Flying the Astro Blaster or Strato Blaster on 2 second burn motors was no big deal at all - the acceleration is not that much and neither are flight speeds. They were very heavy, and the power was just over too soon. A speed 400 electric pylon racer could pass them in the vertical. They were touted to go many hundreds of feet, but it was total BS (I worked there at the time and demo'ed them at the AMA homecoming in '93). The best an AB ever did on a D was maybe 300 feet or thereabouts, perhaps 400-500' on a good day with a BP E15. I know someone who converted one to an Aerotech F10 and actually did achieve about 1000' as per the box copy.. with about 3 times the total impulse. I used to CHAD stage the Strato Blaster - typically D12-0 to E15-P, and a few times D12-0 to D12-0 to E15-P.
They were fun but were just sport performers. However - they were available in a pretty easy to build kit which is of course not to be sneezed at.
For serious performance with RC rocket gliders, look up S8E rocket gliders on Youtube and the 'net. 1000'+ on an E and very high glide performance.