Quest Micro Maxx - Little Joe II

Quest - Little Joe II {Kit}

Contributed by John Lee

Construction Rating: starstarstarstar_borderstar_border
Flight Rating: starstarstar_borderstar_borderstar_border
Overall Rating: starstarstar_borderstar_borderstar_border
Manufacturer: Quest
Quest MMX Little Joe II

Brief:
Since my other MMX plans for the day did not work out, I pulled out a couple of the Quest Ready to Fly rockets I had, paying attention to the ones that had never flown. The Little Joe II was up first. There's not much to say about this one except that its an itty bitty plastic version of the Little Joe II.

Construction:
The rocket came with its own "Silo" launcher, one of the hallmarks of the Quest MMX series. I long ago abandoned it and its finicky operation and use modified versions of my normal range gear instead. Besides that, it came with a few motors and the rocket itself.

There is no construction. The rocket is assembled already and lacks only the insertion of the motor.

Finishing:
Neither is there any finishing. Everything is pre-colored.

Construction Rating: 3 out of 5

Quest MMX Little Joe II

Flight and Recovery:
The MMX motor is inserted by twisting out a bezel ring at the aft end of the rocket. The motor is then slid in and the bezel replaced. The next step would normally then call for inserting the igniter into to silo launcher and setting the rocket on top of it but, as mentioned before, I bailed on the silo long ago. Instead, I inserted a regular Quest igniter and held it in place with a sharpened twig as a plug. The rocket was then set on the rod and hooked to the clips.

The launch button was pushed repeatedly and the igniter failed to ignite. I took the rocket down, checked things out, replaced it on the pad, and the same thing happened again. Finally, it was noticed that the continuity tone was coming from arming the wrong pad. I had failed to explain to the young lady at the controls which set of cables I was using. In a fit of youthful exuberance, she pushed the button and the rocket went up. I only saw it for a moment or so around apogee, admittedly a rather low occurring event. The NC failed to eject and deploy the streamer but the rocket fluttered down fine anyway.

Flight Rating: 2 out of 5

Summary:
My overall impression of this one is not great. I'm not a big fan of the silo launcher and the rocket is not a great performer. I do, however, think it has a place. It is a reasonable starting placing for getting into MMX and could be fun.

Overall Rating: 2 out of 5

Comments:

avatar
M.K. (August 21, 2009)
The original Quest RTF MicroMaxx models like the LJ II don't have very exciting flights when you launch them out at your club's range, but they are fun to fly in your backyard. The Little Joe II is actually one of the better performers in the series. I almost lost mine the first time that I launched it. There are much better performing KITS that you can buy for launching on MicroMaxx motors of course, but for a little hunk of RTF plastic, the LJ II isn't bad. You will have to replace the shock cord with one made of Kevlar? after the first or second flight though.

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