Brief:
The Goony Bird Zero is one of Excelsior Rocketry's "Goony Retro-Bash" line of decal/plan sets. Fred Talasco at Excelsior has created a line of kit-bashes that are a throwback to the old Estes "Goony Birds". Fred's designs are based on old Estes kits (in this case the Blue Bird Zero) or his original ideas, and they use the Estes Baby Bertha as the starting point. Excelsior rates this kit bash a skill level 2 build.

Construction:
My GBZ plans arrived from Excelsior in a sturdy priority mail envelope with extra cardboard inserts to keep everything well protected. Included in each "Goony" plan are the instructions and fin templates, printed on a single sheet of cardstock with a nice color picture of the finished rocket and, of course, the decal sheet, which is the best part of the whole deal. The instructions and decals were packaged in a sturdy plastic sheet protector, as are all the decals that Excelsior ships. The builder must supply the other half of the project which consists of one Estes Baby Bertha kit and some balsa sheet stock for cutting out the new fins.

The Goony Bird Zero was one of several goony plan sets I ordered from Excelsior and the second one I actually built. I had obtained a Blue Bird Zero clone kit as well and actually built the two side by side, which was kind of fun. The provided instructions are actually a list of "exceptions" and are meant to be used in conjunction with the regular Baby Bertha instructions. The Baby Bertha is a simple kit to build, made only a little more challenging by cutting and aligning multiple sets of fins.

The motor mount was assembled first and I upgraded the recovery system (as I do with all my rockets) by adding a length of Kevlar cord which was tied around the engine mount, threaded through the forward centering ring, and glued in place. The motor mount was installed in the body tube, and per the GBZ notes, pushed forward until the end of the engine hook was even with the end of the body tube. This puts the motor mount about 3/4" further forward than normal and according to the notes, provides better stability.

While the motor mount was drying, I traced and cut out the 2 sets of fins, which take the place of the standard Baby Bertha fins. These were match sanded and in keeping with the stubby theme of the rocket, I left all the fin edges squared off. The Goony notes instruct you to mark the body tube for three fins instead of four, but there is no further explanation of how to go about this. It is left up to the builder to figure out how to mark the fin positions. I decided to use the stock Estes tube marking wrap and simply measured out the spacing for 3 fins. My standard routine for attaching fins is to tack them on with Titebond wood glue, add a second wood glue fillet, and then a final fillet of Elmers Wood Filler. I attached the fins in sets, aligning them to each other. The launch lug is attached in the same fashion with one important exception.

TIP: If you follow the Baby Bertha instructions for attaching the launch lug, it will end up directly between one of the smaller fin pairs, ruining one of the decal placements. The Goony Bird Zero plans do not mention this at all, but as it happens, I had just finished applying the decals on my Excelsior Nike-G and had to do some creative trimming to get everything to fit because I didn't plan ahead. So, cut the launch lug in two and place the lower section between the lower fins and the upper section above the masking line (in the blue paint).

Finishing:
The basic paint scheme for the Goony Bird Zero is simple, white on the bottom, blue on the top. The real impressive look for this rocket comes from the decals. As with all of Excelsior's products, the sharpness and detail is awesome. The decals are very easy to work with, not too tacky and not too thin so that you can get them positioned just right. The fins were coated with thinned down Elmer's Wood Filler and sanded smooth. Next came two coats of Rustoleum Painter's Touch Sandable Primer followed by two coats of Krylon spray enamel. The two color paint scheme is about as simple as you can get, paint the bottom of the rocket white, mask off the body tube and paint the upper section and nose cone blue. By the time I got to the second coat of primer I had worked my way down to 400 grit for the in between sanding.

When you order decals from Excelsior they come with a full page of instructions for prepping, applying, and finishing. They recommend Microscale brand products (Decal-Set and Micro-Sol) for accomplishing the job. I have not yet tried any of Microscale's products, having used Testor's Gloss-Cote #1216 with good results. First I gave the decal sheet 2 light coats of Gloss-Cote. Next the decals were cut out and applied with the standard warm water dip, slid into place, and blot dry routine. After the decals had completely dried, I added a final spray of Gloss-Cote to the whole rocket. The finished product looks awesome and the Gloss-Cote plays nice with both the paint and the decals. I finished up the recovery system by attaching the elastic shock cord to the Kevlar cord and the nose cone, putting a drop of CA glue on all the knots. The 12" Estes parachute comes pre-assembled, and I add a fishing swivel for easy attachment/removal and less tangling. Now for some nice weather...

Construction Rating: 4 out of 5

Flight:
The initial flights of the Goony Bird Zero were conducted on two very hot and windy Ohio summers days. Recommended motors are the standard A8-3, B6-4, and C6-5. I couldn't find any published weight or CP for this kit, but my finished GBZ weighed in at 1.6 oz. Flight preparation is standard. With a BT-60 body tube, I use a 4"x4" Nomex heat shield looped onto the Kevlar shock cord. Even with the forward position of the engine mount, there is still enough room, for the heat shield and parachute to fit comfortably. As mentioned earlier, the engine mount is located 3/4" forward in the body tube, but I was still able to install and remove motors and igniters with no difficulty. Motor retention is via the standard beefy Estes hook. My GBZ has logged a total of four flights in some fairly windy conditions. Because of the large fin area this bird tends to weathercock a bit, but it's not too severe and overall this is a pretty well behaved flier. The GBZ turns in a nice flight on a B6-4 and won't get too far away from the pad even on a windy day. A C6-5 will put some good air under this rocket, but it's still pretty easy to track down.

Recovery:
All but one flight was launched into the wind, and the rocket was arcing over nose down at ejection with the B6-4s and a little past apogee with the C6-5s. All four flights had good ejections with a couple of "delayed" deployments which has more to do with my chute folding technique than anything else. The standard 12" Estes chute brings the GBZ down at a reasonable rate. So far, all but one flight have recovered on nice soft grass with zero damage, the one exception being a gravel road landing resulting in a couple of paint dings. Obviously the Goony Bird Zero is not a high performance rocket, but it scoots pretty high with a C motor and is deceptively quick off the pad in spite of its stocky nature.

Flight Rating: 4 out of 5

Summary:
Excelsior's line of "Retro Bash Kits" is a great throwback to the old Estes "Goony Birds", either for those who thought they were cool then or for people like me who think they're cool now.

PROs: High coolness factor and awesome decals. These rockets are fun to build, fun to bring to the range, fun to fly and fun to talk about. Everyone needs at least one Goony in their lineup!

CONs: No fin marking guide for the 3 fin configuration. Potential decal "gotcha" if the normal launch lug placement is used.

Overall Rating: 4 out of 5