Brief
The Machbuster is a great looking kit that is straightforward to build, has outstanding performance and is inexpensive to purchase. It uses 24mm motors from D12's through G55's with parachute recovery. With F and G motors the rocket will break the sound barrier and reach 900 miles an hour with the G55's.

Construction
The kit arrived the day after I ordered it. (Ok I only live about 10 miles from the factory!) Out of the package all of the parts were present and accounted for. The kit assembles easily from the instructions. Some sanding on the nose cone is required to get it to fit properly. The body tube is a very tough (nearly bullet proof) fiber phenolic, not the typical rolled tube. The nose cone is a thick and very tough molded plastic. Fins were G10. The shock cord is Kevlar as are the chute's shroud lines. The chute itself is a small white ripstop nylon. Directions were complete and easy to follow. The body tube was preslotted for the fins which were no problem to mount. Be sure to make epoxy fin fillets as this rocket is going to go very fast. Also most importantly I had to change the launch lug. The one supplied is TOO small. The rocket will bind on the launch rod going up with the lug supplied. I also added a second shorter (1/4" long) lug at the end of the rocket. This seems to work well, and though it isn't required it does seem to stabilize the rocket better. At the point where the shock cord anchors to the inside of the rocket body I made a couple of extra loops around the anchor and used slow setting epoxy for maximum strength.

Finishing
I painted the kit to match the factory design and with the decals it looks super sharp. No special finishing requirements to note.

Construction Rating: 4 out of 5

Flight
The Machbuster flies with wide range of motors. The smallest being the D12 and the largest is the G55. I have flown it so far with both D's and E's with very good results. The motors are a friction fit style mount and the key here is to make the fit a tight one.

Rocketvision supplies a Nomexpatch to be used as permanent wadding material. Though it works well it can get crusty from use and pose an impediment to ejection. I use several swatches of disposable wadding and it seems to work fine.

My first flight on a D12 was not so good. I am not sure what happened but as soon as it left the launch rod it took off in cruise missile mode about 40 feet off the deck. I found it about 200 yards away none the worse for wear. I suspect the small launch lug bound a bit on the rod. However I did talk to another rocketeer with a Machbuster who had the same problem. He added a small weight to the nose which seemed to help. After changing the launch lug and adding about .3 oz to the inside of the nose the next launch on a D12-7 was picture perfect. Straight as an arrow and chute deploy right at apogee. On D's at sea level it should do around 1300 feet. It is a mover even on D's.

Next flight was on an E30-7. This was quite impressive. This rocket is very fast. It was off the pad and out of sight quickly until we located the tracking smoke. Chute ejection was perfect. On E's the altitude should be approximately 3300 feet. The next flight will be on G55-15's The rocket should exceed Mach One and 6000 feet. Tracking this one will test the eyesight.

Recovery
Shock cord is Kevlar. Great for toughness and flame resistance. But bad for any kind of elastic give. So far it has worked very well. I changed the color of the chute to bright yellow and made it slightly bigger both to increase visibility and slow the descent slightly. (I fly it in the desert with lots of room and the occasional rock) Flying the rocket in fields with soft ground a streamer would be fine. With the G55's there is very little room for the stock chute let alone the wadding so it helps to tuck some of the shock lines into the nose cone.

Flight Rating: 4 ½ out of 5

Summary
This kit has been one of the most enjoyable rockets I have built. This was my first high performance (Mach one plus) kit. I learned a lot about sturdier materials used in high performance rockets and the motor/ delay combinations required for such a small rocket to keep it together after the recovery system deploys.

Awesome product. Great rocket. Incredible quickness going beyond Mach one. Beautiful appearance and ease of assembly. All for about $20. How can you beat that?

Overall Rating: 4 ½ out of 5