Brief:
This is a sport upscale kit of the classic Mosquito. It is a simple and fun 3FNC rocket with lots of potential. The kit is built with a 29mm mount and comes with a 24mm adapter that allows you to fly it on anything from a D12 up to a G64 reload.

Construction:
I purchased this kit at a local hobby shop. All the pieces were there. 3 pre-cut balsa fins that were very nice quality. Balsa nose cone, streamer, one body tube 2 centering rings and a 29mm motor mount tube round out the rest of the kit. It also came with 2 tubes for making a 24mm adapter.

The instructions were nicely laid out in an 8 page booklet. An illustration accompanied nearly every step. As nice as the instructions are, I decided to take a little detour and try an experiment with the shock cord mount. The kit calls for the standard 3 fold paper mount glued inside the tube. I took a small snap swivel and attached it to one of the centering rings with a staple gun. I then bent the ends of the staples over to secure it more tightly to the centering ring. I then attached a 12" 30 pound fishing lead to the swivel. The rest of the kit assembly was very straightforward: round the fins edges, make the motor mount, glue it up, and you are ready to fly. I used regular wood glue as I only plan to put Ds and Es in it. The only thing I'd change is the included shock cord mount.

Finishing:
Nothing special needed in the finishing department. I am continuing to try new things with finishing. So for this model I watered down some Elmer's wood filler applied it to all the wood, waited for it to dry, then sand, sand, sand. The fins and nosecone came out great. One coat of gloss black for the body and fins and gloss red for the nose.

Construction Rating: 4 ½ out of 5

Flight:
I stuffed some wadding in, rolled up the streamer and off I went to wait in line. On it's first flight I used an E9-6. It flew straight and high. For motor retention, I went with a machine screw, washer and wing nut setup.

Recovery:
That was it for the day as one of the fins broke off on landing. Not sure why that happened as the streamer deployed nicely and it appeared to land softly. If I do fly it with a reload, I may put on a parachute...

Flight Rating: 4 ½ out of 5

Summary:
My 9 year old son and I really love this upsized kit. It can fly on a big field or small one. Very versatile. The only negative thing I can say about it is the design of the shock cord mount. For a rocket that is sized to run on G's, the 3 fold paper mount is not a good choice.

Overall Rating: 4 ½ out of 5

Brief:
The US Rockets (USR) Mosquito 2.2 is an easy to build ~4.5x upscale of the perennial Estes kit. (The 2.2 refers to the diameter of the airframe in inches.) While still lightweight--less than 5oz completed--it does come back on streamer recovery. It flies on smaller 29mm motors and even comes with an adapter so 24mm motors can be used.

Construction:
The kit includes:

• 1 2.25" ogive balsa nose cone
• 1 9" x 2.25" body tube
• 2 birch ply centering rings
• 1 4" long 29mm motor tube
• 1 screw eye
• 1 3-fold paper shock cord mount
• 1 60" x 1/4" elastic shock cord
• 3 1/4" balsa fins
• 1 1/4" launch lugs
• 1 60" x 3" plastic streamer
• 1 24mm motor adapter kit
• Decals
• Instruction manual
• Advanced Information Report (AIR) #1 -- Motor Installation

After several recent challenging rocket builds, I needed to build something that had more instant gratification and kept to basic build techniques. The U.S. Rockets Mosquito proved to be a more than worthwhile distraction. With so few parts and pre-cut surface mount fins, perhaps the greatest challenge was sanding a nice even taper on the long leading and trailing edges of the fins. A sanding block with 150 grit sandpaper still made reasonably short work of this task. Using masking tape (or alternately, drawing lines) on the fins assured an even taper on all sides of the fins.

The centering rings were glued and filleted near the ends of the motor mount tube with yellow wood glue (aliphatic resin). Yellow wood glue was in fact used for the entire build. While the motor mount was drying, I used the marking guide in the instructions and my Estes Fin Alignment tool to mark the fins and launch lug lines the length of the short body tube.

Allowing the motor mount a few more minutes to dry, I inserted the screw eye into the base of the nose cone, twisted it back out, and then squeezed a small amount of polyurethane glue into the hole before reinserting the screw eye. Then I used a X-Acto knife to cut the 2" long launch lug in half at a 45 degree angle. Lastly I glued the fins onto the body tube with the trailing edge even with the aft end of the tube using the double glue method (lightly glue, press the fin onto the body tube, pull it away, wait a minute, apply more glue on fin, place the fin back on the tube, and allow to dry fully). I did that for each of the 3 fins keeping a close eye on their alignment. The launch lugs were tacked on the tube at the aft end and 6" up. A couple layers of fillets had the fins and launch lugs firmly attached.

With the fins and motor mount dry, I put a generous amount of glue inside the aft end of the body tube and slide the motor mount up until the aft end of the motor tube was flush with the aft end of the body tube. I set it aside and let it dry overnight.

