…if they flew straight every time.
We had an alternate launch day this past Saturday because of bad weather on our regular launch day. I had just bought a wireless video camera so I could get an astronauts view of the flight on the rocket. I loaded a moderate motor, an I211 into the Garth R and let rip.
Except I forgot to check the balance point of the rocket. My center of gravity was not in proper relation to my center of pressure, and as soon as the rocket cleared the pad it started cartwheeling, landing just 50 feet from the pad, with most of the rocket crunched. The camera was a total loss, as was the rocket.
I had four successful flights on this airframe before this catastrophe. Now I’m in crunch time, if I want to have a high powered rocket for Southern Thunder, I have 46 days to do it in. It looks like the budget will be stretched to almost the breaking point as well.
I have ground video, as well as on-board video of the flight. As soon as I have it posted to YouTube, I’ll update and post it here.