Brief: This is a great rocket. This is a great rocket. It was the second mid power rocket I built and it was very challenging yet easy enough for the average builder. This is the same for all Aerotech kits.  This kit runs on Aerotech composite motors. I would use an E15-4W at the least. 

Construction:  As with all Aerotech kits , the packaging was great and all the parts were there. None were broken. None were broken. Most of the materials were a phenolic base cardboard tubing. The kit had plastic, pre-cut fins. The kit had plastic, pre-cut fins. The instructions were fine but there was just one thing. I don't know if I have missed the step but I would stress lining up the fins, because you will CA the motor tube into the BT, and the Fin-Lok's won't be in place, so then , there goes that rocket.One more think I highly stress, you must fit in the fins all the way, yes, they do go in so that they are flush, you really have to push.

Finishing: To finish my rocket, I used Testor's model spray paint and painted it a Blue Camo pattern. (Gray, Lt. Blue, Dk. Blue, Black)  It came out really nice. Good visibility, too. I did not use the decals so don't ask me how those went on. They were peel-off not water-transfer. I also think that Aerotech's recommended paint job would be fine, but at Lucern Dry Lake, you would lose it even on an E15.  If you want to do camo on any of your rockets, just e-mail me on the technique, It is very simple.

Construction Rating: 4 out of 5

Flight: I used an F25 for my first flight. I used an F25 for my first flight. It was great, hardly any spinning, and it went off slow enough to get some great pictures. I just stuffed the motor in, no technique to that! This kit, like all Aerotech kits, did not use recovery wadding, they use a kinda meshy stuff that works great. The motor retention was a metal hook. you might want to friction fit also on a RMS. 

The second flight was on a G40. That was a very fast flight, to put it mildly. It hit about 2000 feet. It hit about 2000 feet. I plan on flying this on an H73 next month after certification. (L1) By the why I am certifying level 1 on a Public Enemy PSYCHO. 

Recovery: The recovery of this rocket did not impress me one bit. At about apogee , the parachute came out and just stripped right off the shrouds. Not a pretty sight!  So now I have a rocket with a steamer type recovery whipping around its 3-foot shock cord. Also during thrust, the rails flew off.  But back to the suspense, so I had a rocket coming down as fast as it went up. Well finally it landed and lucky for me, Lucern Landings help a lot. Needless to say the parachute was ruined. One of the ROC members found it on their car! I would switch to a Rocketman, myself, or even a Top Flight 24 inch parachute.

Flight Rating: 1 out of 5

Summary: This is a great kit building and thrusting wise.  I would immediately switch to a sturdier parachute and not put the decorative rails on at all. Overall this kit is worthwhile if you are willing to beef up construction and put another 20 bucks into it.

Overall Rating: 3.5 out of 5

UPDATED 10/00 - OK...this is really showing how dumb I was about rocketry 2 years ago. I just came back to see if my reviews were still there and can't believe I gave it a 1/5 in flight. Man, as I look at the video, it flew great, and it was my stupid building techniques that screwed it, so...oh well...its a really kewl rocket, but I still would go to a nicer parachute. Yea...this review is stupid,... I didn't know what I was talking about...but ok. And I would change the ratings to:

Brief:
This is a single stage 2.6" diameter by 37" tall rocket currently in production by Aerotech. It is called an "Advanced Model Rocket".

Construction:
I do not consider this to be an "Advanced Model Rocket" as it was quite simple to build. The first Aerotech kit that I built was a Cheetah. I enjoyed that one so much I purchased the Arreaux, G-Force and the Wart-Hog and built them all at the same time. This Wart-Hog Kit was originally built by me in 2002 yet after a break in rocketry I finished it in August 2004 with a simple paint job and parachute.

The instructions were very detailed, however, after building an Aerotech Cheetah before, I did not need nor use them.

This rocket is extremely easy to build. It only calls for "medium viscosity cyano acrylate cement" also known as "CA" or "Super Glue". That is all I used. It took about an hour to build. The hardest part of the build is getting the Fin-Lok rings onto the motor tube. I used a rubber mallet. The second hardest part is getting the fins into the Fin-Lok motor mount through the airframe. You really have to apply some pressure to get them to snap all the way in.

