Brief:
The Sport is a basic 4 Fin & Nose Cone (4FNC) model from Custom Rocket Company. The Sport is a long rocket, at just under 30" of BT-50 airframe that flies on 18mm motors, and comes home under a 12" plastic parachute. This rocket has a simple sleek look, highlighted by a large eye catching decal. The Sport is a skill level one build, good for beginners, and someone who wants to add a bigger bird to their fleet.

Construction:
I purchased this kit at a local hobby store. Custom is an Arizona based company and although I don't know what their distribution is nationally; their kits are fairly common in Southern California. One interesting thing I've noticed with Custom's kits over the last few years is that they have built their fleet around a rather small set of standard components. All of their current kits are skill level 1 or 2, and a very high percentage of them are based on the same BT-50 tubing, with the same nose cone, same motor mount, same recovery system, and fins that are die cut out of the same sized balsa blanks. It's a strategy that obviously allows them to stay in the business, and hopefully they will get to a point where they can expand back into some of the more exotic kits of their earlier years. The following items are included in this kit.

• BT-50 Main Body Tubes (3x9")
• BT-50 Tube Couplers (2)
• 18mm Motor Mount Tube
• Engine Hook
• BT-20/50 Centering Rings (2)
• BT-20 Engine Block
• Plastic Nose Cone
• Die Cut Balsa Fins
• Launch Lug
• Elastic Shock Cord
• Plastic Parachute (12")
• Shroud Line
• Tape Discs
• Decal

All tubes are standard brown spiral wound paper, and the centering rings are the heavy paper type. The balsa sheet stock was above average quality. The parachute came unassembled in its own packaging. The elastic shock cord measured out at 15 inches and the instructions include a standard paper tri-fold shock cord mount.

This is actually the second Sport to grace my lineup. The first one was purchased a year or so ago when I was looking to build something other than Estes kits, and quite frankly, I needed some bigger rockets that I could keep track of. My original Sport was a great flyer, and had about 10 flights before the nose cone separated and it core sampled in a parking lot (darn paper shock cord mounts). I was looking forward to having this back in the lineup, and managed to find a spot on the counter to put it together between all my other works in progress.

The instructions are printed on both sides of a single piece of legal sized paper, and every single step is accompanied by simple, effective drawing to explain what's involved. I have built enough skill level 1 kits that I do not really need the instructions, but they are complete and well written. I believe that a first time builder would have no trouble putting this rocket together.

The motor mount is assembled first and set aside to dry. Instead of using a wraparound guide to mark the fin placement, Custom's instructions include a drawing of the tube diameter (a circle) with the fin positions projecting out from it. The view is like looking up the tail end of a finished rocket. All you do is stand the body tube up over the circle on the instructions and mark the fin locations (per the instructions, you should mark the tube before installing the engine mount since the hook will get in the way later). I use a length of aluminum angle stock to mark the fin lines on my rockets. This is a great investment, the smaller sizes will fit on any mod roc tubing, and your lines will be perfectly straight. Next the motor mount is installed in the body tube. While the motor mount glue was drying I separated the fins from the balsa sheet. These were match sanded, and then airfoiled. The fins are attached 1 inch up from the aft end of the rocket. My standard routine for attaching fins is to tack them on with wood glue (Titebond), add a second wood glue fillet, and then a final fillet of Elmers Wood Filler. Next the other two sections of body tube are added. At this point I decided to upgrade the recovery system. I will never again use the old paper tri-fold shock cord mount, and have a large spool of Kevlar® cord on hand to make sure I never have to. I decided to use the forward tube coupler as my anchor point. I tied a bulky knot in the end of the Kevlar®, laid it in the tube and installed the coupler (picture the Kevlar® in between the coupler and the BT). Before the glue sets, pull the cord gently until the knot is resting up against the coupler, and then put a hefty drop of glue on the knot. The upper section of BT is installed the same way, first thread the Kevlar® through the new section of tubing, then apply the glue to the inside of the BT and slide it onto the coupler, keeping the Kevlar® cord taut. The launch lug is cut into two pieces and attached in the same fashion as the fins.

