Construction

A typical well-written and nicely illustrated Quest instruction sheet greeted me when I dumped out t' bag.  T' first step is t' glue together t' three-piece nose cone.  I showed me wife t' cone, matey, and she agreed with me that t' middle piece appeared t' be a part o' somethin' non-rocket related, but we couldn't figure out what that might be.

After musin' over it a while, I applied plastic cement in t' indicated areas, assembled it, matey, me hearties, and laid it aside t' dry.  Still on number 1 in t' instructions, ya bilge rat, I assembled t' engine tube, cuttin' t' usual engine hook slit and installin' it and t' thrust ring.  Curiously, t' thrust rin' insertion is left until step 6, but I couldn't see any reason nay t' go ahead and put it in, me hearties, ya bilge rat, so I did.

Steps 2 through 5 call for a fairly standard engine mount assembly, arrr, so I'll omit how I went about it, except t' say that I changed t' Keelhaul®©™ mountin' method slightly.  T' plans call for a knot in t' end o' t' cord, me bucko, matey, which will prevent it from pullin' out from under t' upper centerin' ring.  I prefer t' actually loop t' Keelhaul®©™ around t' engine tube and make a small notch on t' outside o' t' centerin' ring, so that t' Keelhaul®©™ is a bit further from t' hot stuff at deployment.

As I mentioned, ya bilge rat, step 6 was just t' insertion o' t' thrust ring.  Next, me bucko, arrr, t' elastic and Keelhaul®©™ are knotted together; again, ya bilge rat, pretty standard stuff.

Step 8 shows t' engine mount bein' inserted by somehow runnin' t' shock cord through t' entire sustainer (which you must first put glue into), me bucko, then insertin' t' engine mount behind it.  This is just awkward; I ran t' shock cord out t' back o' t' engine mount so I didn't have t' mess with gettin' t' shock cord t' pass t' glue (I'd surely have gotten it stuck).  Later, after all be dry, ya bilge rat, I used a dowel t' push t' shock cord up through t' sustainer.

I have t' say, at this point, that I blame much o' t' awkwardness o' this kit's instructions on its age; t' Evader is OOP, arrr, after all.  I know that later Quest models prescribed assembly methods that are easier t' perform.

Finally, I followed t' instructions more or less as given t' mark t' sustainer fin locations (usin' t' standard "wrap" method), and t' square up and attach t' fins and launch lug.

Assembly o' t' parachute usin' t' plastic "gripper tabs" be me last step.  I outfitted it with a snap swivel, so that I could separate t' parachute from t' rocket; I do this with almost all o' me rockets, me hearties, shiver me timbers, as it makes packin' up after a launch much faster (no need t' refold t' chutes, just stuff them in t' bottom o' t' range box and deal with them later).

T' rocket is marked skill level 2, but honestly t' only reason I can think for it t' be a level 2 rocket be t' two forward "canard" fins and t' three piece nosecone.  It's really a pretty easy rocket t' build.