Winston
Lorenzo von Matterhorn
- Joined
- Jan 31, 2009
- Messages
- 9,560
- Reaction score
- 1,748
Mega-stupid to plan for a rocket THAT HEAVY to come down with a descent rate like that.
1) I think that was the slowest-mo takeoff footage I've ever seen. Very beautiful. Anyone know the equipment and frame rate used?
3) As cool as the concept was, that's clearly just too much mass to spin fast enough to actually slow the rocket's descent very much (or at all). Better in theory than reality, to say nothing of the scariness of having that massive thing come down pointy-end first.
It was falling slow enough that it would have been fine if the main parachute had deployed as intended. Rick hasn't determined, yet, why the 'chute didn't come out. A traditional rocket weighing that much and coming straight down would have been going a lot faster (and would have created a really big hole in the ground).
Maybe so. The drogue presumably slowed it down at least a little (?) as well.
Ah, you're right. I need to pay closer attention. I guess the spinning did slow it down some, even if it was a fairly slow rotation.There wasn't a drogue, per se. The motor mount ejected and returned under a separate parachute.
Beautiful drone footage, Roger! How did you follow the rocket during descent, do you use FPV?
Does anyone have a ground-view video? No slow-mo, no cuts, just watching the flight as the spectators did.
Does anyone have a ground-view video? No slow-mo, no cuts, just watching the flight as the spectators did.
Would I be correct to assume that one of the K's spit a grain or had a cato? Still cool, too bad the main failed.
That wasn't the plan. The main 'chute failed to deploy.
-- Roger
It does make a huge difference that it was intended to deploy a main (I presume at some lower altitude, like a dual deploy after spinning down a lot of the way), but that for whatever reason it didn't eject out. As opposed to intending for it to spin all the way down.
So, it sucks that the main failed and it got so badly damaged as a result.
BTW - the original Gyroc by its nature is not a great performer. Wtih at lest half the fins fixed, evne if the flaps flpiied 90 degrees, that would be a net 45 degree pitch at the tips, so it is less of a helicopter-like autorotation descent and more like a higher-drag spinning rocket. I mean, at best the slowest it can do is fall about its own rotor span for every 360 degree rotation, whle by contrast copter models with blades at 5-10 degrees rotate several times during a descent equal to the rotor span. And the Gyroc is sorta small in "rotor" span too. A nice sport model for what it is, just that folks who have not seen the original fly, might expect it to descend a lot slower than it actually does, from seeing other copter recovery models that have less than 10 degree pitch angles.
BTW - the original Gyroc by its nature is not a great performer.
And I do want to say great job with the airborne video.
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