Edmonds Aerospace CiCi

Edmonds Aerospace - CiCi {Kit} (CICI)

Contributed by John Thro

Construction Rating: starstarstarstarstar
Flight Rating: starstarstarstarstar
Overall Rating: starstarstarstarstar
Manufacturer: Edmonds Aerospace
Skill Level: 1
Style: Glider

Edmonds CiCiBrief:
The Edmonds CiCi is a small, very easy to build boost glider that ejects the spent motor casing when the ejection charge goes off. The parts are laser cut and fit together perfectly.

Construction:
Here's the parts list:

  • 8 laser-cut balsa pieces
  • 1 balsa nose cone
  • 1 motor tube
  • 1 l/8" launch lug

That's it!

The instructions were illustrated and very easy to follow. The instructions consist of a single one-sided 8.5" x 11" sheet.

All of the glider parts are laser-cut balsa and they fit together perfectly. The parts are entirely cut out, with no trimming or separating from a balsa sheet needed. It would be possible to end up with some parts misaligned but taking care to make sure the pieces don't "droop" out of alignment until the glue is dry is simple enough. In fact, I pretty much just held them in place by hand for a few minutes and that was good enough to keep everything aligned until the glue was dry.

One possible "gotcha": When the nose cone is installed, it looks like it's partially blocking the vent hole in the side of the motor tube. To supposedly "fix" this, I carved quite a bit of balsa from around the nose cone shoulder in order to open up the vent hole. After I did this and glued the nose cone on, I contacted Rob Edmonds by email, who told me that the vent hole is supposed to be about halfway obstructed by the nose cone shoulder. Oh well. As it turns out, this doesn't seem to make any appreciable difference either way. My sons and I have built three CiCi's, have flown two of them, and the motor ejected just fine from both of them.

The motor tube is glued to the top of the front of the fuselage. It is possible to misalign so it's not pointing precisely straight ahead. The launch lug is glued onto the side of the fuselage and against the motor tube, so the lug is automatically aligned by those two parts.

I've managed to build CiCi's with the vent hole on the same side as the launch lug as well as on the opposite side but that doesn't seem to make any difference in flight. I'd probably recommend having the vent hole on the opposite side from the launch lug, but I don't recall what the instructions say to do.

I used Aleene's Original Tacky Glue (in the gold bottle) for all construction. It's similar to Elmer's white glue but is thicker and supposedly doesn't shrink when it dries.

Edmonds CiCi

Finishing:
I absolutely love the finishing of the CiCi. There is none! Flying them bare and without being airfoiled is recommended. That's right up my alley.

You can "finish" the CiCi by coloring it with a marker or highlighter if you like and for the sake of improved visibility.

Construction Rating: 5 out of 5

Flight:
My first CiCi flight was on an Estes A8-3. My main problem was not knowing how loosely the motor should fit in the motor tube in order to eject properly. I probably spent ten minutes, using very slightly larger and larger strips of masking tape on the motor, to get it just tight enough that it wouldn't fall out on the launch pad with the igniter clips hooked up.

Flight was perfectly straight up to maybe 100 feet, although I'm a poor judge of altitudes. The motor ejected perfectly, didn't hit anyone, and the glider performed a nice flat glide into the grass.

Second flight was on an Estes C6-5. Boost was good but the CiCi arched over considerably before the motor ejected. The glide was again very nice and the landing was in the grass.

Edmonds CiCi Third flight was on an Estes C6-3, as I thought the long delay of the C6-5 had caused the glider to arc over before ejecting the motor. On this flight too though, the glider arched over quite a bit before ejecting the motor and transitioned into a nice glide down into the grass once again.

Recovery:
There was no damage whatsoever other than some grass stains on the leading edge of the wings. No burning or scorching, no cracked or broken fuselage, nothing.

The only possible CON would be the fact that the motor is ejected from the model and free falls to the ground. Every CiCi flight should probably be a head's up flight for this reason.

Flight Rating: 5 out of 5

Summary:
I really like the CiCi. These flights were trial runs for an upcoming Cub Scout event, the Pack 1283 Rocket Launch 2005 coming up this June. I've purchased enough CiCi kits for all of the Cub Scouts in my den to build one for himself. Rob Edmonds has a great pricing program for schools and scouts. Just go to his website to take a look.

Main PROs: Very simple to build, perfect alignment of laser-cut parts, cool flight profile.

Main CONs: Ejecting the motor to freely fall back to the ground at burnout. This doesn't particularly bother me, but I know some people object to "spitting" a rocket's motor without a streamer.

Overall Rating: 5 out of 5

Other Reviews
  • Edmonds Aerospace CiCi By Dave Sutter

    ( Contributed - by Dave Sutter) The CiCi is a traditional canard-style boost glider. The canard is the name for that smaller front wing, or horizontal stabilizer. A canard-style glider is simply a glider where the canard is forward of the main wing. A boost glider is a glider that boosts straight up like a rocket, and then ejects some part, usually the engine, to change into a glider. ...

