Brief:
This is a fine sport flier! It has a nice size body tube that lets you load up the parachute with ease! Every thing in the kit was in good condition in the package. The die-cut balsa fins are of good quality and a fine grain. The plastic nose cone is like most Quest/Estes types & takes paint well. I like the Quest way of mounting the shock cord with Kevlar string to the motor mount (better than the Estes way!). The assembly is easy on this Skill Level 1 kit. I took my time and it went together fast. I used white glue and it worked out fine. The instructions are clear and easy to follow. After construction, the fins seem strong for the rocket they're on. The finishing was easy- standard stuff. I used three coats of sanding sealer to get a nice surface on the fins for painting. I painted the nose cone by itself and the same for the body tube. I used the colors Quest had on the enclosed sheet that came with the kit - red for the body and white for the nose cone. Looks sharp! The parachute is a soft plastic type like an Estes (not hard like the older Quest types). The shroud lines seem better than they used to be.

I took the rocket to my brother's field (he has big open land for a back yard). The first flight was with an Estes A8-3 since I don't have any Quest engines. It went up nice and straight in a low wind and went up about 100 feet or so. The parachute came out fine and a good landing. The second flight was with an Estes B4-4 that I had and, man, it went up! The chute came out and it landed a few yards from the pad. An all around fine rocket kit for anyone. Great to see where the wind is going before launching a larger rocket!

Construction:
As I stated, the kit uses a standard Estes type body tube with a plastic nose cone and die-cut balsa fins. It has three fins and a standard low-power engine mounting items.

There is nothing special about the components, but they are all fine for this type of kit. The instructions are clear and I see no problem for anyone following them. It's also easy to build this kit. I think it's a rather solid kit for the low price. I would say no cons in construction.

Finishing:
Finishing is straight forward with no special things to get in the way. I used sanding sealer on the fins for a nice finish and local discount paint.. You get one press-on decal for one fin that has the kit name. I guess for the low price you should not think you will get a big water-slide sheet like 20 years ago. I do think the finished kit looks real sharp!

Construction Rating: 5 out of 5

Flight:
The flights were fine. I used the Estes A8-3 for the first flight and it went up only about 100 feet. The second flight with an Estes B4-4 was great and it went up real nice! I would say there were no cons on flight. The rocket came back in fine shape on the grass field here. I used about 3 1/2 sheets of wadding in it. This rocket flies straight up here.

Recovery:
The 14-inch plastic parachute is red and yellow and is easy to fit into the wide body tube. I have no cons on the recovery.

Flight Rating: 5 out of 5

Summary:
I would say that Quest did a good job on this kit. I enjoyed it and think it was a better quality that the last Quest kit I had put together a few years back. Pretty good for the year 2003 (I hope they don't read this and mess it up!). I think I found a low price kit with no cons! Wow! It doesn't happen too much today!!

Overall Rating: 5 out of 5