cool but is the one wildman selling fiberglass? I cant see a paper rocket costing that much.
Can I offer a perspective?
I own/fly a fair share of 7.5"/8" rockets. A mix of fiberglass and paper rockets; they both have their places and I value them for different reasons. A couple of examples:
I have a Bruiser and a Gizmo XL DD. They are the same size rockets; both have flown on 98-4G motors. The difference is in the weight of the birds...though they occupy roughly the same volumetric space, the Bruiser is significantly lighter and easier for me to haul around by myself, put on the pad, etc. To date, my Bruiser has 9 flights and the Gizmo XL 3. I fly the Bruiser at this 3:1 ratio simply because it is an all around easier, more enjoyable experience. And as far as toughness goes, the Giz Xl occasionally cracks fin fillets (and that's with flexible Rocketpoxy and twin 96" chutes), whereas the Bruiser was literally run over by a combine and it has come back to fly regularly on M's....it's first flight was on an N by the way (yes it's glassed).
Since we know I like Bruisers, I'll shout out to Eric B. who successfully certed L2 the other day. His Loc Bruiser flew great on a 38mm J425 Redline which costs a hair over $50. I've seen Bruisers fly on I motors....some things just can't be done with all glass rockets of the same size.
Similarly, we picked up a ~25 year old Top Gun in December 2015. My Dad cleaned it up and repainted it, and it flew at Midwest Blast last year on a K550W. The thing is light like a feather, and utterly shocked me how well it performed on that modest 54-4G baby K. It was a beautiful sight. Again, I wouldn't dare fly the Giz XL, which is all glass and shorter on a K550W. Neat flight an inspiration for those looking at the Top Gun btw...
Now, before you call me biased, please realize I fly a lot of glass as well! I flew an O25k in an 8" bird a few years back. The filament wound glass was the obvious way to go....not saying it couldn't be done with paper, but it made very logical sense to go glass in that case! Much like the arguments for paper, some things are just done better in glass!
Along with finishing the dinosaurs this spring, (Esoteric and Top Gun...yay!!!), I'm building another 7.5" rocket....she's all glass and houses my 6" 50k Ns hardware.
Point is, there are applications where cardboard is *more valuable* than glass. I fly both, but for economics, ease of use, and general sport flying, I fly a whole lot more paper than glass. There are some things that can be done with paper rockets that can't be done with glass rockets the same size; conversely there are some things that are easier done with glass instead of paper. Your mileage may vary; as long as we're all having fun!
-Eric-
