Brief:
Quest's new Shuttle Intrepid is a booster glider combination. The booster is based on a T40 tube. The glider rides "piggy back" on the top of the booster. At ejection the Booster deploys a 14" parachute and the glider is released into a slowly spiraling decent.

Modifications:
Minor assembly sequence changes and a relocated launch lug.

Construction:
The components consist of:

• 1)motor mount clip
• 1)18mm set of motor mount parts
• 3)sheets of die-cut balsa
• 1 ea)Large and small nosecones
• 1)12" long booster body tube
• 1)4.375"long glider body tube
• 1)coupler for the small nosecone
• 1)1/8x2" launch lug
• 1)1/8x1" launch lug
• 1)1/8x1" dowel
• 1)18"length of elastic cord
• 1)18" length of Kevlar® cord
• 1)14" parachute
• 1)pack of 26" shroud lines
• 1)set of tyvek gripper tabs
• 1)set of waterslide decals

The instructions were well presented and treat the booster and glider as two separate projects.

This is a skill level 4 kit, and deservingly so. There is a lot of lumber to fill and sand. The need to trim the glider makes the kit a little more challenging, as well.

I did not deviate from the instructions except for two items.

The rear edge of the main wing on the booster shows one wing deck glued to the center of the main wing,the kit supplied two wing decks and I glued both of them in place.

I built the Booster and the Glider wings at the same time as I felt it was easier to glue and sand on one set while the other was drying.

I built the wing assemblies on wax paper and weighted them down with books as they dried

I masked off the balsa areas that were to be glued with tape and applied fill and finish.Once the sealer dried I removed the tape and sanded the surfaces smooth.

The second item I did differently was the placement of the 1" launch lug on the main tube. The instructions show a dimension of 3.125 from the rear of the lug to the rear end of the main tube. I believe this is wrong. The correct dimension should be 2.875.

I called Quest about this mistake, but I never got through to the right person. Other than this mistake, if the directions are closely followed, the kit will go together well.

Finishing:
The finishing job was a little tedious. The suggested paintscheme consists of 3 colors (White,Black,Grey).

The Finishing instructions are very detailed and give a lot of good tips for painting and decaling the model. The decals are very nice and include a lot of different colors and details. The finished model looks great! With a little time and patience you will have a sharp looking flier.

Construction Rating: 4 out of 5

Flight:
The last 2 pages of the instructions provide tips on trimming the glider and prepping the rocket for flight.

For best results the glider should be painted as lightly as possible, if at all.

I made the mistake of applying too much paint to my glider, and it suffered somewhat from the added weight of the paint.

Using the C6-3, the ejection charge was a little past apogee.

My model came out at 2.4oz without motor and performs quite well on the C6 reaching about 450ft altitude.

Good for flying on a small field.

Recovery:
I found I didn't need to add noseweight to the glider but it came down in a somewhat steep spiral. Overall not too bad of a glide, just a little fast.

The Booster recovers on a 14" chute and just slow enough to keep damage to a minimum. The winglets are easily damaged and will not fair well on a hard surface landing. I suggest building the wings nice and strong.

Flight Rating: 4 out of 5

Summary:
I bought The Quest Shuttle for a few dollars less than an Orbital Transport typically goes for.

With the diecut balsa, Quest's Shuttle is not as challenging to build as Estes' Orbital Transport, but it still deserves the skill level 4 designation.

This kit would make a good upscale or kitbash project, as well.

Overall Rating: 4 out of 5

Brief:
Rocket releases small glider.

Construction:
Booster has large balsa wing-like fins with smaller fins on the wingtips. NC is plastic. Shock cord is the typical Quest Kevlar® string attached to the motor mount that transitions to an elastic cord. A 14 inch parachute is used.

Laser cutting on the fins is excellent. The parts are precisely cut and fit well. Instructions are thorough, clearly written, and well illustrated.

I modified my model--I added a baffle made of two offset disks of balsa to reduce the need for ejection wadding.

The wings are made up from four pieces on both the booster and the glider. Everything lines up and fits well. However, the fin design is weak. The large wing tip fins on the booster are fragile and are bound to hit first on landing. I broke two fins and knocked one off on the first flight even though the landing wasn't particularly hard.

I'd recommend not mounting the top wingtip fins at the 10 degree outward cant as shown in the instructions. (This is done purely for looks.) Instead, I'd mount them perpendicular to the main wing and then add a small piece of balsa to the outside as a stiffener. This piece would tie the upper and lower wing tip fins together and sandwich the end of the "wing" fin making it much harder to knock a tip fin off on landing.

The glider is small, about 6 inches long with a wingspan of 4.5 inches. The glider is very small and hard to test glide. As it turned out during the first flight, the glider was very nose heavy. I'd recommend reducing or eliminating the heavy body tube joiner used to attach the plastic nose cone to the body tube on the glider. That would take some weight out of the nose.

Finishing:
Kit recommends not finishing the glider for best flight performance, but includes complete painting instructions in case you want to paint it anyways. Models like this are built more for looks than absolute flight performance, so I painted mine. I primed the model with white Krylon primer then gave it a light coat of gloss white. I used acrylic dark gray for the underside of the glider and booster.

The waterslide decals worked well and went on easily. I used a Future floor polish as a setting agent and as a final gloss coat.

Construction Rating: 4 out of 5

Flight:
I flew the model on a B6-4. It boosted straight up with the large fin area. Model uses a standard metal retaining hook. No problems there.

Glider separated easily at apogee and dove sharply to the ground. It is so small and light that it suffered no damage.

Recovery:
I used one small piece of wadding as additional protection for the chute. The baffle worked well. The chute was unmarked by the ejection gases and deployed fully. Even so, the model lands hard on the fragile fins.

I'd recommend modifying the Kevlar® shock cord installation so the model lands in a more horizontal position,

Flight Rating: 3 out of 5

Summary:
This is a sharp looking rocket. Construction is a bit more involved than most due to the large balsa wings and fins. I think the design of the fins is the weak point as they are easy to break on landing.

Overall Rating: 3 ½ out of 5