I received a Estes AIM-9 sidewinder kit for Christmas. The kit came in a box and I am sure it was bought a WAL-MART for $10.00 (great price).

The instructions were standard Estes with only 2 confusing parts and I got them figured out with the help from my local club buds . The fins are thru-the-wall mount, very strong but the balsa was very soft (for a good reason), the rear fins had to be glued together. I just CA'ed them with the gap filling kind. All of the parts fit well but the rear fin slot was very wide, the diagram showed that you turn the fin so that all the fins turn in the same direction. Contrary to popular thinking they are to be turned not straight like most fins. This was one of those confusing parts in the directions but everyone said they go on straight but the illustration showed the offset. So I went against what my friends told me to do: offset the rear fins, my thinking came from looking at the picture on the box with the spinning smoke trail.

The decals didn't fit well. The color band didn't wrap all the way around the tube so I put all the seams in line with each other on the side of the launch lug (good move it hides all seams while on the rod).

The model is very sturdy but, heavy as I attempted to launch it on a A8-3 (not a recommended motor) and it almost crashed, ejection was at 4 or 5 feet off the ground but no damage! Sturdiness is rated at a 4, assembly was a 3 because the card stock tube wrappers are hard to get tight to the tube. Not to mention the fin offset was hard till I thought about it and I used yellow glue at the root and CA'd the rear of the fin to one side and bent it over at the front and CA'd it there, it worked great. It comes down in two parts, so getting everything in there neat and not too tight was tricky.

Now every other kit review of the Sidewinder said it was very unstable (my thinking was they put the fins on without the offset because mine was the straightest rocket I own, not to mention the way it spun just like the photo on the box and had a spinning smoke trail!

I rate flight as a 5 . The only thing I didn't like about the recovery was the fact that I launched (I used a Estes C6-5) it for my mom when it was done to show her the gift she bought and a tree ate the rocket. The nose cone escaped certain death as it recovered fine. But if the tree was not there I would give recovery a 5, the two parts would have been close together. Sorry no pictures I would need a super zoom lens it is hanging over 100 feet up. This is a truly fun kit to fly it just takes a little time to build it right, have fun with yours!