This Quest flying model rocket is a two-stage rocket. As the name suggests, it has two stages. The lower section is called the booster stage, it is the the light gray and white section as seen in the photograph. The motor in the booster section gets the rocket airborne. Once that booster motor burns up, the second stage motor is ignited. The booster stage tumbles to the ground, while the upper stage is pushed to impressive altitudes by the second rocket motor. According to the face card, the upper stage can reach altitudes of up to 2,100 feet and comes down with a parachute. Needless to say, two stage rockets are best launched from a large field, on days without too much wind. Once recovered, the booster stage can be reused over and over again. This section uses tumble recovery, the upper stage has a parachute. With its many decals, the Navaho AGM can be given the appearance of a military missile. Not all of the decals were used for the review kit. There are more decals than those seen in the image on the right.

Parts List

This Quest flying rocket model kit comes in a see-through plastic bag with a color-printed face card.

- 2 body tubes
- plastic nose cone with base
- ruler (to be cut out)
- tube marking guide (to be cut out)
- 2 motor mount tubes
- 2 motor clips (engine hooks)
- 2 thrust rings
- 4 centering rings
- 6 balsa fins and 3 forward stakes
- launch lug
- elastic shock cord and Kevlar thread
- 12" parachute assembly
- large decal sheet
- instructions and launch procedure information

Hobby materials required include wood (or white) glue, plastic cement, hobby knife, scissors, pencil, sanding sealer, brush and sandpaper.

Construction

This model rocket kit is amazingly simple to build for a level three kit. The parts are color-coded leaving little room for errors.

You start by building the upper stage. This part is exactly like building a regular model rocket. Build a motor mount and glue it into the body tube. Sand and fill the fins and attach them to the airframe tube. Attach the forward stakes while aligning them with the fins.

Next is the booster stage. This part is even easier, build another motor mount and glue it into the booster section body tube. Attach the fins to the booster.

Assemble the parachute and attach it (and the shock cord) to the plastic nose cone.

As you can see, there's nothing really difficult going on. Less experienced builders should not be scared away from building this kit due to the level three designation.

The parachute assembly uses a "gripper" system which means there are no holes to cut where the shroud lines attach. The shroud lines are also pre-cut.

As there are two sets of fins and forward stakes, there is quite a bit of balsa wood to work with. You're filling, and sanding nine fins total. This can take some time.

Be sure to use a hobby knife to run around the edges of the fins and the forward stakes before attempting to remove them from the balsa sheets.

Measurements

The Navaho AGM stands nearly 21" tall when in two stage configuration. Used as a single stage rocket, it is 17" long.

Finishing

After a coat of Rust-Oleum automotive primer, the rocket was painted gloss white (Testors #1245) all over.

Next, one fin was masked off on the booster stage. The remainder of the booster stage was painted flat light aircraft gray (Testors #1233). The nose cone was painted the same color.

For the upper stage, all of the rocket was masked off, except for one fin. The fin you leave exposed should be the same one you painted gray on the booster stage. The exposed fin was painted competition orange (Testors #1628).

All of the above mentioned paint is the modeling kind you buy in the small rattle-cans. There are lots and lots of peel-and-stick decals included with this model kit. As mentioned earlier, not all decals were used in this case. After applying the decals, you can apply clear coat, if desired.

Flight Data

Quest recommends a B6-0 rocket motor for the booster stage. For the upper stage, various engines can be used to achieve different altitudes. These are : A6-4, A8-3, B6-4, C6-7. You can also fly this rocket as a regular one stage rocket, use a C6-5 and simply don't use the booster stage.

This two stage rocket was launched on a C6-0 and C6-7 combination. The transition was very smooth and the upper stage ignited perfectly. It reached an impressive altitude, as expected. The unexpected part was that both booster and upper stage were recovered. With staged rockets, the upper stage often gets lost, which we kind of expected to be the case with this launch.