Brief:
THe Honest John is a 38mm motor high power rocket single stage scale kit with parachute recovery.

Construction:
Kit arrived in good shape from Rocket Garden. Kit had a very impressive two-piece nose cone, one large body tube, a shorter body tube (electronics bay), four pre-shaped large fins, two stout wooden centering rings, and a very adequate harness supplies. I chose to upgrade the chute to a 60" Spherachute.

The instructions were pretty simple and straightforward. No problems as everything fit well and was prepped very nicely from the factory. One great thing about this and all Public Enemy kits is the way you pre assemble the fin and engine mount system before installing it into the tube. It allows easy access for reinforcement with fiberglass or epoxy. I glassed all of the joints to the motor tube. It added a little weight but is very strong. I added the old nut and bolt motor retention that has always worked great for me.

Finishing:
I finished my kit in the white sands theme of black and white. I used Krylon primer over the entire model and put several coats on the nose to get it to stick. I painted every thing gloss white, then added black highlights with either black Krylon or black Monokote adhesive to finish to scale. Lastly, I printed out some decals on my computer to really add scale qualities to the kit.

Construction Rating: 5 out of 5

Flight:
My first flight was with a 3-grain Cesaroni Pro38. It really took off slow and realistic. After the engine quit burning the rocket sounded like a bomb whistling, which was really cool. The seven second delay on the motor made for deployment just past apogee. The 60" Spherachute deployed perfectly, bringing the big missile down without a scratch. The flight was perfect very stable and slow.

Recovery:
Everything was great with recovery setup and construction. Public Enemy kits come with very heavy nylon strap along with quality chutes. I usually put in larger chutes in all of my kits due to rocky area and altitude I launch from. (Thin air = fast fall. The 60" chute brings the HJ down real slow and soft.

Flight Rating: 4 out of 5

Summary:

Motor tube out of the body assembly is a real bonus for ease of beefing things up and alignment. All I did different was add a bigger chute. I love the sound it makes during flight.

Overall Rating: 5 out of 5