watermelonman
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Sep 22, 2014
- Messages
- 2,597
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When I got my first batch of new Wildman nose cones, I was real excited at the prospect of deploying mains from the nose cone. It gives me so much more flexibility with construction and payloads to loft, rather than payloads that are needed for operation of the rocket.
However, after a single successful separation, I have been having nothing but problems. Three times in a row now I have failed to get full separation between the nose cone and avbay. Thankfully the awesome strength of this fiberglass and injected fillets means my rocket is fine, but boy do I feel silly watching it hurdle towards the ground on a pathetic little drogue. It is bound to fail outright at some point, too.
The worst part, by far, is that each of these failures is preceded by successful ground tests. Each time I have upped the powder charge, despite ground test success, in hopes of a little extra being what it takes to work properly. I strongly suspect that the drogue deployment forces are causing the nose to go cockeyed on the avbay, which in turn will now require much more force to separate. Ironically after hitting the ground it seems to loosen up, not that it does any good at that point. I rebuilt a brand new avbay, being extra careful to sand smoothly around the circumference, and tried a new nose cone too. Nothing is working for me. I suppose the roundness could still be better, but if that is the issue I apparently lack the skill to get it that perfect. I was about as careful as I could have been this last time, and sanded down the avbay lid too.
At this point I am considering eliminating the head end deployment in favor of a baby payload bay. Is anyone else having these problems? It is driving me nuts.
However, after a single successful separation, I have been having nothing but problems. Three times in a row now I have failed to get full separation between the nose cone and avbay. Thankfully the awesome strength of this fiberglass and injected fillets means my rocket is fine, but boy do I feel silly watching it hurdle towards the ground on a pathetic little drogue. It is bound to fail outright at some point, too.
The worst part, by far, is that each of these failures is preceded by successful ground tests. Each time I have upped the powder charge, despite ground test success, in hopes of a little extra being what it takes to work properly. I strongly suspect that the drogue deployment forces are causing the nose to go cockeyed on the avbay, which in turn will now require much more force to separate. Ironically after hitting the ground it seems to loosen up, not that it does any good at that point. I rebuilt a brand new avbay, being extra careful to sand smoothly around the circumference, and tried a new nose cone too. Nothing is working for me. I suppose the roundness could still be better, but if that is the issue I apparently lack the skill to get it that perfect. I was about as careful as I could have been this last time, and sanded down the avbay lid too.
At this point I am considering eliminating the head end deployment in favor of a baby payload bay. Is anyone else having these problems? It is driving me nuts.