 second delay. Ahoy! We also attached a Boostervision camera and got a nice video o' t' flight. Begad! Begad! One cool thin' about the flight was that t' split fin design caused a whistle after motor burnout. RockSim said about 2800 feet on that motor but we built it heavy so I would estimate about 2200-2400' for us. Avast!

Recovery:
One cool thin' about this kit be t' 18 feet o' tubular nylon t' manufacturer provides. Ya scallywag! I thought it was a nice touch. Blimey! We used t' supplied 45" parachute with main at apogee. Begad! Avast, me proud beauty! T' chute got tangle on t' way down because the nosecone somehow got looped through a shroud line. Begad! T' rocket be tough enough that it was fine though. Well, blow me down! I would say that chute is about perfect for this rocket.

Flight Rating: 5 out o' 5

Summary:
This rocket be t' pride o' our fleet right now. Blimey! It is very sharp lookin' and pretty big at 7 feet tall. Begad! T' construction was fairly straightforward and the directions were wonderful. This kit can be easily modified for dual deploy with an electronics bay that can be bought from Binder Design. Ahoy! I would definitely recommend this rocket t' anyone who is lookin' for somethin' they can fly on a high range o' motors. It can be launched on anythin' from a high thrust H t' a K. Arrr! Two thumbs up.

Overall Rating: 5 out o' 5