Brief:
The Force-5 Kit No. 3010 is a skill level 3 kit by Quest. It flies to 700 feet and uses a 14" parachute. It comes with laser cut balsa fins. This was my first Quest kit and I was very impressed by the quality of parts and originality of design. This isn't your typical 3 or 4 fin rocket kit.

Construction:
Parts include:

• 1 main body tube
• 2 smaller diameter body tubes (referred to as booster tubes)
• motor clip and 3 thrust rings
• motor mount tube
• 2 die-cut centering rings
• plastic nose cone
• 4 smaller plastic nose cones to fit booster tubes
• launch lug
• 24" shock cord
• 24" Kevlar® cord
• shroud lines and sticky tabs
• 14" chute
• 2 separate laser cut fin sets
• waterslide decals
• instructions with launch procedures

The build was definitely in the Level 3 range. There is enough here to keep an experienced modeler busy for a while. Attaching the big wing like fins was tricky, as the two main wings have to be glued, at an angle to two winglets, and then glued to the main body tube. I found that placing a small wood block under each wing helped to hold it in place while drying.

Quest has the builder attach the Kevlar® line to the motor mount and then the shock cord to the Kevlar® line. I really like this method over the method of gluing the shock cord to the tube body using a paper mount.

Pros:

• Great step by step instructions
• Engaging build

Cons:

• None that I found

Finishing:
I primed this rocket with Painters Touch white primer, sanded, primed again, and then finished with three coats of Painters Touch Gloss White paint.

The body tubes did have a fairly deep spiral, which some might decide to fill. I didn't fill the spiral on this model, and the finished product still looks great.

The decals are high quality waterslide. There are many decals. It was fairly easy to apply them. You just need to take your time and not rush it.

Construction Rating: 4 out of 5

Flight:
This is one of those rockets that you don't want to fly on a windy day. The large wings act as sails and if it's windy this could take a nice horizontal ride.

I've flown the rocket six times since building it and I have only had one bad flight. That was on a windy day and the rocket tried to hang on to the launch rod and then went on a fairly horizontal flight before sweeping upwards before ejection. No damage luckily. On the other flights it boosted fairly straight up.

I have heard from some other builders about a cork screw effect that I have not experienced. I'd say good attention to detail on completing the wing-like fins and only launching on a calm day are good bets.

My flights on C6-3s have all been between 500 and 700 feet give or take.

Recovery:
I've had good luck recovering this rocket. The 14" chute deployed within an acceptable range and it doesn't float too far from the pad.

Flight Rating: 4 out of 5

Summary:
I was very impressed with this kit and hope that Quest continues to pursue the non 3-4 fin designs with other of their new kits. They have done a great job with this one.

I also really like the fact that they include Kevlar® line with this kit. It shows that Quest is willing to go that extra step to ensure quality.

Overall Rating: 4 out of 5