Brief:
This is another one of Jim Flis' unique Styrofoam cup rockets. It's Styrofoam, it's a rocket, it's a UFFO!

Construction:
The rocket consists of 14 Styrofoam coffee cups, cardstock, foam board, and motor mount supplies including a BT-20 tube, two motor blocks and a launch lug.

Construction is a little unique for this rocket. Unlike most rocket builds, here you are instructed to use a hot glue gun. I actually had to go buy one since I didn't have one at home. They are fairly inexpensive and I can see the benefits of having this kind of gluing device available.

I began with the motor mount by gluing on the launch lug and added the motor blocks. What is strange is that FlisKits tells you to put a motor block also at the top of the BT-20. I am assuming this prevents curious dare devils from trying to fly the rocket upside down.

After the motor mount was done, I had to cut holes using a template in the tops of two Styrofoam cups. In addition to this, I had to place a template around one cup to create three spaces for the foam board to attach to the motor mount. After this was done, I cut out three foam board fins using the included template. Next, I glued the motor mount into the two cups (the cups face each other with open mouth to open mouth) using yellow glue. I then added hot glue to the top and bottom and also sealed the two Styrofoam cups together with hot glue.

After the motor mount assembly is done, I added the three fins into the slots created in one of the cups. I glued the fins on using the hot glue gun. Now I was ready to create the 12 cup ring that goes around the motor mount unit. Again, FlisKits provides a template for lining up the cups. The hot glue technique takes some practice (at least for me it did). This is a difficult step because the cups are all placed open mouth down and only a small portion of the cup is glued to its neighbor. If you are not careful, your cups may tend to not remain flat on a single plane. I didn't worry about this too much as I thought that after I had all the cups glued into a ring, I would solve the wobbling of the ring by gluing the motor mount on. Sure enough, this solved the problem adequately.

The last step involves gluing a template to a piece of very strong, firm cardstock and cutting up cardstock wedges that will be glued in between the Styrofoam cup ring. This step is really important because this adds a major amount of strength to the rocket. In the end, the rocket is huge and wide for only being a 2 oz. flying machine.

Construction is pretty straightforward considering the kit is very unusual. If you are looking for something completely different to build, consider the UFFO. The only cons would be getting a hang of the hot glue gun and learning how to glue Styrofoam cups together. I am glue gun challenged and I found that gluing the ring (including the card stock support structures) to be the most time consuming and challenging portion of the build. Also, a suggestion: Do the gluing either outside or when the wife is not around. Then make sure you open the windows to get fresh air into the house and get the hot glue smell out.

Finishing:
Since we are talking Styrofoam, paint is not a good idea. There are no decals but I guess you could finish it with magic markers. I left mine with an "out of the box" look.

Construction Rating: 4 out of 5

Flight:
I flew the rocket three times all times using a C6-3. Now I know this is a UFO type rocket, and I should only be using a C6-0. That being said, I felt that the C6 would bring it high enough that I would not have any problems with the ejection charge going off near the ground.

All three flights were beautiful. The UFFO has a very slow, majestic lift off. After motor burn out, the rocket arced over and came in nose first for a slow, methodical aerobrake recovery.

Recovery:
About 20 to 30 feet from the ground, I got additional breaking from the 3 second delay ejection charge.

I was very impressed with the flight performance. I don't think I will ever use a B6-0 on this rocket. The C6 is definitely the motor of choice. Also, I would not use a C6-3 again. Besides the safety factor of having the motor eject upon descent, the flames from the motor did a number to the top of my rocket. The top Styrofoam cup now is very crusty and needs to have some kind of reinforcement before it flies again. This is no big deal, but I could have avoided this if I actually had the right motors in my range box.

PROs: Beautiful Flight, beautiful recovery. Easy to prep and turn round again.

CONs: None unless you decide to use a C6-3. Then you would only have yourself to blame.

Flight Rating: 5 out of 5

Summary:
If you are looking for something different, this is the rocket for you. If you are looking for something with glass smooth fins and a perfect finish, this is not your rocket. Handling the glue gun will create fillets of "unique" shape. You must learn to love the UFFO for what it is. It's not a pretty bird, but she sure flies nicely.

Overall Rating: 4 out of 5