I waited until after all of the painting had been done to install the shock cord, which uses the familiar tri-fold paper mount inside the airframe and ties to the screw eye. To make the streamer portable, I tied a snap swivel onto one end. A small loop was tied in the shock cord to clip the streamer to.

I did not bother to assemble the 24mm motor adapter. This is one of many USR kits I've built to date that already use the same adapter. I'll save the tubes for another project...

Finishing:
No surprises here. The nose cone was on the rough side but a couple coats of Elmer's Fill 'n' Finish along with some sanding had it smoothed out in no time. The fins received a similar treatment but only needed one coat of FNF. USR tubes are so smooth. I didn't have to fill any spirals and jumped right in to laying down the primer. A couple of coats along with sanding afterwards had it ready for the classic Mosquito paint job of yellow nose cone and one fin with red body tube and two fins. I added one of the smaller USR logo stickers on the body tube and the "U.S. Rockets Mosquito 2.2" decals on each side of the yellow fin as a final touch!

Construction Rating: 4 ½ out of 5

Flight:
In an attempt to get it back from its first flight, I loaded up a E9-8 along with the 24mm adapter from another of my USR kits. The delay according to RockSIM should be a little on the late side with this motor but with the light weight of the rocket and the streamer recovery, that will hopefully translate into a short walk for recovery. That was the plan anyway...

I loaded it up on the pad at a large soccer field at a local private school as a demo launch for a group of students. The winds were pretty strong but we had flown several rockets up to 500ft and they had all recovered on the field. I pushed the launch button and watched it go! The long burn E9 didn't have make the rocket leave the pad in a blur but it got going quick enough and pushed the Mosquito to well over 500ft as seen in the previous flights of other rockets. It was however (thankfully) always visible during flight unlike the original Mosquito. Ejection was just past apogee as intended and the streamer quickly unfurled. The winds really took hold of the rocket and took it for a ride. In fact, it drifted pretty far, clearing the field and one of the school buildings. On the other side of the building was a couple of trees and it landed comfortably about 20 feet up in one of those trees. Several students and I took turns climbing the tree but none of us were able to get close enough to retrieve it. A teacher did bring up a telescoping pole and that proved to be exactly what was needed to get it down. The shock cord was broken from pulling on it and the rocket suffered some dents and dings during this process but the damage was minor. It will fly again! Plus I felt pretty good after snatching my rocket back from the evil clutches of the rocket gods!

I would like to fly it again in the future on a much higher thrust motor to get that "authentic" Mosquito flight experience...

Recovery:
The 60" long neon pink plastic streamer should limit any long walks for recovery and allow for easy tracking post-ejection on calm days. A shorter streamer and/or longer motor delay should be used on windy days. I used dog barf cellulose wadding to protect the streamer. This was more than adequate for 24mm BP motors.

Flight Rating: 5 out of 5

Summary:
The U.S. Rockets Mosquito 2.2 is a fun upscale of a classic LPR that can be built and prepped in a very short time. Perhaps the greatest advantage to this version is that you can actually track it during flight and expect a very good chance of flying it more than one time, unlike the original. This also would make a good transition kit for someone looking to make the move from LPR to MPR.

Overall Rating: 5 out of 5

Brief:
This is an upscale of the classic Estes Mosquito. It comes with a 29mm motor mount and a 24mm adaptor with streamer recovery.

Construction:
This kit is simple to build with one body tube, 3 pre-cut very thick balsa fins and a balsa nosecone. The motor mount is made of plywood centering rings and a heavy wall motor mount tube. The 24mm adapter is included.

This is a very easy and quick kit to build. The fins are glued to the body so they may be prone to breaking. Not counting painting, the total build time was less than one hour.

The shock cord is a black bungee cord type. Although like the Estes type cord, it is at least three times as heavy. It's mounted the same way and Estes cord is mounted.

The kit comes with a simple 29mm to 24mm adaptor. It consists of a tube within a tube. Assembly is done by gluing one tube into the other. The great thing about it is you can use it for any rocket.

Finishing:
Finishing was a bit tougher than kits with plastic nose cones. If you have ever painted a balsa nose cone, then you know the difficulties in getting a good finish. This is a giant balsa nose cone so it took quite awhile to get the grain sealed. The body tube is glassine coated so there are no spirals to fill here.

This kit comes with several heavy stickers to plaster around as you see fit. I went with the classic Estes mosquito paint scheme.

Construction Rating: 4 ½ out of 5

Flight:
The first flight was perfect on a C11-3. The streamer unfurled completely and the rocket came down nicely. Although it landed softly, one of the fins broke off. A line of CA gel fixed it in no time. The second launch was less than an hour later and the flight was again picture perfect. This time it landed quite a bit rougher, but no broken fins.

Flight Rating: 4 ½ out of 5

Summary:
This is a great little kit, although I don't think I would launch it on a 29mm motor. Ease of build and perfect flights make this a great rocket for your fleet and a joy to build.

Overall Rating: 4 ½ out of 5