Estes ARTF Power Patrol Thoughts

A couple of months back we bought my 6 year old nephew the Estes Almost Ready to Fly Power Patrol. I helped him assemble it yesterday. I was a little disappointed with just how little assembly there is. I was expecting just a minor amount of gluing, say slotted fins or fin can to body... nope. No adhesives required, except where the body tube peeled a bit at the nosecone. Over all it seems solid enough.

However, it is a nice size, over 20". The other bonus, it went together quick so my nephew could start playing with it and feel he had build something. I had to explain to him it was too late in the day to launch rockets and Big Thicket National Preserve was not a good place to do it (no he doesn't actually live in the preserve, just VERY close).

E2X might be the assembly difficulty you're looking for.

Let me preface this by saying that normally, I would never buy an ARF or RTF model of any sort. I enjoy building models as much as or more than flying or operating them. However, this past weekend I took the family out of town to spend a few days with some old boat racing friends. One of them pulls out a launch pad and an Estes Sky Twister and asks if anyone has ever flown one of these before. DUH! I asked where got his gear and he tells me about a hobby shop about 15 minutes away. So I grab my son and we're off in a flash to check it out. Next thing we know, we find ourselves in one of those old school hobby shops. One with a hundred or so planes hanging from the ceiling, hand built, vintage model boats on the shelves and a 40 foot aisle of slot cars. The rocket section was mostly populated by Custom Rocket kits, which was a pleasant departure from the usual Estes line up. So I grabbed a Venture, Game Over and a Galaxy Patrol. They also had a few Estes ARF and RTF models on hand. I decided to get a Power Patrol so I could throw it together quick enough to join my friend for a casual, after lunch launch. I was quite disappointed in the quality of the BT. The tube literally started to unwind from each end as I put it together. A little tape fixed this and I was off to the quickest build I have ever done. In less than two minutes, I had inserted the fins into the slots, secured them with the screw-on motor retainer, tied the shock cord to the NC and tied the parachute to the SC. I have to admit that I was left very unfulfilled with the assembly. After lunch, we walked out to the bean field behind the house. I have to say that I was quite impressed at how well the Power Patrol did on a B6-4. We got two flights in and left feeling pretty good about this one. My friend did not do so well. He lawn darted the sky Twister on its maiden flight. This was his first time flying rockets. He was quite disappointed and was thinking that maybe rocketry may not be in his future. However, after seeing the Power Patrol go up, he's definitely going to give it another try.