Brief:
A sport scale model of NASA's next manned launch vehicle "Ares I".

Single staged with a good amount of detail. Recovery by a small 6" parachute.

Construction:
Two body tubes, a BT-20 lower body to a BT-50 upper body tube joined by a paper adapter. Four Zooch "Flame Fins" are permanently attached to the extended motor mount on this model.

Construction notes:

I apologize, I didn’t take pictures during the build. I did take notes as it was put together.

KIT CONTENTS:

The Kit Contents illustration shows two wrap sheets. These seem to have been combined into one sheet.

The Kevlar is interesting, the ends are a little frayed. I’m sure it’s plenty strong, just different. It seems the flat “ribbon” Kevlar would glue easier into the Tri-Fold shock cord mount.

MAKING THE ACMs

It was interesting cutting your own couplers. I had experience with this before. They were cut and fitted with no problems.

MAKING THE SRB STAGE

I cut out the shroud and made a pencil traced copy on cardstock just in case. In the two other Zooch kits I’d built all the wraps and shrouds fit very well the first time. This one seemed little big.

After I made another shroud I realized why it was wide on the BT-50 side. This was wide to fit the thickness of the upper wrap.

I ended up using a spray adhesive instead of white glue on the edges of the wrap. It held well, except at the wrap’s seam. I had to use a little white glue slid under the edge with a hobby knife to close it.

All the wraps fit very well.

MAKING THE ENGINE MOUNT

I didn’t use masking tape to hold the engine hook in place. I make a wrap from scrap cardstock. The Flame Fins are permanently glued into the lower body. I thought the exposed masking tape would look a little rough, even after painting. The cardstock will do just as good a job holding the engine hook and won’t deteriorate over time.

LAUNCH ABORT SYSTEM

Very interesting way to glue the LAS dowel. It feels very secure with two surfaces to glue the dowel into place, the BPC wrap edges and the flattened balsa nose cone tip.

MAKING THE PARACHUTE

The parachute is only 6" in diameter, flat to flat side. This was the smallest parachute I’d ever seen in a kit. It should be big enough for the model.

You are directed to cut the shroud line material into 3 equal lengths. I was sent 12 feet of shroud line! This would make each of the six shroud lines 2 feet long!

I cut three lines 14" long. This will allow a little extra for the connection knot and still give around 6" for each of the six lines.

I made my tri-fold shock cord mount bigger than the instructions recommended. My larger mount was cut in the traditional trapezoid shape.

I didn’t mount the tri-fold assembly 2" inside the tube. I thought that was a little too far down. I mounted mine about 1 1/4" below the upper lip, plenty of room for the nose cone shoulder.

LAUNCH LUGS

The standoffs are cut to ½" long. The 1" lug is cut in half and glued to the standoffs.

Finishing:
The only finishing is on both ends of the model. The central section is preprinted wraps.

The Flame Fins are permanently glued to the “Stick”. Not a big deal, I’m used to the Zooch kits having removable flame fins.

The Flame Fins were first painted white overall. I followed with a light dusting of yellow on the outside edges and finally a very light spray of orange on just the outside trailing edge. I was trying to replicate the look from pictures of the Space Shuttle boosters at launch.

The only other painting is the white balsa transition just above the BT-50 section and the white escape tower dowel and shroud.

I deducted 1/2 a point because the fins are not removable for display.

Construction Rating: 4 out of 5

Flight:
I Finally flew the Ares Stick on May 1, 2010 at the local Orlando ROCK launch. I went with a Quest B6-4.

Even with the nose weight, the Stick got very good altitude. At apex the small chute made the model spin on the way down. I thought there might be a shroud line snag, but there was no tangling when I picked it up. I understand the Ares kit now has a larger parachute. Even with the small chute there was no damage on recovery.

The second flight was with a Quest B6-4 at the May 8 NEFAR launch. There was plenty of wind gusts but the flight was vertical. It looked like the parachute didn‘t open all the way. It didn’t matter to me with all the wind, the drift would have meant a long walk. After I picked it up I noticed some small burned pinholes in the parachute. No big deal, I have plenty of replacement chutes.

Recovery:
I thought the 6" parachute would be too small, it wasn't considering the altitude this rocket can get. It does spin around a bit when descending.

Flight Rating: 5 out of 5

Summary:
All in all, another great kit. Shrouds fit well and it was enough of a challenge to make it a fun build.

Overall Rating: 4 out of 5

Other:
The paper wraps have a tendency to get dirty from handling. I used a white eraser to clean it up.