Quest - Superbird {Kit} (2010)

Quest Superbird

Quest - Superbird {Kit} (2010)

Contributed by Paul Gray

Diameter:	1.38 inches
Length:	31.30 inches
Manufacturer:	Quest
Skill Level:	2
Style:	Sport

(Contributed - by Paul M Gray - 10/15/00)

Brief: Quest Super Bird
A single-stage payload rocket. Easy to assemble. Nice looking bird. Has dual-parachute recovery with one 'chute for payload section and one for the main body section.

Construction:
Two (2) body tubes. One for main section and one for payload. Three (3) fin design. Two 12 inch parachutes. A plastic nose cone and Kevlar® cord attachment.

Easy to follow instructions and to assemble. Very basic in construction. Would recommend to a beginner who wants a larger rocket but with the 18mm engines. A rocket that looks normal and uses short delay engines giving very nice flights.

Finishing:
Easy and nothing out of the ordinary.

Construction Rating: 4 out of 5

Flight:
I flew it on B6-4's and C6-3's and C6-5's. Flew well on all. The C6-5's are a little long of a delay but that is good for recovery in smaller fields. Great flights! Nice and straight and slow too. Great demo flyer and nice to see that flame coming out of the bottom as she slowly goes up.

Recovery:
Shock cord uses a Kevlar® cord attached to the motor mount and then an elastic to the 'chute from that for the body. The payload section has a small Kevlar® cord attached to it with the 'chute on the end of the loop. WARNING!!!! If there is no payload the nose cone/payload section is light and on a large 'chute it will go a long way in even the slightest wind. Recommend using a smaller 'chute or cutting a spill hole in the 'chute that came with it!

Flight Rating: 4 out of 5

Summary:
All and all it's good except for the large 'chute on the light payload section. Also this is where a C6-5 is good, the extra delay well allow a lower altitude 'chute deployment and better chance at recovering both sections.

Overall Rating: 4 out of 5

Other Reviews

Quest Superbird By Michael Doherty
( Contributed - by Michael Doherty - 11/01/00) Brief: The Superbird is a payload rocket which features separate payload & body recovery on 14" chutes. Construction: Upon opening the package, all parts were present. The body tubes seemed to be of good quality, as were most parts. My only gripes were the amount of flashing still on the plastic nose cone, and one of the ...

Flights

Comments:

S.J. (November 1, 2000)

I'm in the middle of building my Superbird. I found that the cardstock centering rings are below par. They are a tiny bit undersized (so that the mount has a bit of "wobble" when inserted into the body tube) and are rather thin. I "beefed up" the motor mount by gluing rectangular strips of scrap balsa between the centering rings. After the glue was dry, I sanded these "gussets" so that the mount fit smoothly but snugly in the tube.

M.D. (November 5, 2001)

ADDENDUM to my review above. My Superbird is now Super-gone after its third flight. Caution - cut spill holes in both chutes! Both halves are rather light. I lost the bottom section after a nice launch on a C6-3 (should have used a '5'). It caught some wind at altitude, and was eaten by some hungry trees. Searched for a while, but no luck. Time to buy another kit!

J.R. (July 21, 2003)

I found this kit to be pretty neat to build and to fly. Slow take-offs and 2 ?chutes always makes for interesting flights. I do have some concern as to the effort that Quest puts into the design and then seems to come up a little shy on chutes (as most companies do). The material, in my opinion, just doesn't always give a nice deployment. I ended up switching to Mylar chutes. I give this 4/5 for building and 5/5 for flying.

A.J. (April 19, 2006)

The mounting plate on the payload section did not hold up on my first flight. Of course, I had "manned" the payload with my Crash-Test Dummy good-luck figurine, which gave the section weight. At ejection, the 'chute ripped the mounting plate off, scattering dummy parts everywhere. I've since sized the plate to fit within the payload and I've reinforced it with heavy centering rings. I don't expect any further trouble. Oh yeah, I did recover all the dummy's bits. I told you he was good luck.

T.C.G. (May 4, 2006)

Like the other reviewers I found the quality of the card stock to be well below par as well as the chutes. after the first launch on a c6-5 the nosecone chute tore apart where the lines tied to the plastic. It's a nice kit if you can beef it up with extra card stock and 30 min epoxy, plus parachute upgrades are a must. Overall, after some minor improvements, it's a fun rocket to fly.

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