Brief:
A new pseudo-scale military single-stage rocket with SAM appeal.

Construction:
This one was sold at my local Wal-Mart store in a cardboard box. Parts included were a motor mount tube, an engine hook, a long adapter ring, an engine block, a main body tube, an upper body tube, a balsa transition, a balsa nose cone, a sheet of laser-cut balsa fins, four hardwood strips, a launch lug, a screw eye, a 24" rubber band shock cord, a 12" parachute, and a classy sheet of three-color waterslide decals. All parts were there and undamaged.

Estes continues their tradition of well-written instructions; clear and orderly. Construction begins as usual with the motor mount. I am a bit disappointed with this in one way and glad of it in another. The motor mount consists of the traditional motor retainer hook, short body tube, and thrust ring, but the centering rings are replaced by an inch-long fiber ring. It's solid, but probably heavier than a pair of the thick 2050 rings everyone is used to. I added a Kevlar®-elastic recovery harness to the motor mount by using a Mylar motor clip ring at the front of the mount to hold a Kevlar® line end.

The fins went on straight without a hitch thanks to the wraparound marking guide included, and I used Aleene's Fast Grab white crafter's glue to assemble the rocket.

PROs: Nice parts, crisp laser cutting, slick tubes.

CONs: Had to add the Kevlar® to the recovery harness.

Finishing:
Since I rarely use white spray paint, I used a silver base coat with a blue color on the upper section. I applied four rubbed-in coats of white glue to all the balsa before applying paint and brushed the fins with three coats of black acrylic paint. I made one minor error on the painting: I painted the transition blue when it should have been the lower-rocket color. I feel the result only impacted the aesthetics, so I'll leave it alone. The waterslide decals went on easily.

PROs: Easy three-color paint scheme, nice decals.

CONs: Instructions weren't clear about painting the transition the base color.

Construction Rating: 4 out of 5

Flight:
I flew the Ricochet using four squares of Estes paper wadding each flight. First flight was on an A8-3. Straight as an arrow to 230 feet with parachute deploying just after apogee. Second flight was on a B6-4. Same song, second verse with an apogee of 577 feet. I swapped the parachute for a 24" streamer for the third flight on a C6-5. It topped out at 1120 feet and landed softly some twenty feet from my launcher.

Flight PROs: Nice straight boost, good selection of motors to choose from.

Flight CONs: You could lose this one with too much parachute.

Recovery:
I replaced the rubber shock cord with a Quest-type Kevlar®-elastic harness. Each recovery was just after apogee. No burning, wear, or damage.

Recovery PROs: Worked as advertised.

Recovery CONs: See flight CON above.

Flight Rating: 4 out of 5

Summary:
This is a good mass-market rocket, easy to build but still requiring construction, with a nice SAM feel to it. Definitely an excellent rocket. If you built it with minor modifications it might be contest-suited for the Quadrathon event.

Overall PROs: Classy rocket, easy build but still a build, nicely thought out.

Overall CONs; None worth sweating...add a section of Kevlar® to the recovery harness to fix the only trivial issue I have.

Overall Rating: 4 ½ out of 5