I had to add 488 grams of lead to my Wildman RB-05A Sport for it to fly on H-I range. The RSO’s were okay with adding that much counterweight they and I just want it stable. Add as much as you want for stability. Some of the real bigger rockets need pounds of it.
The practical problem I had was the nose and chute went projectile mode twice due to inexperience in build errors. A mentor literally used the airframe and a knot on the outside to prevent the nose from seperating with shock cord attached from all the momentum the nose had. It was breaking epoxy bonds dude.
Make sure you got an eyebolt in centering ring or some kind of solid recovery harness point that can stand up to a 800g nose weight ejection. (Epoxy on sidewall with shock cord was a poor choice) in my noob experience. Epoxying a shock cord worked for light MD rockets but not for the Saab with heavy noseweight.
I'm not sure I understand the question. You add as much nose weight as you need to get the rocket stable, no matter how much or how little it turns out to be. My MegaNuk has 6 pounds of nose weight. Patriots struggle with stability due to the small fins. Actual Patriot missiles have a heavy warhead in the nose.
I was just wondering if there was a point where having too much nose weight would cause separation and recovery issues. It is only using nylon cord and eyebolts to hold the stages together. Attaching the nosecone to the payload bay might also be an issue too with that much weight.
Issue is that I plan on launching in a few days.I’d sink an eyebolt into that epoxy mass dude in the nose of lead/epoxy and put another 25 ft of Kevlar or nylon cord to absorb the energy slowly if that nose does pop off with eyebolt the top of your payload bay. My opinion there. That’s just me after seeing what heavy noses tend to do on scale rockets. Two you would be set for dual deploy. I literally failed a cert 1 twice with a stable rocket. I would sim the recovery harness and nomex mass too. Not just chute.
I have a heavy fin fillet with epoxy clay and a generous use of epoxy. It's 1670g with 300g of nose weight. With H148 it had a CG of 31in.When I get home, I'll post the flight validated file for my L1 Patriot so you can compare
That just seems awfully heavy to me. I assume you've weighed the whole thing sans motor.
What kind of adhesive, (and how much) did you use at the back?
I failed my L1 due to my nosecone flying off, I should have just put a parachute on it lmao.Bring them down on two separate chutes. The nose cone can come down a bit faster (as long as the recovery area is not hard pavement). It's a lot less likely to create a recovery issue. I did this with a big rocket that needed pounds of nose weight. It's really hard to control the motion of a heavy nosecone so in my opinion just better to let it come down on its own rather than stress the entire system and risk the entire rocket.
Good luck,
Tony
What about plastic rivets?Yep. Shear pin the nose on. Had heavy nose cone separate on a 5.4 inch custom AGM Rascal at Airfest this year. Things got ugly
I'm working on a 3D printed L2 project right now so I'll limit my Patriot to L1.you're using 9/16" nylon shock cord, yes? it can handle the stress. I used approx. 500g in mine(last time I flew it on an 'I' motor I used 16 oz of cheese to compensate for the bigger motor ), just make sure to attach the nose to the payload bay. one thing to keep in mind is that the standard av-bay is about 500g...personally I would go ahead and use a separate rocket for the L2 (bigger, longer/heavier) but that's my opinion.
Rex
you're using 9/16" nylon shock cord, yes? it can handle the stress. I used approx. 500g in mine(last time I flew it on an 'I' motor I used 16 oz of cheese to compensate for the bigger motor ), just make sure to attach the nose to the payload bay. one thing to keep in mind is that the standard av-bay is about 500g...personally I would go ahead and use a separate rocket for the L2 (bigger, longer/heavier) but that's my opinion.
Rex
I have 24 ounces in the nose of a Madcow Seawolf. No problems with friction fitting using masking tape. If you wanted to be safe, use a couple of shear pins.
So around 450grams? It seems like my 4" Patriot requires more or maybe OpenRocket is just being too generous.I have about 22oz in mine. And I did have a drag separation incident with it last year (All part of learning)
My MC patriot has about 16oz in it. 4" cardboard if you're wondering..
I plan on just using bbs and epoxy for nose weight and putting some screws through the payload bay to hold the nosecone on.There, 2 holes in the bottom of the nose one. Poured the lead shot in the one of them. Tie it off with a bowling, and some tape over that to hold it tight..
I actually point out where the CP is, according to the instructions. I then placed the equivalent of a medium J in the aft end. Then, with the NC off, I tried a string around where the min CG point is to be (4" ahead of the CP) and start to add weight to the open front end. Once I got about right, I hung the NC on it too! I then knew what I was after to get it to balance right, with a honkin' motor..
Call it the old fashioned way!
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