Well im glad i didnt make the tower.

[im2kool4u17]

A few days ago i asked you how to make the tower on the redstone mercury. Well im glad i didnt. I took my mercury(without tower on it), patriot and the python 4 today to launch. First i launched the python 4. Perfect. Again, Perfect, When i launched the mercury right after leaving the rod it did a back flip and started heading towards the ground. It hit the ground at full speed with the engine still on. The ejection charge made it pop up and fall over with my gus capsule well dug in the ground about 6 inches. And the part that you glue it to was crammed inside the rocket. Now i can blame all the wrinkels in my decals on the crash. After sein that i didnt wanna destroy my beloved python 4. So i didnt launch it. Anyone else have something like this happen?

 

[GlennW]

Hard to say what happened there exactly, but could have been a number of things. What motor were you using? What were the wind conditions like? There is also the possibility of some flaw in your construction.

Glenn

 

[LtSharpe]

I would be curious if anyone else has launched it without the tower. I understand this is what you did. I don't care for the tower much myself and recently removed it and repainted the capsule top. I plan to launch it soon, but I would prefer it not to 'die'. At the missile garden in white sands new mexico they have a mercury rocket without the tower which is where I got the idea to remove it initially.

 

[hokkyokusei]

This one?
https://www.ninfinger.org/~sven/models/wsmr/wsmg19.jpg

 

[LtSharpe]

Yeah that must be it. I thought the top looked different in the picture I remember but that's the beasty alright. I was thinking I could make a pointed top for this fairly easily.

 

[hokkyokusei]

That's because it's a Redstone and doesn't have the Mercury capsule on top.

 

[Elapid]

the CG would be moved back farther than intended.
sounds like the CG was too close to the CP and thus, the model was unstable. adding nose weight to compensate for the missing tower would be the solution.

good luck!