The 12" Plastic parachute comes unassembled, and I decided to beef up this assembly as well. Custom directs you to simply lay a small loop of shroud line on each corner of the chute material, and seal it down with one of the included tape disks. I have had lines pop out from under the discs on several Custom chutes, and the tape discs they provide do not adhere well in cold weather. I put reinforcement discs on both sides of the chute corners, punched a hole through them and tied the shroud lines through the holes. Finally the shroud lines are girth hitched to a brass fishing swivel (not included) which allows removal of the chute for storage, and cuts down on tangled deployments.

Finishing:
One of the things I like about this rocket is the flexibility of the final finish. The basic paint scheme calls for black on the aft end of the rocket, and pretty much any color you want for the rest of the body tube. The decal that comes with this kit is a simple black and clear layout, which allows the color of the finished rocket to show through for a cool block affect. I filled the fins with Elmer's Wood Filler, and sanded them smooth. Next came two coats of primer (Rust-Oleum Painters Touch Sandable Primer), followed by two coats of spray enamel (Krylon). 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. Even though you can choose any color you want for the front of this bird, I liked the look of the black & yellow scheme shown on the header card, so I stuck with it.

Take care when applying the sticker to the rocket (It's not really a decal). Getting it perfectly straight is not critical, but the sticky backing will pick up fingerprints and any stray dust bunnies that float by, and since the sticker material is very heavy, getting wrinkles out of it is virtually impossible. Take your time! I finished up the recovery system by attaching the elastic shock cord to the Kevlar® cord, and then to the nose cone, and putting a drop of CA glue on all the knots.

Construction Rating: 4 out of 5

Flight:
The initial flights of my Sport V2.0 were conducted on a couple of hot and windy Ohio summer days at Voice of America Park (Site of NARAM 47). The recommended motors are A8-3, B4-4 or C6-5, and the header card also lists the A8-5, which would definitely be long on the delay. My finished rocket weighed in at 1.7 oz. Flight preparation is standard, just insert the motor under the hook in the motor mount, and install the igniter. The recovery system is simple as well, 2-3 sheets of recovery wadding, followed by the dusted and folded parachute. There is plenty of room in this rocket so loading everything up is easy. The sport left the pad straight and true on all flights, and put up a reasonable altitude with a B6-4. I think it would fly fine (if low) on an A8-3 as well, but the best motor for this bird is the C6-5. It jumps off the pad and tops 1000 ft in a hurry. The long airframe makes it look sleek and smooth, but the best part about flying the Sport is that you can see the rocket the whole way! Nothing against little rockets, but if you can't see them, what's the point?

Recovery:
Recovery on both flights was perfect with ejection happening just at or slightly past apogee. The 12 inch chute brings the rocket down at a reasonable rate, but is small enough to avoid serious drift. One of the bonuses of a long rocket is that the recovery system has some room, and isn't jammed up against the end of the motor. After 2 flights there was no visible heat damage to either the chute or shock cord. One of the nice things about flying at VOA Park is that almost the whole thing is a nice soft grass landing zone, and unless you are unlucky enough to hit one of the paved access roads, pretty much every landing is damage free and paint job friendly. So far my Sport looks like is did the day I finished it.

Flight Rating: 4 out of 5

Summary:
The Sport is a great addition to anyone's "level one" fleet. Its sleek look will add some style to your collection, and there is just something cool about a long lean rocket screaming off the pad. It doesn't hurt that this bird is easy to see and track through the whole flight profile. My only complaints with this kit are the heavy sticker that they try and pass off as a "decal" and the paper tri-fold shock cord mount, and in reality, these are more general gripes than actual complaints against this kit.

Overall Rating: 4 out of 5