This is our first PML kit and it turned out very nicely. PML kits have some unique features that other kits don't provide. The biggest of these is a piston ejection system for protecting the recovery system of the rocket.
Another is their quantum tubing which is basically a plastic tube.
We found the quality of this kit to be superb however we made some adjustments.
I just couldn't stand the look of the half inch launch lugs on this great looking rocket so instead I chose to go with rail buttons. Problem being that rail buttons into the side of the body tube would interfere with the piston. So after some thought, even though I'd been wanting to try out the piston system on the PML kits I decided to remove it so that I could go with the rail buttons.
In the future I'll own some more PML kits and be sure to order some externally mounted rail buttons for those. (Acme conformal lugs)
Another deviation was in the decal scheme that PML provided. In their directions they show the chrome band, yellow bands, copper bands, and blue bands.
As you can see on our rocket their are no blue bands. While showing a buddy at work the rocket and decal directions he pointed something out to me. By the way this buddy is in the Air National Guard and actually loads these missiles onto planes.
He told me that the blue and yellow bands made no sense. Apparently the yellow band indicates a live missile. The blue bands indicate a dummy or training missile, to have both on the same missile/rocket would contradict each other. He then showed me a site on the internet that detailed what the different colors meant and is showed the same thing that he had told me. I did some more searching on my own and could find no actual pictures of any Amraam missiles with both yellow and blue bands on them.
The copper colored bands indicate rocket fuel/propellant or the area of the motor. The chrome band on the other hand we could find no reference to. However I did find a couple of pictures on the internet of these missiles with what appeared to be the chrome band or area on them. The pictures were of poor quality though so it was hard to tell for sure whether it was a colored band or a compartment, but it looked similar.
That plus the fact that I liked the looks of the chrome on the rocket and I included it on ours.
Over all when complete this is a great looking rocket and from the reviews I've seen flies as great as it looks.
This will be another Level 2 rocket for us and could serve as a backup if we have problems with our Level 2 attempt this spring.
Built 3-1-04
Diameter 4", Length 77", and Weight 90 oz. 54mm motor and parachute recovery.
Video of above flight here, May 2004.