Custom kit purchased from Hobby Lobby. Excellent two-stage rocket. This was only Blake's third rocket to build, but the craftsmanship was superb. I couldn't have built it any better, except I couldn't talk him into shaping the fins (he hates shaping the fins). Admittedly, I painted the rocket and put on most of the decals (Blake also hates water slide decals), but he did everything else and it fits to a tee. Nose cone is plastic.
First launch - Brad's place. Winds about 5mph, gusting to 10mph. Launched with C6-0 and B6-4. Incredible flight and excellent recovery. Blake noticed when repacking the chute that one of the shroud lines had separated from the chute. Blake says, "Grandpa, that might be good. It won't drift as far if the chute doesn't fully deploy." I decided to let him try it out. He seemed convinced it would work, and after all, he had seen plenty of bad recoveries by this point in time. Also, we had bypassed a number of launch opportunities because of excessive winds and it was getting late in the day, just before dusk. What an awesome sight! We could see the bright yellow flame from the back of the engine as it ascended through the first stage, then when the second stage kicked in it just rocketed upwards. Just as Blake had predicted, the partially open chute slowed the rocket enough to keep it from drifting too far but enough such that even though it landed on some rocks there was no damage. The lower stage landed only about 60 feet from the launch pad. The chute still hasn't been repaired.
Second launch - Brad's place, 6/16/01. Chute repaired. Ready to launch. Winds about 5mph, gusting to 10mph. Launched with C6-0 and C-6-5. Not sure what happened. Twisted going up, didn't drop lower stage and no ejection charge. At least we didn't see one. Buried up in the corn field across from Brad's place about 150 yards from the launch site. I went to look for it, but the corn was already up waist high. No way to find it. I think Blake will build another, though. That was only our second launch for the day. It was really hot, so we went home. We had enough frustration for one day.