Ye Olde Rocket Forum - View Single Post

Quote:

Originally Posted by ghrocketman

The ONLY way you can get the 1284 shuttle to NOT arc-over in flight is via using old C5-3's, VERY old 18mm Cox D8-3's, or AeroTech 18mm D10's, D13's, D21's, and D24's.

On the TURD-O thrust-profile Estes C6-3 it ALWAYS "arcs-over" even in ZERO wind.

ALMOST the same flight profile exists for the Estes/Semroc Mars Lander kits.

Both the 1284 Space Shuttle and Mars Lander should have featured 24mm mounts as standard.
I have seen both "converted" and they fly much better on C11's and D12's with the proper nose weight added.

Estes should have NEVER dropped the C5-3 (and B8) motors from production.
There is NOTHING the C6 and B6 Estes motors can do that the C5 and B8 motors do not do BETTER.
The Estes B6-6 should have been discontinued instead of the B4-6 upperstage motor.

While reading your message with its, um...unique adjective for the C6-3's thrust profile, I kept picturing Gunter Wendt's colorful account of what Project Mercury astro-chimp Enos did when a visiting Florida Congressman (who Wendt dared not name at the time) taunted Enos as he glared out from his cage. Enos growled and then sat on his hands, and seconds later he ballistically delivered--with great accuracy--a steaming mass of primate solid waste onto the Congressman's expensive suit. Gunter Wendt, knowing what was about to happen, had stepped out of Enos' line of fire, and then had to dive into a closet after witnessing the on-target, malodorous missile's impact (and hearing the target's reaction...), because he couldn't restrain his urge to laugh out loud! Also (speaking of the 1284 Space Shuttle):

A Chinese-made Quest C6-3 would likely provide an even more "interesting" (in the Chinese curse sense of that word) flight in a 1284 Space Shuttle. Being more like a C4-3 (as other YORF members have reported), the model might simulate an RTLS (Return To Launch Site) abort--in the vertical direction, rather than generally horizontally as the full-scale vehicle would have done--if flown on one of these motors. Imagine a liftoff and a brief climb, followed by a tail-slide after the thrusting period ends, as the Shuttle falls backward through its delay smoke trail (and those motors deposit a lot of "exhaust crud" on models, as compared with Estes motors). The model might--or might not--pitch down into a glide (just a short, brief one at best) after its fall; even an Estes *B*6-2 might work better instead... :-)