Recovered Home Built

I have been flying birds since I was 12. Then I got my kids involved when they were young, and now, with my grandkids.
I had purchased an Estes Astron Skydart II, and it was a disaster. I had built an Estes Space Shuttle kit years ago but never flew it. That kit got lost somehow. After watching a shuttle documentary I got the idea to rework the Skydart into the somewhat shuttle design and from scratch built the booster.
First flight was the other day and it did a power over pitch into the ground. Any idea of a easy fix. Relocating the motor mount is not a feasible choice, I glue the tube in quite well.

Sounds like you need some nose weight to make it stable.
Or, you didn't have enough engine it.
I'm guessing you have a balsa nose cone?
Drill into it and add lead shot out of shotgun shell and pour in some epoxy.
Works if it's plastic to, just don't need to do any drilling.

Got any pictures of the bird? It would help a little to see your layout.

Hi new guy I'm betting the rocket has only one side glider or whatever you have going on. Asymmetrical drag is most likely the problem. I'm just guessing here but I think you need balanced drag. Estes has a rocket, I think it's called a Condor, that has two gliders attached that are freed at ejection to glide down on their own while the booster comes in under parachute. A fairly simple way to balance the drag is with a "radar disk" opposite the "shuttle".

I'm just spitballing ideas here, hope it helps

Scratch builds should probably have a string swing test if you don't have Rocksim or OR. Much less trouble than rebuilding or looking for pieces.

Well if I could figure out how to insert a pic or video I will.
I sort of thought about the lop-sided issue and have added a T-wing to the opposite side.
I had done a string swing test and it was stable, but the launch went into an almost direct parabolic arc, using all the trust of a B6-4 and landing without any harm, and ejecting on the ground.

Unclerickers said:

Well if I could figure out how to insert a pic or video I will.
I sort of thought about the lop-sided issue and have added a T-wing to the opposite side.
I had done a string swing test and it was stable, but the launch went into an almost direct parabolic arc, using all the trust of a B6-4 and landing without any harm, and ejecting on the ground.

Click to expand...

Click on the 'Go advanced' button below then find the 'Manage Attachments' below in the 'Additional Options' section. I don't know if there's a block on low post counts or not but the 'Manage Attachments' takes you to 'Upload Files From Your Computer'. Click 'Browse' and that takes you to 'Libraries: System Folder'. Then you will see your 'Libraries' with 'Pictures Library. This is where your photos are. Find the folder with the photo you want. Double click the photo, that will take you back to the screen where the 'Browse' button is. Find the 'Upload' button and the photo is loaded to your post. You can add as many photos as there are 'Browse' buttons.

This takes longer to explain than actually do

Thanks for all the help.

Unclerickers said:

Thanks for all the help.

Click to expand...

Asymmetrical drag. You need to have approximately the same frontal area on both sides of the rocket and the same weight or it will arc over every time. How the different versions of the Shuttle achieve this I don't know, never built one. Dr. Zooch has a Shuttle that flies up straight, maybe you can get ideas from it

https://drzooch.com/

Unclerickers said:

Well if I could figure out how to insert a pic or video I will.
I sort of thought about the lop-sided issue and have added a T-wing to the opposite side.
I had done a string swing test and it was stable, but the launch went into an almost direct parabolic arc, using all the trust of a B6-4 and landing without any harm, and ejecting on the ground.

Click to expand...

When you did the swing test, which way were the wings pointing?

With a rocket such as this which has different horizontal and vertical fin layouts, two swing tests are needed - one with the wings horizontal and one with the wings vertical, i.e. one in which the wing tip is pointing at you and one in which the wing tip is pointing at the ground.

As for the asymmetrical drag, the Estes Space Shuttle model solved that problem with asymmetric centring rings. Instead of having the hole for the motor tube in the centre as normal, they had the hole close to the edge. The effect was to put the motor mount close to the orbiter. The drag from the booster's body therefore balanced the drag from the orbiter. You can see the plans for the Estes Space Shuttle, and in particular the way the motor was mounted in the booster, here:
https://www.oldrocketplans.com/estes/est1284/est1284.htm