Brief:
The Quest E-Z Boost Glider is pretty much your standard boost glider kit with one major exception: the glider works right out of the package. Quest has taken advantage of the technology that allows laser cutting of balsa parts, and the resulting kit takes a lot of the guesswork out of building a kit like this. This can be a huge help for someone who has little or no experience with boost gliders.

Construction:
THe kit includes:

• Body tube
• Motor mount tube
• Nose cone
• Motor hook
• Thrust ring
• 2" launch lug
• 24" streamer
• Kevlar® shock cord
• Elastic shock cord
• Trim clay
• Streamer hang tag
• Laser cut pod pylon (lite-ply)
• Laser cut balsa fuselage
• Laser cut balsa wing
• Laser cut balsa rudder/elevator set

This was a very simple and enjoyable build. I finished the basic construction in a little over an hour and could easily have had the rocket flyable overnight. Directions are easy to follow, well written and are spread out over two pages. After gluing the engine mount and shock cord mount together with Elmer's Wood Glue, I tacked the pod pylon and launch lug to the body tube using LocTite Gel CA. Once these had set, I again used wood glue to make fillets.

Glider construction was a simple matter of gluing the laser cut balsa parts together with wood glue. The pieces fit like you'd expect laser cut balsa to fit, and the only thing you need to concern yourself with is alignment as they dry.

Finishing:
Finishing is great, because there is none! The body tube for the booster is pre-colored and the glider should be colored with nothing as that only adds more weight. Sharpie markers are a much better idea. No decals are included, nor are they needed.

Construction Rating: 5 out of 5

Flight:
Sometimes things sound good at first, then not so good after you've had time to give the matter serious thought. Such was the case with my decision to try flying the Q E-Z with a B4-2 engine on fabulous B6-4 Field. Somewhere in the deepest recesses of my mind I knew that flying it on that combination on a breezy day was going to risk losing it, but did I listen to myself? No! That's pretty much why my review is based on only one flight. (But it was one cool flight.)

As is the norm, my rocket activity in the city limits drew the attention of some of the neighborhood kids, which always is nice when you don't feel like chasing down your rockets on a breezy day. The two who witnessed the flight of the Quest E-Z Glider had seen several other flights on the day and weren't quite sure what to make of the glider and booster. I stuck a piece of masking tape around the launch lug to keep the booster off of the blast deflector and attached the clips to the B4-2. One of the kids "volunteered" to press the button for me so that I could get a picture. (A good thing as it turned out.)

The Quest E-Z Glider left the rod flying an arrow straight path and didn't deviate from that path until ejection. At ejection both the glider and pod began drifting rapidly to the south over US-27 and the trees that line the field. The pod dropped rapidly and the glider circled lazily. I was still looking up and didn't initially realize how far they had drifted. I was thinking that they had a whole baseball field for recovery until the glider drifted behind one of the trees and one of my trackers yelled that it looked like it was still going up. I realized that he was right just as the glider left my line of sight behind the tree. I went to the left and tried to pick it up again, but all I could see was blue sky. The tracker then yelled that he had found the pod and made a dash for US-27. Sure enough, the pod sat in the northbound lane, right in the area where tires normally would crush it, but for a change, there was no traffic either way. I stopped my tracker and began jogging toward the pod, sure that at any moment a car was going to crest the hill and kill the pod. That never happened and I managed to save the pod but the glider was long gone.

Flight Rating: 5 out of 5

Summary:
PROs: The Quest E-Z Glider makes your entry into the boost glide world a painless one. No finishing required. Surprising performance.

CONs: My glider is gone--But what a way to go!

Overall Rating: 5 out of 5

Brief:
If you're just getting started on boost gliders (especially pursuing NARTREK), this quick and easy kit is a good introduction. It can be built in under an hour and eliminates some of the more complex glider construction techniques like airfoiling and decollage.

Construction:
Parts were good quality and include:

• TT-20 body tube
• BT-20 motor tube
• Plastic nose cone
• Laser-cut balsa glider parts
• Balsa fuselage
• Kevlar®/elastic shock cord
• Plastic streamer

Quest rates this a skill level 2 kit although I would think that's a bit high. It's a very easy build and the directions are pretty straightforward.

You begin with a standard motor mount assembly, consisting of an 18mm tube, a block, and a metal clip. The Kevlar® shock cord is anchored to the motor block a bit close to the ejection charges, but it should hold up for at least as many flights as it takes you to lose the glider, which in Bill Eichelberger's case would be one.

The motor assembly glues directly into the TT-20 tube as no centering rings are needed, but you need to make sure you leave yourself about 3/8" hanging back or you won't be able to work the clip. Next, you glue the pod pylon and launch lug to the pod tube. Considering the colored glassine finish on the tube, it's a good idea to scrape off a little strip to provide a good bonding surface. Slip the shock cord through the body tube, slip on the streamer and tie on the nose cone. The pod is done.

As Bill pointed out in his review, the glider assembly is very simple thanks to the laser cut parts. I found my fit a bit loose though as the notched cutouts were a bit larger than necessary. Like most Edmonds gliders, this is designed to fly well without airfoils or even rounding of leading or trailing edges. I sanded off the burnt brown edges from the laser but otherwise had plain flat edges to all my edges. I sanded down the exposed surfaces with 400 grit sandpaper as the balsa was a bit rough.

There are very basic instructions for hand tossing and trimming the glider. I would really like to have seen a target position for CG on this, since most inexperienced builders are not going to be very good at hand tossing to trim. Yeah it sounds easy, but to do it right you have to get the speed just right.

Finishing:
This kit really doesn't need any finishing--the pod is pre-colored a bright yellow and the glider is designed to be flown naked. If you're really obsessive-compulsive and want to color the glider (making it easier to track and spot in the grass), don't weigh it down with paint, use a thinned aircraft dope or Japanese Tissue.

Construction Rating: 4 ½ out of 5

Flight:
After trimming in the back yard through hand tossing, I decided to launch this in winds that in retrospect were clearly more than the glider could handle (10 mph steady and gusting to 14). I chose an A8-3 just in case the glide and high winds resulted in a half mile search. The boost was surprisingly straight, and among the best I've seen in a boost glider. The 3-second delay was also just about perfect and the transition to glide was clean and fine.

Recovery:
The pod, which has a very long streamer, came down fine. The glider was clearly no match for the winds and just sort of flopped around aimlessly, being carried downwind. There was nothing resembling a glide flight path although the hang time of the flopping was decent with a duration of around 25 seconds.

While my first flight didn't fare as well as Bill's, it lives to fly again on another day. Just not one with winds more than about 6 mph.

Flight Rating: 3 ½ out of 5

Summary:
PROs: simple construction, great boost, pretty hard not to get this one right.

CONs: joints fit a bit too loosely.

I'll give Quest the benefit of the doubt on the flight, figuring the choice to fly in that wind was on me. I'll post comment/updates in lighter wind days.

Overall Rating: 4 out of 5