Michael's Mid-Powered Rockets

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Brent

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Is anyone familiar with Michael's Mid-Powered Rockets? I stumbled across them while browsing the net. They are offering a mid-power Black Brant with a plastic nose and tail cone. Has anyone seen the kit that can speak of the quality of the parts.
 
I too have just dicovered them. The Black Brant looks good. I wanted to get on this thread to see what others have to say.
 
You think the Black Brant looks good, did you check out the video section on his (Mike's) rocket blog?
 
I just purchased one of the first Black Brants from Mike and have started in on the kit. I had a passing interest in the Black Brant but after seeing the extensive flight testing of the prototype, I put my cheap a** low power tendencies aside and actually bought a real mid power kit that could stand up to many G powered flights. See video of the prototype at the COSROC’s web site (Photos July ’09). I had looked at the Cosmodrome version at the Apogee showroom but it always seemed out of stock and at $20-$30 more than Cosmodrome I had high expectations for any kit from this new kid on the block.

The materials in the kit are above average quality and should be for the price. It has a nice foam filled plastic nose cone and a custom plastic tail cone that is also foam filled. They are quite tough and don’t need all the finishing required of balsa. The body tube is strong and nicely cut with minimal spirals. The fins are pre cut and are a really hard, high quality plywood. You could, with a lot of patience, sand a real nice bevel, but that is beyond what this newbie BAR wants to do. The wood centering rings are laser cut. There is a steel cable, thick Kevlar cord and recovery hardware I believe is drop forged in the Ruhr from the actual steel plate scrapped from Tiger Tanks. Well, at least that’s my story. The supplied chute is sewn nylon – what am I going to do with out rubber shock cords and plastic chutes? Even the supplied vinyl strips used to cover the steel crimps are far stronger than normal electrical tape.

Where this kit excels is where most kits completely fail, that is in the area of decals. The Black Brant is a challenge to paint but with this kit you can get a full body vinyl wrap, or you can opt out and paint it the old school way. Mike is a professional signage fabricator, so he knows his vinyl and the kit comes with the nicest decals I have seen. No more water slides or peel off stickers for this BAR. High quality thin mil vinyl is the only way to go. Even the goose decal looks good. The full body vinyl wrap might be a challenge for a neophyte to install but it sure beats all the hours spent trying to perfectly tape and mask all those black checkerboard patterns. The directions are very good and the illustrations and drawings are first rate. Everything is bagged nicely and the wrap came undamaged in a Fed Ex tube. With the supplied antennas and some silver paint pen rivets I will be the envy of all the Scale guys.

Now you just have to over come the fear of ordering from a new company and from a vendor who dose not shamelessly promote his products. Well he should and if you are not completely satisfied with his products and service then this forum is a great tool to either keep him in or put him out of business. He certainly could use a little more marketing flash but the kits will speak for themselves. I couldn’t even talk him into a free kit to Beta test and then write guaranteed rave reviews on all the forums, or to even to use a 40% discount coupon as a fellow club member. I had to buy the kit and give him real, honest and critical feedback on the directions and kit with out bias, bribes or gifts. Maybe he will spend the big bucks and hire my cat below for his “spokeskitty.”

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Mikes Rockets 005.jpg
 
I would like to thank you guys for taking a look at my site and my blog and having interest in my kits. I would also like to thank Daddyisabar for posting the great comments and cat pictures.

The kits I have to offer are the Ni Hao and the Black Brandt II. Almost everyone is familiar with the Black Brant II and everybody seems to like to see it fly and believe me the club I fly with has seen it fly….a lot. The Ni Hao is a great sport flyer in fact, I will use it for my level 1. I think of it as a workhorse, it always flies well and I use it as a test platform because of its reliable performance and durability (read the Green Mojave story on my blog).

I also put some effort in my instructions because I have seen instructions that leave you with more questions than answers. However, I am thinking of a super simple instruction set for the experienced builders who only need key information. What I want is for someone who has never built a mid power kit to be able to build one of my kits with confidence. Plus if you do have a problem just send an email and I will help you out.

Check out the store, I am developing some new products that I hope to launch soon. While you are at it, check out my blog which is linked through the store.
 
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I wouid like to thank you for making some more mid power kits available to us. I am very interested in the Ni Hao and after I get some other stuff out of my way I plan on buying one.
 
Great review of the kit ! I have a Cosmodrome BBII that I built years ago ,but can see this offering in my very near future (very near.......as I search for my VISA ...:D)

This is going to be a great build !

Paul
 
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