RocketReviews.com - Quest - Payloader One

Brief:
This is a skill level 1 single-stage rocket with a see through payload section. It is a basic three-fin/nose cone design with the addition of a plastic bulkhead and a plastic forward payload bay. Through-the-wall fin attachment makes this kit unique among kits this size.

I built this kit simultaneously with my daughter and her friend. They were building them for their 6th grade science project and needed them to be as nearly identical as possible, so we did all of the steps together side by side. The instructions were very clear, and the girls had no problems following them. The illustrations were helpful. No special tools were needed.

Through-the-wall fin attachment took more than half the work out of getting the fins aligned. It is much easier when you only have to worry about making them perpendicular. The slots were just a tiny bit narrow. If you are not careful, you can collapse the body tube when you push the fins in. Sanding the fin tabs down a little solved this.

One thing the instructions did not address was the longitudinal location of the fins. The pre-cut fin slots are longer than the fin tabs, and the fins overhang the slot at the aft end. If you locate the fins at the back of the slot, they are perfectly flush with the end of the body tube, and that makes them look like they belong there. This leaves an open gap at the forward end of the fin slot, though. If the fin is pushed to the forward end of the slot, then the overhang covers the excess opening in the slot aft of the fin tab. This results in the fins not being flush at the end of the body tube, but I think it is better this way.

This rocket is extremely sturdy. The combination of 1/8in balsa and TTW fin construction make for a nearly indestructible rocket.

Finishing:
The white body tube made this very easy to paint since the recommended paint scheme was a white body. I sprayed the body with white enamel, then masked off one fin and painted it red.(I didn't have orange.) I left the black nosecone and coupler unpainted. Overall, it was easy to make this rocket look good.

Flight:
The girls launched their rockets six times each in one day. All of the flights were made with Estes B6-4 motors. There was very light variable wind. All of the flights were straight and consistent. The rockets made several flights with different masses of payload (pennies) and measured the altitudes the old-fashioned way (trigonometry).

We used dog barf for wadding. A little blue tape was needed to cure loose nose cones and couplers. Flight turnaround was quick and easy.

I have also flown this with the PerfectFlite Alt15k altimeter. All that is needed is to drill a pressure-equalization hole in the plastic payload section and add a little padding. I used a piece of sponge.

Recovery:
The Kevlar® portion of the shock cord is anchored to the motor mount centering ring. This keeps the inside of the body tube free of obstructions to the deployment of the parachute. The elastic portion is packed above the wadding, so it is not damaged during repeated flights. We had twelve flights in one day without damage to the shock cords.

The 14in parachute is just right until you get into heavier payloads. With a 30g payload (12 pennies), the rockets came down a little fast.

Summary:
This is a great rocket kit. It is easy to build and it performs very well. It is great for science projects.

Flight Log

Date	Rocket Name	Motor(s)	Altitude	Notes
2005-10-09	Steve Carr's Quest Payloader One	B6-4	-	Good motor for this kit.
2005-10-09	Steve Carr's Quest Payloader One	B6-4	-	Very hard ejection on this motor but everything held together with only a small dent seen on the...
2005-10-09	Steve Carr's Quest Payloader One	A8-3	-	Nice low flight. A tad early on the ejection, but this is not a recommended motor.
2009-01-11	Howard Smart's Quest Payloader One	A6-4	-
2009-01-31	Howard Smart's Quest Payloader One	B6-4	-	Fouled parachute. No damage. Powder burns on upper outer BT from ejection charge.
2009-01-31	Howard Smart's Quest Payloader One	C6-5	-	Good flight
2009-09-13	Team Tracy's Quest Payloader One	A8-3	-	Parachute ejected but did not fill. Rocket came down as if on streamer. Otherwise, OK.
2009-10-04	Team Tracy's Quest Payloader One	A8-3	-	2nd flight. Windy. Landed in corn field. Otherwise, OK.
2009-12-06	Team Tracy's Quest Payloader One	B4-4	-	Third flight. Perfect.
2010-01-10	Howard Smart's Quest Payloader One	B6-4	323 feet
2010-01-10	Howard Smart's Quest Payloader One	C6-5	578 feet
2010-03-27	Howard Smart's Quest Payloader One	B6-4	-
2010-07-18	Team Tracy's Quest Payloader One	B4-4	-	Normal Flight

Quest - Payloader One

Flight Log

What You Can Do