Altitude to expect on a Estes F engine?

[Miles Goodson]

Hi all, back again with another(probably dumb) question. I've been designing my next rocket in OpenRocket, which flies on an Estes F15-8. The apoapsis in the simulation is 454 meters, and I was wondering if this was an average apoapsis for this kind of motor, or if I just did something wrong(I probably did). I'll put the craft files and a screenshot up here. In summary, my question was- What's the expected apoapsis of an F powered rocket?

 

[BEC]

That is plausible - an Estes Star Orbiter on an F15 flies to about that altitude.

 

[neil_w]

Hi all, back again with another(probably dumb) question. I've been designing my next rocket in OpenRocket, which flies on an Estes F15-8. The apoapsis in the simulation is 454 meters, and I was wondering if this was an average apoapsis for this kind of motor, or if I just did something wrong(I probably did). I'll put the craft files and a screenshot up here. In summary, my question was- What's the expected apoapsis of an F powered rocket?

1) Apoapsis is a great word, but not the correct one here. You mean apogee.
2) There is no "expected apogee of an F powered rocket". It is completely dependent on the rocket's weight and drag. The F altitude record is well over 1700 meters. By comparison, my upscale Quinstar goes to about 150' on an F15. Another data point: Estes estimates 549m for the Star Orbiter with an F15.

Your simulation looks reasonable.

 

[Miles Goodson]

Thank you so much! I think that I used the word apoapsis because I've been playing too much KSP...

 

[Nytrunner]

I see you state using an f15-8, but your sim shows an F15-0.

The -0 motors are staging motors and have no ejection charge to deploy parachutes. Go to the simulation page of your .ork file, and look for the "optimum delay" column. Pick a motor delay that is close to that. (also make sure to update your simulation with the real built weight of your rocket to double check

 

[Miles Goodson]

Thanks a ton! I'm still pretty bad at rocketry, if you haven't noticed.

 

[jrap330]

You can not be that bad if you are scratch building and using Open Rocket SW. I am still building Estes Kits.