Quest Cobalt

Quest - Cobalt {Kit} (1021)

Contributed by Kirk Mona

Construction Rating: starstar_borderstar_borderstar_borderstar_border
Flight Rating: starstarstarstar_borderstar_border
Overall Rating: starstar_borderstar_borderstar_borderstar_border
Published: 2020-04-17
Diameter: 1.58 inches
Length: 7.50 inches
Manufacturer: Quest
Skill Level: 1
Style: Sport

Brief

This is a small size rocket that 18 mm full engines. It is basically a knock-off of the Estes Fat Boy (though with 4 fins). If you want to build a Fat Boy which is OOP then this may be a choice. Not a good choice but a choice none the less. 

Components

The components are a mixed bag. As per usual for Quest they include a kevlar cord which is nice and I prefer their shock cord mounting method over the folded up paper Estes uses. The nose cone, BT, motor mount, etc were all of fine quality. 

BUT

There are two major problems with this kit. 

The "laser cut" fins (and yes the instructions says they are laser cut are absolutely NOT laser cut. If they were laser cut they would have the burned edges and would actually be done well. The fins were clearly die cut and it looked like the die was badly in need of replacement when my kit was made. The fins were more crushed out of balsa rather than cut out. I had to do a lot of sanding and reshaping on the terrible edges. Die cut fins can be just fine with a nice sharp die. This was pretty bad. The worst I have ever seen. 

 

Next let's talk about the body tube. My assumption is that no one at Quest ever actually tried to fly this rocket before they manufactured it. 

As others have noted, the body tube is too short. There is not enough room for recovery wadding and the streamer and the nosecone.  They should have made it about 1 cm longer and it would have been fine. There simply isn't enough room in the rocket. I only used two squares of recovery wadding as that was all I could fit and the streamer was a bit scorched. Because the streamer has to be wadded in so tight it also does not deploy well. The nose cone could possibly be modified to store the streamer in the nose cone but that should not be be necessary. 

 

Construction

The build is very simple for anyone that has built rockets but here again Quest failed. The instructions also contained a major misprint. The tube fin marking guide is completely the wrong size for the BT. Unbelievable error. I have built enough rockets that it was not that big of a deal but this is supposed to be a beginners rocket.  A true beginner would be perplexed by this error and have no idea how to proceed. 

Finishing

There were no particular issues with finishing except that because the BT is too short if you paint the nosecone while it is in the rocket then once you pack the recovery system it will sit too high and you will see the white of the nosecone base. 

 

I airbrushed the rocket with Createx Pearl Blue and it looks amazing. Much better than a standard rattle can blue. 

Construction Score: 1

Flight

The model flew well on two consecutive flights. 

Recovery

Streamer recovery is sufficient for this light model but because of the extremely small amount of space in the BT there really isn't room for the streamer. If it gets wedged between the end of the motor mount and the side of the BT it will fail to deploy. This happened on the first launch. The rocket was fine anyhow but probably came down slightly harder than it should have. 

Flight Rating: 3

Summary

In the end I would pass on this rocket. It is not a strong offering from Quest. The too short body tube is a deal breaker for me. It could have been a great kit for someone looking to built a Fat Boy. It ended up being a compromised rocket. 

Overall Rating: 1

Flights

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