Bashed Quest Commander

[JRThro]

I started on my bashed Quest Commander today.

The stock Commander:
0.787" OD BT
12.75" long
1.0 oz. empty weight
2 forward-swept fins and 1 smaller backward-swept fin
Recommended motors: A6-4, A8-3, B6-4, C6-5, C6-7
Streamer recovery

The bashed Commander:
0.787" OD BT
32.75" long using the BT's from 3 Commander kits
approx. 1.8 oz. empty weight
2 forward-swept fins and 1 backward-swept fin.
Recommended motors: A8-3, B6-4, C6-5, C6-7 (I won't be using an A6-4)
Streamer or parachute recovery

Although... since I have 3 sets of 3 fins, it may end up being a 4FNC rocket using 2 forward-swept and 2 backward-swept fins, all of them the larger size. Actually, that sounds pretty cool right now.

I used a spare motor mount tube cut in half as the couplers for the 3 body sections. This BT has a 19 mm ID and uses 18 mm motors, so the motor mount fits almost snugly inside the BT anyway.

I got the weights of the BT's and couplers by looking over (or parsing) the RockSim file for the stock Commander on the EMRR site. Then I added those weights to the wRASP file for the Commander.

wRASP shows the bashed rocket hitting altitudes within a couple of hundred feet of the stock Commander whether I use a CD of 0.6 or 0.75, with lower altitudes using 0.75, obviously.

I wonder if I should still use streamer recovery, or parachute.

Any suggestions about that, or anything else?

Thanks!

 

[cls]

Commander will really boogie even on A and B motors, and it doesn't weigh much, so you ought to stick with a streamer.

 

[JRThro]

Originally posted by cls
Commander will really boogie even on A and B motors, and it doesn't weigh much, so you ought to stick with a streamer.

That's kind of what I was thinking, since the bashed kit doesn't weigh all that much more than the stock one. I can always try the streamer and see what happens.

 

[JRThro]

Wow, that was my 100th post. I'm so proud!

 

[loopy]

Since you're gonna have enough fins, make it four fins, and build a booster for it!!!!! Use the extra fins on the booster...

Loopy

 

[JRThro]

Originally posted by Loopy
Since you're gonna have enough fins, make it four fins, and build a booster for it!!!!! Use the extra fins on the booster...

Loopy

I thought about that, but I haven't done a two-stage rocket before. I have a Quest Zenith II still in the bag, and that'll be my first two-stager.

The Long Commander (Tall Commander? Command Boy? Mean Commander? Command Machine?) will be 4FNC, and the extra fins I can use somewhere else, I'm sure.

Still working on the name, obviously.