I tried two new skills building a Wildman Mach 3. I haven’t built a minimum diameter rocket (other than paper and balsa) so this was new to me. I used fin alignment guides for the first time , and I used ProLine 4500 epoxy for the first time. I didn’t do any research to understand the characteristics of the epoxy, expecting it to behave like Rocketpoxy or Aeropoxy. It set up suddenly, far faster than I was expecting And I really didn’t know how to use the fin alignment guides. I was more worried about epoxying the guides to the airframe than making sure the fins were straight and ended up with one rather crooked fin. The tip of the leading edge is about a quarter inch left of what it should be. I still don’t know how I did that using an alignment guide.
So here’s my dilemma. Should I try to remove the crooked fin with a heat gun, just get a new body tube and fin set, or fly it as is and let aerodynamic forces take the fin off for me? I doubt that I would let it fly if I were doing the flight safety review, so the last choice probably isn’t a good one (although it might be a spectacular shred). I’m inclined to start over and chalk it up to yet more lessons learned the hard way.
Thoughts?
Joe
So here’s my dilemma. Should I try to remove the crooked fin with a heat gun, just get a new body tube and fin set, or fly it as is and let aerodynamic forces take the fin off for me? I doubt that I would let it fly if I were doing the flight safety review, so the last choice probably isn’t a good one (although it might be a spectacular shred). I’m inclined to start over and chalk it up to yet more lessons learned the hard way.
Thoughts?
Joe