The recovery system mount is something I do not trust. It is a 6 foot long piece of elastic tied to a screw eye at the top of the baffle. I have seen this elastic dry out, become brittle and tear over time. If that is the only method of securing the recovery system, then it burns through or breaks there is no way to get back to the screw eye at the top of the baffle to replace it once the motor and baffle assembly is secured in place. I created a backup recovery mount to make sure I can keep flying this model over and over again made from a 500# test Kevlar® cord mounted through the motor mount. While on the first flight I will use the stock recovery system, my backup system is waiting and should outlast the life of the rocket. I also discarded the nice 24" cloth chute that came with the model kit and replaced it with a Cycline3 20" square Frankenchute to bring it down a little bit softer and quicker. I also doubled the snap swivels on the stock cord to match the 2 that come with a Cycline3 Frankenchute, so if one snap swivel should fail there is a backup as well.

Finishing:
Finishing was easy. As the entire airframe, fins and nose cone are all white, I skipped primer and just applied a single coat of Day-Glo Fluorescent Yellow. It's nice and bright and shows up good on the white surface. There are still spirals in the body tube but I built this to be light for performance, not for looks.

Construction Rating: 4 out of 5

Flight:
First flight was on a G80-10 at Challenger498 Rushing Park, Katy, Texas on 8-14-2004.

Recovery:
I believe the 6 foot long piece of elastic shock cord provided for the recovery system should be at least 30 feet long and there should be a backup recovery mount other than just securing the 6 foot long cord to a screw eye at the top of the baffle. If that fails, the rocket is retired.

Flight Rating: 4 out of 5

Summary:
This is an excellent rocket kit but it's a little on the pricey side. Current list price is $69.95. The quality is excellent and a simple build with just CA can result in a very durable high performance rocket. The recovery system in my opinion is not designed for repeated flights and should most certainly be upgraded with a secondary backup mount via Kevlar®. This modification is easy to make and will prevent you from saying "What do I do now?" when the stock elastic becomes too brittle and charred from the ejection charge. Again, repairing the shock cord is all but impossible since the shock cord cannot be reached at the top of the motor mount screw eye. It's an above average kit, a very nice introduction to mid-power for the novice and I highly recommend it.

Overall Rating: 4 out of 5

Brief:
This is a very versitile kit made by Aerotech. The motor selection is excellent. this rocket can fly on 24mm and 29mm single use or RMS motors. The kit provies a 29mm mount and a 24mm mount adapter.

Construction:
The parts are top quality, sturdy and include:

• Motor adaptor tube
• Adaptor rings
• E spacer tube
• Thrust ring
• Thrust ring flange
• Motor tube
• Motor hook
• Fin-Lok rings - 4 fin
• Centering rings
• Fins
• Cooling mesh
• Ejection gas baffle
• Screw eye
• Shock cord
• Body tube
• Launch lugs
• Nose cone (blow molded)
• Adhesive decal sheet
• Parachute (rip-stop nylon)
• "F" spacer tubes
• Channel tunnels
• Instructions

The instructions were straight forward and easy to follow. The actual build was easier than a lot of smaller model rockets I have built, mostly because there isn't any balsa to deal with. The nose cone and fins are plastic and CA is used throughout the build.

Finishing:
Finishing was fairly easy. The instructions caution the builder to make sure the paint is compatible with high impact polystyrene plastic. I used Painters Touch and had no problems.

I selected to paint the model close to what the box cover art reflects. I did not fill the tube spirals which weren't all that bad. I simply applied primer, sanded, re-applied primer and then the top coats.

The kit utilized stick on decals which are not my favorite type of decal, but they went on well and have not come off after over ten flights.

Construction Rating: 5 out of 5

Flight:
The rocket does not require wadding because it uses a Labyrinth ejection gas cooling system which works very well.

So far I have launched the rocket on the following 24mm RMS motors; E18-4w, E28-4W, F12-3J.

I've had some excellent flights and a couple of poor ones. The F12 didn't push the rocket to comfortable altitude, while the E28 really gets it up in a hurry. On the very first launch on an E28-4T one of the legs of my Estes Maxi Launch pad snapped off under the stress of the launch. Since that time I haven't had any other launch pad related issues.

This is a great flier. It's a very rugged rocket. The tip of one fin did break on one landing, but that's because it landed directly on a rock. I was able to repair the damage to my satisfaction with no adverse affects.

Recovery:
The rocket uses a long elastic shock cord that attaches to the ejection baffle with a screw eye. The chute is a bright yellow rip-stop nylong chute which does a very good job of bringing the rocket down safely.

Flight Rating: 5 out of 5

Summary:
This is a great kit for someone looking to step up from the standard low power model build to something that uses larger engines, has a lot of punch and can take a lot of abuse.

Overall Rating: 5 out of 5