Bump and update--I got a somewhat successful flight today.

1--remounted motor pod with about 2 degrees of down thrust (nose end higher than aft end). Note that in a thread running in a rocket boost glider forum, there's some talk that thrust needs to be directed through the 3D CG, which would be a bit ABOVE the wing joint on this model, so this seems to be consistent with that wisdom now.

2--extended my pod length about an inch, making it easier to move my CG forwad at same time as reducing overall weight.

Did not add ballast to the bottom (i.e no keel on this ship).

Winds were barely 3 mph, boosted straight up on 1/2A6-2, though during delay burn it looped back in a pitch-up direction and started to level out a bit at about 20 feet. The ejection charge spit the motor as planned, but introduced some funky thrust that sent it looping again, but when it figured out it was supposed to be a glider, it flattened out and did fine, albeit upside down the whole glide portion, which was about 20 yards of travel.

This is definitely tempermental, and if I can eventually get a decent A and B motor flight out of it, I'll probably just retire it except for the occasional novelty launch. If you've got one, it's worth debugging just for the experience, but I would not wish this as a purchase on anyone I liked. Just too much work for too little "wow" compared to the various other designs out there. Heck, for a retro I'd go with Semroc's repro of the Space Plane...

--Chan Stevens