Quest Aurora Finished

The fin unit was slipped on and CA glued from the back. The instructions say to use a tape wrap but the fit of my fin can was tight without it. 

This was an interesting build, the glider is a bit like the old Estes Orbital Transport.

With the black bands, the core booster tube looks like the Shuttle tubes in a Dr. Zooch kit.







The glider is a bit plain, just painted white. I was concerned more paint would add weight and hurt the recovery glide.

Above you can see the extra lug glued next to the plastic fin post.
I should have cut down the end of the black post so it would be even with the lug length.

After some standoff adjustments the fit of the glider is very good.
It's definitely a better attachment than what was used on the Estes Orbital Transport. On windy day the O.T. glider flips around.
This cradle design solidly holds the glider.

The U.S. AIR FORCE stickers are already lifting on the edges.

Quest Aurora Build, Part 11, Stickers and Cleaning Up

The instructions say the glider will perform better is left unpainted.
I thought I'd go for a compromise, painting it while still keeping it as light as possible.
The balsa was filled with CWF. No gray primer filler was used.
The glider got two light coats of gloss white.
The instructions say to paint it light gray and the bottom of the wing black. I avoided some of the primer and paint coats.

TIP: Canopies like this never conform to the curves of a nose cone.
The canopy was cut into three separate pieces.
The back was set down first on the flat shoulder. Putting this piece down first will make it easier to center the larger window pieces.
Other USAF and star and bar stickers were set down on the wings and rudders.

TIP: The mask line on the black fin wasn't good. The root mask angle was just too tight for any tape to fit well.

I used a fine point Sharpie to draw in a better black line.
Set the side of the pen barrel against the straight lug to help draw a new line in the crack.

Here's the new black separation line.
You can't really see it unless you look close.

This really only works with a black pen on black paint. Black is black and the pen line will match up with the paint. Other colors never match.

Quest Aurora Build, Part 10, Booster Decor Bands

The booster body was an easy mask.
Mask off 1" from the top of the body tube.
Paint the upper area tan.

There are eight black bands going around the body. They are evenly spaced 1" apart. Plan ahead before applying any bands.
A line was drawn down the body for the thicker vertical band.
Pencil tick marks were made at 1" intervals down the vertical line.
A piece of paper was wrapped around the body for a straight reference line when wrapping the bands around the tube. At the top edge I did some pencil shading to better show the paper edge guide.

After the eight horizontals are in place, the long vertical strip will cover up the horizontal band seams.

There are plenty of "where do these go?" pieces.
The face card gives some locations, others were just made up.

In the end, the raised bands look good!

Quest Aurora Build, Part 9, Cradle Fit and Parachute

In Step 20 a standoff was cut for the dowel connection.
The directions were followed, the standoff was cut to 1/8" tall X 1/2" long.

The inset picture shows the standoff is too short, it won't fit slide into the lug cradle.

The short standoff was removed and a new one cut, this time almost 1/4" tall. This will allow me to sand to the correct height.

After some sanding the fit is better and the cradle holds the glider well.





I've never been a fan of the shroud line "Gripper" reinforcements. They are too thick and don't easily fit in a small diameter body tube.

Here's an older Quest parachute pulled from another model.with the Gripper tabs.
You can see how they crease when packed.

I won't be using the kit supplied parachute. It's "crispy".

Quest Aurora Build, Part 8, Glider Cradle and Rudder Gluing

The inside edges of the wing were sanded for a better match for the dihedral angle.

Like the instructions showed, the glider body was used to help set the angle. The tip was raised 1 3/8" from the table surface.

One of the 2" lugs was glued on where the fin was removed earlier.
Plastic cement wouldn't hold it on so I used some medium CA.

One cradle plate piece is glued on each side of the launch lug.

At the open top the spread space is 7/16"

The tube is glued down the center joint of the glider wings.

The inset shows a small rudder in position.

The bottom of the wing joint is sanded flat for gluing the root edge of the large rudder.

Quest Aurora Build, Part 7, Flaps and Rudders

The flap crack lines weren't very straight when the wing was flipped over.
To make a better "fold" line I used the rounded top side of a razor blade to score the fold on the top.

The end of the wing was starting to split when it was lifted.

The crack was held shut with tweezers and a drop of thin CA was set on the crack. This held the wood closed.







Cut off the gray sides from the template and flip over the wing.
Set the template on the wing and trace the rudder lines with pencil.








Here's how the rudder pieces sit on the wing.
The rear of the rudder stops the upward movement of the flaps.

Quest Aurora Build, Part 6, Cradle and Flap Cut

The glider cradle pieces were filled before gluing beside the lug.

CWF is water based and there will be some warping after the first side is pained and drying. When the other side is filled the new wet filler will counteract any warp.

