Tried searching but came up empty handed. Trying to figure out if there is a method to the madness for choosing the altitude for the JL to release the chute? Or just start at something conservative and go from there?
Yup. I gotta stop at Walmart on the way home.It kind of depends on what kind of reaction you want to get from the crowd, and your underwear budget.
There is a 100 ft setting for a reason, am I right?
It partially depends on your landing site. Is it flat or hilly? If hilly you want to set it for a higher altitude since you can't predict if it will be over a hill or valley when it releases.
Also, there is a delay from when it releases to when the chute fully opens and slonws down your rocket. That delay is dependent on the size of the chute and your packing technique. So the longer the chute tales to open, the higher you want the release.
Conversely, the higher it is set for, the more drift you will have. How big is your site? How many trees are nearby that will snag the rocket? If your site is small or has a lot of tress nearby, then you want it to open lower.
I'm not certain there is some super-duper equation that you can just plug in this type of info and get a correct answer...
So yes - start conservation and work from there may be the best bet...
Tried 200' again today, and it worked fine. I couldn't be nervous about it because I lost it against the sky and didn't see it land. A friend saw it open successfully at low altitude as planned.Very true. My own concern with releasing too close to the ground is largely simple nervousness, but also inconsistency in speed of the chute itself opening when I use a bunch of different chutes in different rockets. 300' gives me plenty of altitude to overcome any problems there. Maybe I'll try 200' again though for some of my rockets/chutes that I've gotten to know better.
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