Giant Leap Rocketry - Talon 2 {Kit}

Giant Leap Rocketry Talon 2

Giant Leap Rocketry - Talon 2 {Kit}

Contributed by James Turner

Manufacturer:	Giant Leap Rocketry
Style:	Sport

(Contributed - by James Turner - 10/06/08)

Brief:
The Giant Leap Talon 2 flies on MPR and HPR motors.

Construction:
This is a high quality kit that arrived very quickly and in good shape. The kit contains phenolic body tube (pre-slotted), 6 G10 fiberglass fins, 2 ACME 1/4" conformal launch lugs, plastic nose cone and boat tail, 29mm MMT and centering rings, 1/2" nylon shock cord, Kevlar® shock cord sleeve, Kevlar® blanket, 30" high quality rip-stop nylon parachute, and 1/4" eye bolt. No engine retianer is supplied, but this is stated on the website and they wanted to keep this kit under $100.00. I purchased the 29mm Slimline threaded engine retainer (~$23.00) separately to keep the boat tail appearance clean. This is an awesome retention system that is very high quality. I also exchanged the launch lugs for the linear rail guides, which GLR did for no extra charge. If ordering the Slim Line retainer, call Kent before ordering and he will bore out the boat tail for the proper fit. They have awesome customer service. Kent's cell phone number is included in the instructions and recommends to call with any questions

The construction of this rocket is very straightforward. If you have constructed MPR or HPR rockets before, this one is no problem. Since I opted for the Slimline motor retainer, be sure to adjust the measurement for the location of the centering rings by 1/2". I deviated from the assembly a bit for the MMT construction. It is recommended to use JB Weld for the engine retainer into the boat tail, so I did this first to allow for the long set up time. When doing this, you now have no access for internal fillets. I marked on the outside of the bodytube the locations of the centering rings. Once the completed MMT and boat tail assembly are epoxied into the body tube and the fins attached, I then drilled a fill and vent hole for the upper and lower fins. Just simply fill with expandable adhesive foam. Be sure to use coarse sand paper for the fins and inside of body tube for good adhesion of the foam. All other assembly used 30 minute epoxy except for the linear rail guides, for these I also used JB Weld.

Finishing:
The finishing is fairly standard for this kit. Fill the spirals in the body tube, epoxy fillets on all the fins. I then primed, sanded, primed, sanded etc., until I had a smooth finish. I personally spend way too much time on this step since I want the finish to be perfect.

Flight:
The rocket flew on a G64-4. It ripped off the rail to 100ft, cartwheeled 3-4 times, hit hard, ejected chute while on the ground.

Will find CP, add NC weight and will fly again. Not even any scratches on the paint!

Summary:
I have no cons to report on this kit. The product is composed of very high quality parts and I haven't come across any better customer service yet. I think it would be difficult to find this level of customer service anywhere else.

Overall Rating: 5 out of 5

Other Reviews

Giant Leap Rocketry Talon 2 By Geof Givens
Brief: Who am I to resist the "sexiest kit alive"? Giant Leap's Talon 2 is a 48" tall, 2.1" diameter, 29mm mid/high power downscale of their flagship design. Construction: Ordering was a breeze and the kit arrived undamaged despite severe damage to the shipping box. During the ordering and early construction phase, I exchanged several emails with Kent at ...

Flights

Comments:

G.H.G. (April 9, 2006)

Update to my review. Flew again in less wind; another great flight. However, on landing one fin pulled away from motor mount and external fillet tore away. Fin is intact and can be re-glued. However, this confirms my concern about not having access to fin/motor can during assembly. With more epoxy inside, or with internal fillets, I think this damage would have been preventable. I would deduct 0.5 points from construction and from total score, now that this has happened.

Mike Caplinger (February 2, 2014)

The Talon 2 kit I ordered in December 2013 came with a 36" chute. While this is a nice chute and gives a perfect descent rate, it's far too large to fit in the supplied Kevlar chute protector along with the robust length of 1/2" nylon shock cord supplied. In fact, I can just barely get all of this stuff packed into the available volume, and only then by wrapping most of the cord in the protector and putting the chute unprotected above it. That said, the chute hasn't gotten any damage thus far (the shock cord is functioning as a piston, I suspect), and with the kit built stock, I've had no stability issues on motors from G64 to H220.

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