The Estes AIM-9 Sidewinder is a popular scale model kit of a air-to-air missile that has served US and NATO air forces for about 40 years and still running strong.  

This rocket is a challenging build, not for the first-timer. It is also a challenger to fly, as it tends to live up to its  name and give some "sidewinding" flights.  

INSTRUCTIONS:
The instructions are the usual good Estes ones, illustrated, numbered and easy to follow. No special tools were needed.

EASE OF BUILD:
For a challenging kit with a lot of wood, this went rather well. Tricky parts are the fuselage bands and the rear fins, which must be glued together from several pieces. Through-the-wall construction makes this a sturdy kit to fly, even with the large amount of wood that it carries aloft. All parts were provided in my kit, and the fit and alignment were very good.

QUALITY:
This kit is very sturdy and has survived several hard landings. I even had a main chute failure (plastic chutes seem to do that to me) and the main section came out undamaged despite being caught by a tree after a fast descent.  

The self-stick decals are very good, although the edges tend to curl after time. Use plenty of clear spray after applying the decals to help keep them on.

This is an excellent looking scale model, even after I've built it. I am no scale competitor, I'm happy if I get the right color paint and all of the decals stick. But if you're a scale model perfectionist, this kit could be a lot of fun (although you would want to change the front fins to make them a bit more authentic) 

FLYING:
The first good thing I did to this rocket is to take the 18mm motor mount and chuck it into my parts box. I replaced it with a 24mm motor mount. This rocket does not fly very well on a C6-3, but it flies great with a D12-5.

Unfortunately, I followed up that triumph with a minor mistake. I thought that two chutes were a bit much, so I tried to launch it with the nose cone tied to the body tube with shock cord and only one 18" chute. Big mistake. Use two chutes. If you use only one, the nose cone bangs into the body tube and the forward fins get shredded or snapped off.

I use a tiny 8" chute for the nose cone, and it works great.

Flying this bird can be tricky, due to the large amount of wood. In any amount of wind, it is a bit like Laurel and Hardy with a big sheet of plywood. It will go just about everywhere but straight up. Even in a calm wind, this rocket spins more than my Corkscrew.

Make sure to put in plenty of nose weight if you fly this with a "D" or it may be unstable.

RATING:
I would rate this rocket with 3 ½ points. It has some definite stability problems which Estes should engineer out, and it also is underpowered with the standard 18mm motor mount. But it is a good scale model and interesting to fly.

UPDATE 5/99:

Thank you for the feedback, it was useful and some was entertaining. Flying this rocket on an A8-3, having it go sideways into a crowd, and having a tree catch it after being launched with a C6-5 were all :^)

I flew this ugly balsa bird for almost two years, then it sailed away in a high wind and buzzards picked it clean.

I am now looking at a Python kit for a larger Sidewinder kit bash and will get back to you all if I ever get it built.