Great work, but I think you are still 6 ounces too heavy. I honestly believe your limit, with three canted D12's, is about 15 ounces. That said, with all the work you've put into this rebuild, I'd just go out an fly it at this point and see what happens. I honestly don't think cutting another half ounce or ounce will matter. If it flies, great. If not, then reduce the scale by 1/4 to 1/3, and do whatever you have to to get to 15 ounces.
I just found this video, seems the trajectory of my last Merc launch is standard flight pattern, I have a sinking feeling what I saw last time will be a repeat.
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Sorry about the result but the video is helpful.
As you've mentioned previously, you've reduced the weight of this particular model as much as possible. Time to downscale.
Final interesting video find is the ball of flame that appears once the rocket was on the ground (pic below). What caused that? Was the tower on fire after the crash?
Some other thoughts. The total flight was long enough, ~5 seconds, that if your capsule release mechanism was going to work, it should have. What I don't know, though, is whether once the servos fire, do they only act for an instant or do they keep firing? The reason this is important is that if you set them to fire while the motors are still thrusting there is a huge pinching pressure on the release tabs caused by the motors trying to pull the tower away from the draggy capsule. If the servos only fire for an instant they are probably not strong enough to overcome the pinching pressure on the release tabs during motor thrust. If, as I suspect, the servos fire once and then quit, they would have a much better chance of retracting after motor thrust ends, but then there is nothing to pull the tower away other than drag separation. That may actually work since the capsule is so draggy and the tower isn't. I really doubt the fact the capsule was horizontal at the time the release should have fired had much to do with the failure.
Final thoughts. After three flights you've proven two things; first, second, your capsule release mechanism hasn't yet worked.
You still don't know what you need to do to get your capsule release mechanism to work under thrust.
Again, I'm sorry to see this flight didn't work, and I do believe it is possible to make it work, but you will need the answers to those questions.
Hope this helps,
Steve
closet,
Have you considered using 3 x AT RMS E28's? Since the propellant is Blue Thunder, there is a great likelihood that they will all light off, providing you have good igniters and a 12v launch system. A single E28 has more max launch weight than 3 x D12s (33.8 oz vis-a-vis 29.0 oz) albeit with a shorter burn time (1.16 seconds vs. 1.60 seconds). That solves your thrust problem. The downside is the cost.
But the other problem is getting your system stable. The flight article had a lot of mass in it, so the CG is somewhere in the belly of the bell.
Here is some NASA data on the genuine flight article. Might help to get it to these locations per your scale.
Don't give up. I believe you can make this work.
Greg
These engines I'm not familiar with, I have heard of blue thunder propellant though. The files are deffinantly interesting, although according to the measurements seem quite small, four inch diameter base is quite tiny. These remind me of the declassified Mercury files I have, highly detailed files on every inch of the capsule, from tip of the tower to the base of the heat shield. Every nut, bolt, wire connection, switch, all of it, inside and out.
Never fear, this isn't over yet.
AeroTech 24/40 RMS hardware (save size as an Estes D12, not counting the forward closure): https://www.hobbylinc.com/htm/aro/aro91241.htm
AeroTech E28-4T propellant: https://www.hobbylinc.com/htm/aro/aro52804.htm
Greg
... The files are deffinantly interesting, although according to the measurements seem quite small, four inch diameter base is quite tiny...
You know the crazy thing I have found with these relaodables, the shipping cost. I was looking to start dabbling in these a while back, I have a Leviathan and wanted to go to these, when I went to check out of HL they say there's a 46 dollar charge hazardous material shipping, so unless I can find these W/O shipping it will be a while before I dabble.
Third attempt.
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