Brief:
This is a big hammer-headed rocket for double D-engine power and recovers with a big parachute.

Construction:
Kit came in the typical plastic bag. Consists of:

• Plastic nose cone
• A plastic transition
• BT60 payload section
• 2 BT50 motor tubes
• 2 AR2050 centering rings used as thrust rings
• 2 different lengths of BT70

• One serves as a fin can
• Other serves as a recovery system bay

• 2 motor-retainer hooks
• 2 sets of cardstock centering rings
• A heavy rubber band shock cord
• 2 different sizes of launch lugs (quarter-inch and three-sixteenths)
• Sheet of laser-cut balsa fins
• 24" preassembled parachute
• A pair of plastic shrouds to taper the BT70s into the dual BT50s

I attached the fins with thin CA and filleted with white glue. This is one that really REQUIRES either laser-cut fins or a different fin shape. The fins were all curves. Another virtue to laser-cut fins is that the process seems to require HARD balsa which makes for sturdier fins.

It plugged together very well, all told.

Finishing:
I deviated from the given color scheme, opting for the simpler one shown in my picture. I used tube-type plastic cement as balsa filler on the fins then basecoated the tubes black with spray enamel. The nosecone, transition and shrouds received a coat of red, some from a spray can and some from a bottle of Testor's acrylic.

Very nice waterslide decals, but they were so thin I had trouble with one set intended for the fins and decided to just paint that fin black.

Construction Rating: 4 out of 5

Flight:
Flew at my friend Darrell's place.

Flight #1 was on two D12-5s. Stuffed four squares of Estes tissue wadding down each motor tube and laid four more on the floor of the BT70 parachute bay. Jeez! TWELVE SQUARES of wadding per flight! Time to seriously consider a pair of baffles for this bird. Flew like the devil was after it. Straight and true to about 1000ft. Then drifted quite a ways under that 24" chute which popped right at apogee.

Flight #2 was on a pair of D12-7s, with an 18" chute replacing the 24". Same twelve squares of tissue. Really nice straight boost to 975 feet or so, parachute deployment just after apogee which resulted in much less drift under an 18" chute. Lesson learned - use an 18" for normal flights and save the 24" for payloading.

Recovery:
The 36 D Squared came with an Estes rubber band shock cord and their traditionl trifold mount. I went back to an old way - slotted the tube twice across its long axis, threaded the cord through and glued the outer surface. Need to use an 18" parachute for flying with empty payload bay and save that 24" for payload lifting. This beauty is big enough to hold an egg and DEFINITELY powerful enough to lift it.

Flight Rating: 4 out of 5

Summary:
Main PROs: Big rocket, easy to see, fairly easy to build, monster payload area.

Only CON: Expensive to fly, both for reasons of two "D" motors and lots of wadding needed. Baffle, baffle, who's got a baffle?

Overall Rating: 4 out of 5