Well to my surprise I am looking to get my L1 certification. And my wife is cool with a rocket for my birthday.
Right now I am looking at the Wildman Drago. I particularly like the following:
1) It has a 29 mm motor and will allow me to use existing mid power case with it.
2) It is fiberglass and can probably live through a failure to deploy the main chute.
3) it won't go as high as the Wild Child leaving my walk to get the rocket shorter on the cert flight.
All the same, I welcome input from others. I want it to be reasonably low for the cert flight. We have two miles of field, but I don't want to walk both of them. And I am not a big fan of short fat rockets.
You're looking at 2,500+ ft with a baby H and a mile high with a baby I motors available in 29mm. So that's really your L1 altitude range with that rocket, 2500 - 5000 ft. If you want a high flier, then go for it. If you really want something that can fly HPR and stay in the 1000 to 3000 ft range, much better for motor deploy, then you might be wanting to look at something a little larger.
I always suggest 38mm MMT for L1 rockets. You can always adapt down to 29mm, but the 38mm gives you access to the full range of L1 motors. A light, 2.5 lb, 3" dia. 38mm MMT rocket will get about 1500 on a baby H, (H128W 175Ns) and about 2800 ft on a baby I, (I218R 330Ns), and if you really stretch it on a full I, (I600R 640Ns) it will be near 4500 ft. If you want to do a mile high with it, just do L2 and put a J in it. Because its only 2.5 lbs, with the smaller 29mm H motors, it still qualifies as Class 1 and doesn't need a waiver.
I usually recommend a rocket in the 3 - 5 lb range with a 38mm MMT for L1. If you are going to cert L1, build a rocket that can fly L1 motors. You can keep it low and slow, or rip to higher (motor ejection safe) altitudes, all on H & I motors. I don't understand why you would build a 29mm MPR to cert L1 and then only be able to fly baby H motors until you built a larger L1 rocket anyway. Why not just build the L1 rocket right away.
What rocket you get will depend on what you want to fly and your normal launch site. There's no use getting a high flier if the field is too small to be able to get it back. Remember, winds aloft are usually faster then at the surface. 5mph surface winds can have 25mph at 5,000 ft.
I think the Binder Design 38mm Sentinel would be an excellent L1 rocket, as would the 38mm Excel DD kit. The PML Spitfire at 41 oz, 3" dia., 51" tall, and 38mm would be very good! The PML Intruder wouldn't fit Class 1, but would be an excellent L1 rocket. The LOC
Isis IRIS, Shadowhawk, and Fantom -EXL would all be good non-(short fat) rockets for L1.
Good luck deciding. That's half the fun, just trying to figure out what you want. When I did my L1, I wanted to learn as much about HPR rockets and construction techniques as I could and I wanted dual deploy, so poked at the idea for a couple of years and I scratch build a rocket from mailing tubes, made a foam nosecone, scratch built the av-bay, etc. The only purchased part was the 38mm MMT. It was a great rocket that ended up flying on more I than H motors, made a LDRS flight on a J, and ate I1299N-P motors for lunch, but I learned so much with that rocket that I would never build one exactly like that again.
