Water recovery

[TheAviator]

I was thinking: if you have experience with composites, get some lightweight fiberglass (.6-1.5 oz/yd^2) and use a tube coupler as a mandrel to roll your own tube. Use a plastic Estes nosecone and you are golden. One or at most two wraps of fiberglass should be plenty to stand up to model rocket stresses. Seal the fins well or use waferglass for them and then the motor and recovery system are your only worries.

[ScrapDaddy]

If you have some extra cash, a madcow ALL fiberglass honest John would be a great investment as it is all fiberglass and is waterproof, the problem is getting it to float..... It is 230grams w/o motor..........

[brywisco]

Wow those madcow rockets look really nice but are a bit much for where I am in this endeavor. I think my best bet is to buy an estes starter set with the plastic tail and nose and try to seal up the airframe tube the best I can.

I will also look at the saucer idea though that would take more effort to build initially.

[The EGE]

I have an Estes Jinx. It's unfortunately OOP (out of production), but it's an all-plastic 13mm rocket. With a kevlar shock cord and one of my nylon streamers, it is completely waterproof.

[RimfireJim]

DART San Diego flies on an island, and every launch, we usually have a rocket or two land in the water, and we usually recover them with a kayak, and the rockets usually survive.

Been there, done that - literally! Certainly not the best thing for the airframe, and salt water to boot. Worst thing is the swelling of the paper motor casing.

[Micromeister]

Been there a couple times myself. several rivers, ponds and lake Anne LOL! Not good for standard build Cardboard & wood models. but most have servived if gotten out quickly and the spent motor casing removed before they swell.

To build a model specifically for water recovery wouldn't be all that hard, One of the Maryland funny meet events was floatation duration several years ago. Most folks used some sort of Plastic drink bottle as the fuselage to float the model with the motor mount above the waterline, as long as the fins are will sealed and painted some time in the water really doesn't hurt them, or sheet styrene could be used but that's a bit heavier

[GrossApproximator]

I wonder if one of Art Applewhite's rockets would work. It looks like some of the designs (or some variant of the designs) use aerobrake recovery and, with perhaps a little extra balast in the nose, could be stable in the water. A good coating of primer, paint, and clearcoat could be waterproof (and if that fails, polyurethane coating).

[MarkII]

I wonder if one of Art Applewhite's rockets would work. It looks like some of the designs (or some variant of the designs) use aerobrake recovery and, with perhaps a little extra balast in the nose, could be stable in the water. A good coating of primer, paint, and clearcoat could be waterproof (and if that fails, polyurethane coating).

Yeah.... I kind of like that idea.

Mark K.

[GrossApproximator]

Yeah.... I kind of like that idea.

Mark K.

Sorry. I didn't see that.

[MarkII]

Sorry. I didn't see that.

No, no - your post was good! It presented a more detailed explanation of the same idea that I had. Great minds think alike, you know.

Mark K.

[ScrapDaddy]

Sorry. I didn't see that.

you just had a scrapdaddy moment

[MarkII]

you just had a scrapdaddy moment

Be thankful that it was only for a moment. For its namesake, on the other hand....

Mark K.