| Construction Rating: |   | | Flight Rating: | | | Overall Rating: | |
Contributed by Chan Stevens 
Brief:
Single stage futuristic plane design, one of the more cool looking introductions by Quest.
Construction:
The kit includes:
- 18mm motor mount assembly with metal hook
- 1.4" body tube
- Plastic nose cone/canopy molded in
- Laser cut balsa fins, strakes, and rudders
- 1/8" launch lug
- Kevlar/elastic shock cord
- 12" plastic chute
- Waterslide decals
The body tube had some of the deepest, ugliest spirals I've seen and very poor white glassine top layer. After filling the spirals with Elmer's Fill 'n' Finish, I started to sand the tube down. This caused the edges of the tube started to peel up and the surface started to get a roughed up "orange peel" look. The decals on the other hand, were excellent quality and the white comes through very strongly, even on the gloss black surface.
The instructions were fairly well written along with plenty of good illustrations. Overall, the skill level on a 5 scale was in my opinion, accurately listed as a 2. I did find one very glaring error in the instructions though: the tube marking guide has the wrong lines for mounting the fins. There are 4 fin lines which are supposed to be set at 90-degree rotation points. The marking guide has 4 fin lines but spaced as though there were 5 (72-degree rotation points). This is easy to correct: just fold the guide into fourths and mark where the folds are, not where the printed fin lines are.
 Motor mount construction is the basic tube/engine block/centering rings/hook found in most kits. Quest is one of those companies that is kind enough to include Kevlar® for the bottom of the shock cord. The Kevlar line is attached to the motor mount.
Fin prep and mounting for this kit is a bit tricky, which is why this rates as a skill level 2. The instructions offer a good tip for ensuring a better bond along with wings and tails getting slight bevels sanded on their roots. Of course, 10 degree and 28 degree bevels are only theoretical targets for most of us, as I certainly am not that precise in my sanding. Still this helps get more of the fin root actually touching the tube come time to bond.
There are a lot of fins to bond with this kit. You start with two strakes that run the length of the body tube. Next comes rudders for the top and bottom. Follow up by attaching wings flush to the strakes, which explains the beveled root. These are not perpendicular to the body tube at this point. Last comes the tails, which are mounted at roughly 45 degree angles to the wing. The alignment is aided by a laser cut balsa piece that rests against the body tube and holds the correct angle. For all of my fins, I tacked them on with CA, then followed up with wood glue fillets. Note: wait on the fillets until everything is tacked on. This is especially important with the strakes, as you don't want fillets to get in the way of the wing and tail bond joints.
The nose cone is then attached to the elastic shock cord and construction is done.
Finishing:
The finishing on this had good and bad news. The good news is that the paint scheme is pretty simple: the whole thing gets gloss black. The bad news is that there's a lot of work involved if you want to eliminate the spirals and balsa grain. I've already griped about the tube spirals. The balsa fins and wings were good quality but because there are so many of them, filling and prepping for paint was a lot of work.
Once I'd prepped the surfaces, including scrubbing the nose cone with dishwashing liquid to remove any oils, I applied two coats of gray primer and sanded between coats with 220 grit paper. I then applied a light coat of gloss black. Once that coat had dried, I lightly sanded with 600 grit wet/dry and then applied another coat of gloss black.
 I allowed the paint to cure for a full 4 days, very worried that the decals would not show up or contrast very well against the dark surface. For the most part, the whites and even the yellows are very visible. I was pleased with the results. There were a couple of small red lettering decals that seemed to disappear against the black surface though. Overall, I think the decals make for exceptional detailing and styling for this kit.
Construction Rating: 4 out of 5
Flight:
First flight was with a B6-4 on a windy day. I was worried that with such large wings/fins, this kit might have trouble going up against heavy winds.
The B6-4 was plenty of power for it, but it definitely lost ground to the wind. It held a straight path even though it was pushed back about 10-15 yards in flight. The 4 second delay was a bit late but that may be fine in less windy conditions.
I did not get a chance to move up to a C but will definitely try that on its next flight. It can clearly handle it since the B barely covered 300 feet, nowhere near the spec'd 450'.
Recovery:
The 12" chute worked fine and the elastic/Kevlar lines showed no signs of wear. There was no damage whatsoever to this despite drifting at least 20 yards in the grass after landing.
Flight Rating: 5 out of 5
Summary:
I'm generally not too impressed with the big commercial mass market offerings, but this one is pretty sharp. I especially liked the decals, which are tremendously better than the peel 'n' stick stuff you'll find flanking this kit at the big chain hobby stores.