Here's the two cradle pieces back to back after sanding.
There is very little warping.

The wing halves are taped together.
Pencil trace the line on the rear edge of the wing marking template.
This is the cut line for the flap hinge.

You'll have to cut a little more than halfway through the balsa to make the hinge.
It's hard to get a clean straight line bend on the top.

Quest Aurora Build, Part 5, Lug? & Cutting Standoffs

Here's a closeup of the lug in front of the face card.
You can see the plastic lug is open on the face card shot.

On the face card:
Directly opposite the lug is a raised black tunnel running almost the entire length of the body. This tunnel was on the prototype model and not part of the produced kit.

On the stick-on decal sheet is a thick two piece band to simulate the tunnel.

I don't quite understand these two steps.
Quest supplied die-cut balsa wings and rudders.
The builder has to cut out a lug standoff and two "cradle plates" for the glider.

Die-cutting was always done to make the build easier, whether it was a model airplane or rocket kit.
Of all the balsa pieces, these three are the hardest to cut out!

They aren't wide and the longest cuts go against the grain.
Be sure to use a sharp knife and make many light passes of the blade.
These pieces (especially the smaller stand off) can easily split down the grain.

Quest Aurora Build, Part 4, Balsa Grain Directions?

The die-cut balsa pieces were already broken (not cut off) the sheet.
The glider rudder was half as long as it should have been, the front end was broken off and missing!

Check out the grain direction on the rudder. That's not the strongest direction for the balsa grain to run! The grain should be parallel to the leading edge of most fins.

I didn't know how long the front end of the rudder should be.
The rear of the rudder is even with the back end of the wing.
The curved line of the leading edge was extended to approximate the end length.
A new rudder was cut from 3/32" balsa with the balsa grain running down the leading edge.


Only one of the small rudder pieces had the grain direction correct.

The picture shows how the pieces were positioned on the balsa sheet.
After the correct small rudder edges were cleaned up, a new one was traced an cut out.

Quest Aurora Build, Part 3, Nose Cone Lug Fix

The nose cone base was already glued into the nose cone shoulder.
(Probably done by whoever first opened the package.)
One problem, the U shaped tie down loop was cracked through!

I'll have to make another tie down point.
I used some old button and carpet thread. This is very strong thread the major vendors used years ago for shroud lines.

A hole was drilled using a rat tail diamond file.
The thread was looped through three times and tied off.

The line was fished out with long tweezers and tied off.
The square knot was pulled back inside the nose cone base.

Quest Aurora Build, Part 2, Engine Mount and Fin Unit Cut

The engine mount is pretty standard.
Quest has you tie a knot in the Kevlar and pass the line under the upper centering ring.
There isn't much room between the yellow motor mount tube and main air frame tube.
I wrapped the Kevlar under itself three times and tightened the line.
The wrapped line was set into the glue fillet.

Trivia: Quest might have been the first to make engine mount parts in different colors - Green engine block, red centering rings and yellow engine mount tube.
When I started in the hobby everything was brown. We were all able to figure out which part was which without the color coding.

Here are the closed lugs between the fin and fin can.
I would think they were meant to be open and act as launch lugs. This is probably what happens when a large order of replacement parts are made in China - the first time.

Trivia: From the 1970 MPC catalog is the same fin unit.
The description says: "Molded in launch lugs."

The glider goes on one side of the model so one fin and "lug" gets removed.
Score the plastic on both sides.

The fin and lug broke off easily after rocking the fin back and forth down the scored line.
The inset picture shows the same seam after sanding and polishing smooth.

Quest Aurora Build, Part 1, Parts

This catalog page is from the 1992 Quest Catalog.
The Aurora was Quest kit #3002, a parasite boost glider.
The model is 15" tall built around a sturdy 25mm Quest body tube.

The face card description says:
"The boost glider is modeled after the new, top-secret successor to the SR-71 spy plane. Glider jettisons booster at 500 feet and glides back to earth while booster returns via 12 inch parachute."

I bought this one a few months back at the Orlando Hobby Spot store. They have a very limited rocketry selection but occasionally you can find an interesting older kit.
The kit was marked at $7.99 for reasons I would find out during the build.
During construction I found the kit was re-bagged. The balsa pieces had been broken loose from the die-cut sheet. The glider rudder strake (front end) was broken off.

Parts of interest:
The one-piece fin can with integrated launch lugs.
(The "launch lugs" weren't open! You couldn't slide them down a launch rod without drilling through them.)
Small 5mm nose cone with adapter shoulder to the left.
Launch lugs (2)
Dowel for glider hook
Gripper tabs for shroud line attachment

An "Important Assembly Note" was in the kit.
It explained that a launch lug would have to be glued beside the closed lug molded into the fin can.
Stickers!!!