When shopping around for the Onyx rocket kit, one vendor had high power motors listed as being recommended motors (H128 & H180). This one very appealing to me as my Level 1 certification flight was just days away at the time. Once the kit arrived (ordered from a different vendor), it became obvious that those motors were not listed as recommended on the LOC face card. Maybe there are different versions of the Onyx kit, however I've seen no sign of other versions. If you've worked with epoxy before, the kit is very easy to build. The instructions are clear and easy-to-follow. If you rely heavily on illustrations, you should know that only two of them are provided with the instructions. One for the shock cord mount and one cross section of the fin/motor mount area. As this was my first LOC/Precision kit, it was nice to see how sturdy the airframe tubing is. The quality of all the parts was great. Everything fit nicely together too. The face card has pictures of 20 or so other LOC kits, which had the desired effect as I now want to build, review, and fly more of them.

Parts List

The flying rocket kit comes complete with the items listed below. The instructions are printed on the back-side of the face card.

- nose cone
- pre-marked body tube
- motor tube
- 2 plywood centering rings
- 3 plywood fins
- shock cord
- nylon parachute (16")
- assembly instructions

No decals are included with the kit. If you do want decals, you can download them from the LOC web site and print them on decal paper.

As the Onyx can be flown on high thrust rocket motors, epoxy should be used throughout construction. A combination of 15 minute (inside) and 20 minute (fin fillets) epoxy was used for the kit built for review.

Construction

The first thing I did was remove the white glassine layer from the body tube. This leaves a body tube with a slightly rough surface and very deep spirals, which were filled with wood filler. The glassine was removed to ensure the epoxy would adhere to the body tube well, which should help prevent fins breaking off or fin fillets breaking.

Assembly starts with the motor mount. I made a quick change here and replaced the shock cord with 7' of tubular Kevlar which was mounted to the forward centering ring (as seen in the image on the right). Two holes were drilled right next to each other to create a slit for the shock cord. A knot was tied to keep it in place and the not and slit were coated with epoxy. The centering rings were epoxied to the motor mount tube.

Next, a loop was formed at the other end of the shock cord and about 2 feet away from the end (parachute quick-link attachment). Each loop was created by folding over the shock cord and wrapping Kevlar thread around the overlap. Epoxy was used to hold the thread and loop on place.

The body tube is pre-marked. Removing the glassine layer removed those markings. Measurements were taken before removing the glassine to ensure the fins and launch lug would be attached in the correct locations. Some small holes were drilled through the fins, near the root edge. The same holes were drilled through the body tube, right were the fins will be attached. That should give the epoxy something to really grab onto when applying the fin fillets. To attach the plywood fins and create the fillets, 30 minute epoxy was used, with some colloidal silica mixed in. As this flying model rocket kit was bought with the goal in mind to fly it on H motors, strength will matter. Next was the launch lug. It was also given a fillet on each side with epoxy. The next part in the assembly instructions deals with attaching the shock cord mount. As I opted for tubular Kevlar attached to a centering ring, I skipped this part. An Aeropack 29mm retainer ring was added for positive motor retention.

Finishing

After priming, most of the primer was sanded off and any small imperfections (some spirals parts) filled with white putty. Another layer of primer was sprayed on and a good deal of it sanded off again.

The nose cone was painted with Rust-Oleum royal blue enamel spray. The body was painted sunrise red.

Measurements

The LOC Onyx is 25.25" tall with a 3.1" diameter. The weight listed on the face card for this model rocket is 13 oz.

Flight Data

Motor suggestions include : D12-3, E15-4, F50-9, G40-10, G64-10. The first two are 24mm motors and require a motor adapter (not included with the kit).

A quick Rocksim simulation showed that the Onyx would also perform well on a G33-5. And it did, nice straight boost with lots of black smoke. Then it veered to the right a little and it was recovered fairly close to the pad on a 18" Top Flight Recovery X-Type parachute. Next flight for this model rocket was a G79, as seen in the below video.

Video : G79W G77R