Making a Flat Cat land on it's feet

[Mike]

I have a Quest Flat Cat rocket glider which I built stock. I did all the flight trimming and it glides perfectly from a hand toss, confidently I went to launch it on an A8-3, there was a little wind so I angled the pad slightly and then set the rocket off.

The booster and glider seperated fine, the booster came in very fast despite the 2' streamer but took no damage. The glider came in very steeply but upside down, the wings were angled down with the tail pointing up. I decided that it didn't like the angled launch so I sent it straight up the second time, it did exactly the same thing and took another hard landing.

How to I get it to glide the right way up? I feel that if it wasn't upside down it would give some good glides.

TIA

 

[graylensman]

did you have to add weight to trim the glider? Perhaps the location of your weight (i.e., top vs bottom) may make a difference. Also, is the glider arcing over onto its back during boost?

...these are just guesses, mind you, but something to consider...

 

[Mike]

I tried again with a B6-4, same thing happened. She arched over onto her front but when the glider and booster seperated she rolled onto her back.

As for the trimming weight, there is some clay and I put it into the hole at the front of the fuselage.

 

[Elbmod]

At least you got yours back to try again. Mine came down, caught a gust of wind about 6 feet from the ground and landed nose first - shock was sufficient to shatter the fuselage!