PS II Nike Smoke fin orientation

[David_Stack]

Good Afternoon All;

To my naked eye the airfoil on the PS II Nike Smoke fins appears to be symmetrical, and if so, would there be any issues installing them 'wrong way round', with the trailing edge now the leading edge?

All that would be required would be to position the notched middle centering ring a bit further away from the end of the MMT (recall that the indexing slot in the fin is not centered along the length of the TTW portion).

Thinking about doing this because it would leave the longer portion of the TTW tab to the back side of the middle centering ring, where I could get at it and apply a larger fillet at the junctions with the MMT and the inside of the body tube before permanently installing the rear CR... Or are the additional bonds just excess weight, and double-buttering the bottoms of the fin tabs sufficient? For the sake of scale appearance I prefer to avoid external fillets if at all possible.

Thanks,
Dave

 

[rocketgeek101]

The fact that the fins interlock with the middle CR means that internal fillets are probably not needed even with the lack of external fillets, but the fins are symmetrical so it shouldn't matter what orientation you install them in.

 

[Art Upton]

If you make sure the fins are sealed and have no air gaps that can catch air and rip them apart it will fly on H motors and likly the I205 I fly an Estes 2.5" rocket on with no real mods. The folks that are weak on fins half glue [you have to glue two fin halves together] wanting to keep the plastic pristine cause the mishaps. What you do is this...

Use CA very well on all parts of the fins while they are on wax paper and clamped with Binder Clamps. Then make sure any parts of the fins that do not look sealed on the edges get another treatment of CA glue. Buy a Pack of 400 Grit WET SAND paper. In your sink run water and sand them all smooth to get rid of the excess glue. Let dry , Prime and Paint .... Enjoy.. Ascender I build the same way...

You could use Epoxy the same way as well , don't worry about excess glue, wet sand it off...

And no external fillets... FYI I have flown my Ascender on an Redline H at October Fest some years ago where I also flew the 2.5" Partizon on an I205 twice totally stock using nothing but Gorilla glue and no heavy external fillets " only light fillets on the body tube of yellow glue to only seal the air out. You dont need a lot of glue and weight to fly mode L1 rockets "