Overall Rating: 4 out of 5 Flight Log| Date | Rocket Name | Motor(s) | Altitude | Notes |
|---|
| 2005-05-07 | Chan Stevens's Quest X-15 | B6-4 | - | Good flight, but flew back/downwind. 15 MPH gusts a bit too much for these big wing areas. | | 2005-06-11 | Chan Stevens's Quest X-15 | C6-3 | - | Flight was unstable | | 2005-08-06 | Andy Turits's Quest X-15 | B6-4 | - | Thrust to about 50 feet and then pinwheeled violently. ejection charge deployed chute on ground.... | | 2005-08-06 | Andy Turits's Quest X-15 | B6-4 | - | Quick lift off, very slight arc to about 300 feet, perfect apogee and deployment of chute. Landed... | | 2005-09-18 | William Beggs's Quest X-15 | C6-3 | - | Crazy flight. Rocket seemed unstable. Have emailed Quest but did not get a response. | | 2005-10-09 | Chan Stevens's Quest X-15 | B4-4 | - | | | 2005-12-14 | Donald Besaw's Quest X-15 | B6-4 | - | Nice first flight, nice straight flight to maybe 300 feet. Considerable hang time and drift on... | | 2005-12-20 | Donald Besaw's Quest X-15 | B6-4 | - | Very nice flight, nice straight boost. Excellent recovery, minimal drift. No damage. | | 2005-12-23 | Donald Besaw's Quest X-15 | C6-5 | - | Very nice flight, very straight. Reached maybe 600 feet. Recovered fairly close to pad. No damage. | | 2006-02-10 | Donald Besaw's Quest X-15 | C6-5 | - | Nice flight, weathercocked quite a bit which made for a late ejection but everything held... | | 2006-02-14 | Donald Besaw's Quest X-15 | C6-3 | - | Excellent flight, nice straight boost to maybe 500 feet. Excellent recovery, minimal drift. No... | | 2006-05-27 | Donald Besaw's Quest X-15 | C6-3 | - | Excellent flight, nice straight boost to maybe 600 feet. Moderate to long drift on recovery. No... | | 2006-12-15 | Donald Besaw's Quest X-15 | B6-4 | - | Nice flight, reached a modest altitude, maybe 300-350 feet. Short drift on recovery. No damage. | | 2006-12-30 | Gerry Williams's Quest X-15 | C6-5 | - | MAIDEN FLIGHT: Wacky low-thrust corkscrew flight (possible motor thrust MALF), 25-ft high, hit... | | 2007-01-04 | Andy Turits's Quest X-15 | C6-3 | - | Wow...looked good to about 100 feet and then started looping and swooping...chute ejected fine and... | | 2007-03-27 | Donald Besaw's Quest X-15 | C6-5 | - | Nice flight, straight boost, shock cord got all wrapped up around the fins but still recovered... | | 2007-12-17 | Donald Besaw's Quest X-15 | B6-4 | - | Great flight. I really like the tracking smoke in the Quest motors. Ejected late but everything... | | 2008-06-28 | Keith Hamel's Quest X-15 | D12-5 | - | Good boost but did a full loop underpower. I suspect not enough nose weight. | 2009-06-06  | Duane Boldt's Quest X-15 | B6-4 | - | | | 2009-06-06 | Duane Boldt's Quest X-15 | C6-5 | - | Thought it may have been underpowered on the first flight. Definitely stability problem...... | | 2009-07-11 | Duane Boldt's Quest X-15 | C6-5 | - | | | 2009-07-11 | Duane Boldt's Quest X-15 | C6-5 | - | This model definitely needs nose weight. Once added it flys great on the C6-5 motors. | | 2009-07-11 | Duane Boldt's Quest X-15 | C6-5 | - | | | 2009-07-11 | Duane Boldt's Quest X-15 | C6-5 | - | Once nose weight added, this is a great flier. | | 2009-07-12 | Duane Boldt's Quest X-15 | C6-5 | - | | | 2009-07-12 | Duane Boldt's Quest X-15 | C6-5 | - | Awesome once the 1/2 oz of nose weight was added. That is a very good reason to check EMRR before... | | 2009-07-16 | Duane Boldt's Quest X-15 | B6-4 | - | Started of straight and then started flipping. | | 2009-07-25 | Duane Boldt's Quest X-15 | C6-5 | - | Great flight! | | 2009-10-15 | Donald Besaw's Quest X-15 | B6-4 | - | Great flight, moderate drift. No damage. | | 2010-01-12 | Donald Besaw's Quest X-15 | B6-4 | - | Nice flight of the X-15 on the Quest motor. I love the tracking smoke that these motors produce.... | | 2011-04-03 | Luke Wolski's Quest X-15 | B6-4 | - | Cartwheeled - needs nose weight | | 2011-10-02 | Rich DeAngelis's X-15 | B6-2 | 100 feet | Maiden Voyage of the X-15. Launched at a 15 degree angle into a moderate wind but she didn't... | | 2011-11-06 | Rich DeAngelis's X-15 | C6-3 | 220 feet | First C flight for this rocket. It flew well and a nice recovery. I packed some dog barf in some... | | 2011-12-04 | Rich DeAngelis's X-15 | C6-3 | 437 feet | I had high hopes for this seriously heavy X-15. Previous flights in winds demonstrated it will fly... | | 2012-02-05 | Rich DeAngelis's X-15 | B6-2 | 148 feet | On this fairly windy and cold day, I could count on this rocket to fight the winds and fly upwards... | | 2012-04-01 | Rich DeAngelis's X-15 | C6-5 | 336 feet | I was getting very disappointed with the performance of my parachutes, having 2 successes, 2... |
Comments: - Post a Comment -
What You Can Do
- Link to this Page -
You can link to this page using the following HTML or BB Code.
Text Link in HTML (for web sites)
<a href="http://www.rocketreviews.com/quest-aerospace-x-15--by-chan-stevens.html">Quest - X-15 - Review by Chan Stevens</a>
Text Link in BB Code (for forum posts)
[url=http://www.rocketreviews.com/quest-aerospace-x-15--by-chan-stevens.html]Quest - X-15 - Review by Chan Stevens[/url]
Select the appropriate above text with your mouse then "right-click" and select "Copy." Then, paste the text into your web site's code or a discussion forum post.
|
S.W.T. (May 21, 0005)