Flight Dynamics - Zepher 5 {Kit}

Flight Dynamics Zepher 5

Flight Dynamics - Zepher 5 {Kit}

Contributed by Bill Eichelberger

Construction Rating:
Flight Rating:
Overall Rating:

Published:	2012-03-04
Diameter:	1.64 inches
Length:	13.00 inches
Manufacturer:	Flight Dynamics

Brief

This was a long ago Ebay win that started off badly when the rocket didn't arrive for two and a half weeks, despite my making payment within hours of the auction end. My enthusiasm for the project started off low, then sank when I kept encountering errors in the instructions and templates. Despite all that, the finished rocket looked good and flew better.

Components

PNC-60MS nose cone
10" length BT-60
3/32" fin stock
2 CR-2050 centering rings
engine hook
2.75" BT-20 engine tube
Kevlar shock cord
sewing elastic shock cord
crepe paper streamer
launch lug

Construction

This should have been a quick and easy build, but a couple of fairly serious "gotchas" in the kit. The first error that I noticed was that the fin pattern, if followed, turned out fins with the balsa grain running in the same direction as the body tube. Fins cut like this would stand a much greater chance of breaking during recovery or even everyday handling. This is easy enough to fix by just turning around the fin pattern, but this is something that a first time builder might not catch. The second, more serious "gotcha" involved the template that was used to mark the location of the five fins. If the fins were set up according to the template, they would have been 15/16", 1 1/16", 15/16", 1.25" and 1" apart. I knew my way around this problem, but again, a first time builder might not.

Finishing

Finishing was fairly simple, and I went with the orange, white and black paint scheme shown on the face card with only slight changes. I reversed the orange and black on the kit and wound up with a white body with black nose cone and fin, and four orange fins. I recreated the black wrap pattern with 1/4" black crepe art tape. There were no decals.

Construction Score: 2

Flight

This is where the Zepher surprised me. As I mentioned, my enthusiasm for the project had waned considerably from the time that I learned I won the auction, so it wasn't a big surprise when the first flight happened almost as an afterthought. I'd dragged several recent builds to VOA to test fly them for reviews, one of which was the Zepher 5. I'd hoped to get three flights in with each rocket on three different motors in their power range just to get a feel for how they performed, but my son needed a ride to work that day, which got me to the field late. This cut down greatly on my potential flight time, but I still managed 11 flights on the day, the last of which was the Zepher 5.

With a field the size of the VOA I felt pretty safe going with a C6-5 for the first flight. My enthusiasm for the rocket immediately took an upward turn as the Zepher 5 turned in a great flight, high and straight off the pad with ejection occurring just before the rocket tipped over. Recovery was handled by one of the black and white checkerboard chutes that I bought around this time, which worked as hoped as well as providing a color coordinated counterpoint to the orange, black and white paint of the rocket.

Flight Rating: 5

Summary

Pros: Solid feel of completed rocket, flight characteristics, simplicity of build. I plan to make this rocket one of the stars of the 2012 flying season at B6-4 Field.

Cons: Iffy customer service, some bugs to be worked out in the instructions.

Overall Rating: 3