Brief:
Back in the fall of 2008, Quest Aerospace found a stack of 10 year old saucer tops for their 1998 vintage fly saucer RTF rocket. The top plates were the only pieces left from the kit. Rather than discarding them, Bill Stine added an 18 mm motor mount tube, a motor block, a plastic straw, and 3 specially cut black fiberboard supports/fins. One section of the fiberboard supports slips into 3 of the 6 glue holes that were originally used to hold the lower saucer plate. The other end of the supports are glued to the motor mount.

The instructions with illustrations are printed on one paper sheet. For decals, the kit includes one 8.5" by 11" Avery brand sticker paper. You can go to a link on the Quest web site to get 4 different decal pattern sets. You choose one and download it and print it using a laser printer (preferably color). Cut the decals out and stick them onto the Saucer plate.

Construction was simple and done in 15 minutes. The builder has to use both Tube type plastic cement to glue the motor mount to the plastic plate as well as the launch lug. The remaining paper components are glued on using white or yellow glue.

Modifications:

Construction:
Like other saucers built by other companies, it is unconventional. The Area 51 Saucer SPEV does not even have a motor hook ! It is lighter than the original saucer--1.6 oz vs 2.7 oz.

This rocket kit is very simple to assemble. The finished product is very sturdy once the glues dries.

Finishing:
Pro: if you have extra adhesive back paper, you can download more than one design and mix and match to create a unique saucer.

Con: Decals quality is handicapped by the fact that the builder uses paper cutouts. Not every builder has access to a color laser printer. I used a black and white laser printer and pick the best artwork for grayscale. Most color printers are water based ink jets. This ink can wash out when the saucer comes into contact with wet grass. A layer of clear coat would be useful to protect the decal finish.

To be fair to Quest, The kit is a spare parts elimination vehicle (SPEV) It was built on the fly with parts on hand.

Construction Rating: 4 out of 5

Flight:
The Quest Area 51 saucer can be ordered with 3 C6-0 motors. Based on 3 flights, B6-0s can also be used. The motors provided were of German manufacture and do not quite have the lift of either an Estes or the new Chinese made Quest motors. In spite of this, the flights were quite nice under the German /Quest C motors. The saucer begins to arc over as the moment of burnout and, if launched vertically, lands within 50 feet of the launch pad.

Recovery:
Recovery was gentle and there was no flight damage.

Flight Rating: 5 out of 5

Summary:
IF quest decided to order another set of top plates, they would have a popular kit in their inventory. They would also eliminated the one CON in terms of finishing--ad-hoc paper decals.

Overall Rating: 5 out of 5