2017-2018 Science Olympiad Wright Stuff Kit

Straight up bad kit. Start with instructions that have gotten even worse since the 2016 kit. No pictures, illustrations out of scale and incomplete. How useful is the instruction to see the diagram if the diagram omits that instruction? I don't know if a plane built with this design would ever fly, because we abandoned the instructions and used some from a kit from another company I bought years ago. I spent nearly $500 on Wards kits this year, and all of them are inferior. Don't buy from Wards.

Today we started building the kit and found that the insta glue (part of the kit) is hard as a rock...practically leaving our son not able to do anything with the kit. The least that could be done was to check and send a kit with functioning parts... Also the directions say 'use a music wire in one of the steps' but of course that is not supplied in the kit. It is understood that this kit is not out of box solution for the competition, but our main purpose for buying this kit was to be able to make a basic working glider plane and learn and explore further science concepts and enhance it further for the competition starting with this basic design.At least the parts for building the very basic structure should have been provided. This has been a frustrating experience. I STRONGLY RECOMMEND PEOPLE not to buy this product.

This kit is not very useful. The directions are difficult to follow and is of no use to anyone who is trying to use this the first time .We have no idea how to use the gauge as there are no measurements or instructions to go with it.I understand that this is an introduction to building the plane but at the cost of $100 I was expecting a better product. Also I ordered the product with a 3 day shipping (shown as 41$) but later found that the cost was just an estimate and that it was actually 89$. I called the company and as of today the extra shipping has not been refunded but they have promised to do so. Overall not a happy experience. I had given 1 star because that is the minimum but I DO NOT recommend this product.

If you are a first time Science Olympiad coach trying to help the team out, and don't really know what you are doing (like me) this is not the kit for you. I thought I was doing a good thing by ordering the "official" Science Olympiad kit, but the directions are pretty much impossible to follow, because they are based on a prototype, rather than the kit that they send you. The drawings are not 1:1 scale, dimensions are not noted on the drawings and/or directions for many of the pieces, and as near as I can tell some of the parts you will need to build and assemble are not shown on the plan drawings. Thank heavens I have one returning team member who's dad helped out last year or we would be totally lost. I also ordered the gauge, which I'm ending up returning because it has no measurements on it, and it's rough cut with very sharp edges. I was expecting a box of some sort to make sure the plane is within the dimensions, so I wasn't even sure what to do with the plastic contraption they sent even if it hadn't been a safety hazard. If I can learn what I'm doing with the kids this year I think I'll just go to the hobby shop next year for whatever we need.