Flights

Comments:

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D.F. (December 1, 1999)
1. My kit came without clay, but had the little tube marking piece. I bought it from Apogee Components over the Internet; a very easy experience with a quick arrival. 2. I too, tried a test glide in the house. I too, saw the nose down attitude. In fact, the third test glide resulted in a break in the same location as shown in the picture above. Having read the above review, I was thinking, Oh no, I bought a bum steer! I reglued the break, and took it to the local MASA launch in Elk River MN the next day anyway thinking Oh well, the failure will be spectacular. Much to my surprise, the thing flew well on both a 1/2A6-2 and an A8-3. I did not try and tinker with it to get a good test glide. I flew it as-is out of the box (plastic). SO, DO NOT TRY TO TRIM THIS GLIDER. FLY IT AS-IS! 3. Some notes on whether to finish this by painting would be appreciated, as well as some warning about not trimming before your fly. I rate this a 4. 5 on build, a 5 on flight and a 5 overall. My 10 year old daughter could do it all by herself if Dad would just get out of the way and let her do it. This review is misleading in that the builder deviated from instructions before he flew it.
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S.B. (January 1, 2001)
The CiCi is a quick build and looks nice. It flies well on A8-3 motors, but Rob, the glider designer, told me to find a big field and put it up on a C motor. Well, I tried a B6-4 first and both wings shredded. And not at the weak points where the rudders(?) were glued to the rear wing, but in the middle of the rear wing. Not pretty! I need to research the cause and try it again. Generally, Edmonds products are easy to build, look good and fly well. The review was solid
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B.E. (May 1, 2001)
Mine came with neither the clay or tube marker, but went together nicely. I flew it six hours after I built it, but could have gone sooner. The CiCi went up in an upside down arc and just when we were about to give it up as a power prang, the ejection charge fired, the rocket performed a loop and righted itself, then headed off for the trees still flying at between 100 and 200'. (The trees are atop a large hill.) It hit near the treetop and bounced it's way down until it got stuck about 15-20' from the ground. After a couple of whacks with a tossed stick it flew the remaining distance to the ground unharmed. Interesting flight. I can't imagine the field that you'd need to fly this one on a C6-5. I'll trim it to glide in a circle next time. Choose your engines carefully for the CiCi. Start at the bottom and work your way up or kiss this one goodbye. It's a heck of a glider.
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B.C. (May 1, 2001)
This was first attempt at a project of this kind. I figured it would be a great way to make use of the plethora of A8-3 motors I had left over from Blast-Off Flight Packs. The build was easy and it is amazing how precisely cut the parts were. The flight of my CiCi was fine, and I didn't have anything break and was pleased to see that an modestly priced kit could perform as well as it did. Before I assembled ANYTHING on the CiCi, I contacted Rob Edmonds regarding the use of paint, sealer, tissue for the wings, etc. He informed me that it is best to build it stock as the instructions show. Hence, that is exactly what I did. Neat little glider and a perfect use for A motors!
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D.S. (January 17, 2003)
My CiCi flies great, except when the ejection charge snaps the fuselage in half. I've had to re-glue it 4-5 times because the ejection just breaks it in half. By now, all the CA has fixed the problem. When it flies right, it really is quite nice.
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J.C.S. (August 31, 2003)
The CiCi was the star of the show for my neighborhood rocket launch today! Flew multiple times on A8-3, B4-2, and C6-3 on a field about 400 ft. square. B4-2 flights were perfect! The C6-3 flights rocked but were on the edge of being a bit too large for this size field. Recovery was in large graceful circles. [BTW, I tried for this effect by adding a fillet along one side of the fuselage.] No breakage problems though I took the suggestion from the tip below and poked a second hole in the body tube opposite the existing one. Stock construction other than that. Highly recommended!
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J.W.M. (September 2, 2003)
I built my CiCi in about 12 minutes. The lazer cut parts go together very precisely. 1st flight was on a A8-3. I never thought ANYTHING could fly away, out of sight and into a swamp 1/4 to 1/2 mile away on an A8-3! and on a calm day! I lost it, but returned (in long pants) to find it later that evening. I have now trimmed it to fly in circles!!
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D.W. (August 22, 2004)
I built my CiCi in about 7 minutes, used CA throughout. No problems. I used a center cutout from an estes engine mount(a bt20 sized disc of fiber paper) glued to the inside of the left vertical stab.(for trim weight) I also dusted the model with fluorescent pink paint and then rubbed it down with steel wool for a "stained" color effect with almost no weight. Also added the additional hole for the engine to vent. I did nothing in the way of sanding or shaping. Flew it 4 times in the first outing on A-8-3's, perfect results, nice straight boost,100' circles to the ground. The kids were ecstatic, and I was amazed. GREAT KIT!!!!!

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