The Gamma-Ray: My first Quest kit. It features a translucent red payload tube, three swept fins, and plastic nose cone and transition section. The fin stock is pretty thick and sturdy, and I like the Kevlar shock cord supplied with the kit. I painted it high-gloss metallic red with silver (stick-on) decals. I also added extra silver foil stickers to really make this model shine. I had to add a lot of nose-weight to balance this model on a string stability test, but now it flies very well - very straight. The nose-weight was glued in to the tip of the plastic nosecone, so I still have full use of the payload bay. The payload tube has vent holes added for a barometric altimeter. It can get pretty far up there with B and C motors. I bought this kit cheap as part of a package deal on eBay, didn't give it much respect. But it consistently flies well and it is growing on me. I would recommend this model, but defiantly string-stability test it with a C motor and add nose-weight as necessary, or you'll probably be very sorry you didn't. Its light enough to fly very high, but the supplied 14-inch parachute is too large unless you really pack the ounces into the payload. Even with a 18 gram payload and a 1-1/2 inch spill hole cut into the chute, it still descends at only 5 mph, allowing the wind to take it pretty far. The material Quest uses for parachutes also seems very light but too stiff, and often it will not unfurl even when plummeting down at about 30 mph. I now use a 12” Estes parachute. The other advantage of a smaller chute (aside from getting lost) is that it's easy to pack into that small, 13mm body tube. I can easily get beyond 800 feet with a C6-7 in this. This rocket has flown higher than the Rennaissance Tower in Dallas, TX and the Charlotte Bank of America Corporate Center. It could easily look down at the Trump World Tower in NY.
| Flight Date: | 2012-06-10 |
| Rocket Name: | Gamma Ray |
| Kit Name: | Quest - Gamma Ray {Kit} (2004) [1994-] |
| Flyer's Name: | Rich DeAngelis |
| Motors: | B6-6 |
| Launch Site: | Halifax, PA |
| Actual Altitude: | 370.00 Feet |
The previous two test flights with a B6-4 motor showed it could use an additional ½ second delay to reach the highest apogee, so I loaded a B6-6 for this flight. A lot of my recent motors have come up short in delay times, and this particular B6-6 only had a 5.1 second delay.
Liftoff was good with a peak acceleration of 13.5Gs, averaging 4.7 Gs for the 0.9 second burn. Both acceleration values were a bit less than the previous two B6 flights, but it still reached a maximum speed of 96 mph (vs. 98 for the others). Going straight up, the model then coasted for 4.4 seconds to an apogee of 370 feet, very close to the other two flights.
After apogee the 'Ray fell only 7 feet in 7/10 seconds and the parachute deployed. The model then descended at 10 mph to land about 150 feet from the launch pad in the grass. Total flight time was 28.5 seconds. A good flight, although post-flight inspection found a single broken shroud line on the Estes parachute.
The break was not at the canopy attachment as expected, but in the middle of the string where apparently the line had been frayed and weakened. It did not appear to negatively affect the descent speed, as I tried to cut a spill hole in the previous unreliable Quest parachute to get a faster fall time. 10 mph is ideal for this model for its flights to 800-900 feet.
| Stage | Motor(s) |
|---|---|
| 1 | Estes B6-6 |
Sponsored Ads
 |
 |