Brief:
This is BSD's 38mm version of their 3" Sprint. It is called the Canadian Sprint due to it's 38mm motor mount which is perfect for using Cesaroni Pro38 reloads since they are easy to get in Canada. It's a single staged high power rocket that uses parachute recovery. This rocket is named the "Texan Sprint". The name "Sprint" is based on the vintage Estes Astron Sprint from the late 60's and early 70's as it is a very large upscale of that sport model which had elliptical fins. This rocket, however, does not have the correct shaped nose cone or boat-tail, so it only vaguely resembles the original "Sprint".

Construction:
I ordered this kit directly from BSD's website and it arrived in record time. Seemed like only a few days later and here it was. I was impressed with the price of only $60 with free shipping.

Everything was in perfect order when it arrived. The instructions looked superb yet I only used them for the motor mount and retention. There was a component checklist where someone had checked off all parts with a pen to make sure the kit was complete. That was nice attention to detail. The decals look great however being down here in Texas I decided to opt out of the Canadian theme.

This rocket was quite simple to build. The area which took the longest was cutting the fin slots in the body tube. The instructions state to use a very sharp new X-Acto blade and that did in fact make the process painless. The entire build took less than 4 hours over a period of a few days. The plywood through-the-wall fins are excellent quality as well as all of the components included. The finished rocket feels very strong and looks nice.

I ran into one small problem. The kit included 4 small black plastic rivets to secure the nose cone onto the payload bay however there were no instructions regarding how to install them. The instructions included with the kit listed a phone number for support which I called several times over a two day period yet it was an answering machine and my call was never returned. Finally a Texas club member Ed Medina located the instructions and posted them for me on a group email list.

Finishing:
I decided to go with a retro look and covered the whole rocket with a full can of white primer. I then used gloss white for the main airframe, and John Deere yellow for the nose cone and payload bay. The white and yellow combination does in fact make it look like a very large version of the vintage Estes original Sprint in it's original paint scheme. The nose cone never cared for paint from the start. The primer seemed to go on rough and some of the yellow paint came off in the car on the way home.

Construction Rating: 4 out of 5

Flight:
I tested this rocket before paint on September 6, 2004, on a CTI Pro38 G69 at Rushing Park in Katy, Texas with the Challenger 498 club. It did fine and landed about 300 feet north of the pad. After the test flight I felt good about using it to cert on an H.

I used this rocket for my Tripoli Level 1 Certification at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas on September 18, 2004, during the NHRC's 2004 Wacky Wockets/V2 Contest. It was my first flight of the day and I had selected a Cesaroni Pro38 H153. I set the delay to about 10 seconds and fully prepped the rocket in the presence of my Tripoli Prefect Mr. Dan DeHart. My first H powered bird ripped off the pad just beautifully with a very stable flight to about 2000 feet and landed very gently in the grass about 200 feet from the pad. The flight and recovery were an absolute success and I am now TRA L1.

Recovery:
The 10 second delay seemed to be about perfect and the 30" chute that came with the rocket was also perfect. I also liked the 10 foot long heavy duty elastic shock cord. I have no complaints about the recovery system. It is high quality, simple, and does the job.

Flight Rating: 5 out of 5

Summary:
This is a fine quality rocket kit for a great price. I am very pleased with it and I love the way it looks and performs. Since the vintage Estes Astron Sprint was the first high performance rocket I ever built back in the 70's, it seemed that a really large Sprint was a great choice for my L1. I don't really care for the Canadian theme as the only difference in this and BSD's other 3" Sprint is the 38mm motor mount. I wanted the 38mm version to be able to use CTI Pro38 reloads which are also easy to get in Texas. And since everything is bigger in Texas, I think this rocket should be available as the "Texas Sprint" as I have named mine.

One final thing that I found to be quite annoying is that the motor retention that comes with the kit appears to have allen wrench hex shaped indention but no allen wrench will fit in them. They are not American standard nor metric. Getting them tight with a pair of pliers was very tedious (it took me about 10 minutes). I wanted to fly it at least three times on H motors, but with the heat index being well over 100 and the retention being such a pain I decided to save future flights for another day as I plan on flying it quite a bit more. Overall I am very pleased with it and I do recommend it for anyone considering going for their Level 1 certification. It's not very expensive, flies beautifully, and gets the job done.

Overall Rating: 4 out of 5

I am very grateful to the Houston clubs of which I am a member, Challenger498, NHRA and NHRC for the education and excellent fields that are available in the Houston area. When I decided to join the clubs a few years ago it was with aspirations of learning about high powered rocketry and reaching certification levels. The Houston clubs and people who run them are outstanding and I have them to thank for the education that has resulted in my highest achievement in rocketry to date.