Brief:
The BAF-70 is a baffle system from Fliskits intended for rockets with BT70 airframes. It consistes of a coupling tube, 2 perforated disks and a length of Kevlar.

Construction:
While building an otherwise nice Estes kit recently, I absolutely refused to use their cheap rubber band and trifold mount. By the time I thought of it, the motor mount was already inaccessible for my usual method. Then I remember the assortment of baffles I recently ordered from Fliskits. As I had remembered, the baffle integrates a Kevlar® tether for recovery. I decided to give it a try.

Construction is simplicity itself. The holes were knocked out of the 2 fiberboard disks. One has holes clustered in the middle and the other has the holes around the outside edge. The rearward disk has a hole through which the Kevlar® thread passes and both have a notch for the thread.

After fumbling for a while, I gave up on trying to pass the Kevlar® through the provided hole. This was a reflection of my fraying Kevlar® and more importantly, my fraying patience. Instead, I tied a loop around one of the sides of a hole. The Kevlar® was then fitted into a side notch and the disk test fitted into the coupler. It fit perfectly. I glued it in place with yellow glue and smeared some extra over the lower surface of the baffle to act as an ablative surface. I filleted both sides and let it dry.

When dry, I fit the Kevlar® through the notch in the other disk and fit that into the coupler as well. Again, the fit was perfect. Some glue fillets were applied and the baffle was set aside to dry.

That pretty much concludes the building of the baffle itself. All that was left was installation. This baffle was installed in an Estes 36D Squared. A swab was used to paint a ring of glue and then the baffle was pushed into place in the BT70. Again, I found that the fit was perfect and no problems were encoutered. It should be noted that the baffle should be placed so that the Kevlar® is towards the nosecone.

Flight:
As I stated, this baffle was installed in an Estes 36D Squared. I have to admit to not having much experience with baffles so I put just a touch of dog barf in the tube before the first flight which was loaded with a pair of D12-5s. It performed flawlessly and I only had to shake out a bit of the ejecta after the flight.

For the second flight, I decided to chance things without the dog barf. This time I was using a pair of C11-5s and again it performed flawlessly.

Summary:
I could get to like this flying without wadding.

Overall Rating: 5 out of 5