Brief:
This is a nice and small 4FNC offering by SureFire Rocketry. The recovery system is a bright yellow streamer. It comes bagged, and is a Level 1 kit.

Construction:
This rocket came with one body tube, a one piece nosecone, standard 18mm engine block, with metal engine hook, a simple rubber shockcord and mount, and a bright yellow streamer.

This was an extremely easy build. The instructions were clear and very easy to follow. It is your simple, basic, 4FNC rocket.

What surprised me was that the fins, although they were made of balsa, were not die-cut. They were already cut out and wrapped in an elastic band. When I saw this, I expected them to be dinged up on the edges, but they were perfect. All through the instructions, SureFire kept saying how, unlike other manufacturers, they supplied their fins already cut out.

It did come with the rubber shockcord and paper mount, Estes-style. I was not thrilled with this at all. Next one I make gets the Kevlar.

PRO: Easy build, simple instructions, pre-cutout fins.

CON: Estes-style shockcord. Minus 1/2 point for the cord.

Finishing:
Finishing was simple. Standard sanding of the fins. The body tube spirals were barely noticeable, and did not need any filling. After a white primer coat and sanding, I shot 2 coats of black. The applied the 4 color water slide decals, which were nice against the black of the rocket itself.

PRO: Easy to finish, not noticeable spiral, good decals.

COn: None

Construction Rating: 4 out of 5

Flight:
We used an Estes A8-3 engine for the first and only flight. used 3 sheets of wadding, and set her on the pad. There was a slight delay, but it zoomed off of the pad. It went about 400 feet with this motor. The ejection charge blew about 1 second after apogee.

PRO: Very nice fast flight.

CON: None

Recovery:
She came down almost straight. However, it was windy, and a gust caught her about 150 feet from the ground, and took her into a tree about 20 feet from the ground. I tried to get it back, but the tree is surrounded by about 25 feet of pricker bushes, and my legs were all cut up. Just bad luck that we didn't get it back. I may try to get it in another day or so with this big pole I have at home.

PRO: Almost straight up and down flight.

CON: Lousy Estes-style shockcord, and just plain bad luck hitting the tree.

Flight Rating: 4 out of 5

Summary:
This is a very nice Level 1 rocket. I was very nicely surprised by the pre-cut fins, but the shockcord bothered me. I would suggest a Kevlar shockcord rig. And you can't beat the cost at under $ 5.00.

Otherwise, a very nice rocket, and one I will definitely buy more of.

Overall Rating: 4 ½ out 5