Feedback: Estes Raven (Estes Industries Rocket Plans No. 23)

[K'Tesh]

[EDIT] I accidentally "cut" the wing too long. In cleaning the image for the importing of the fin into OR, I "cut" it at the front edge of the hinge material mark. 2.9 is the correct location. The information below is based on that error. [/EDIT]

Well... I'm annoyed... As I'm currently out of the country, I can't build this to test it. Perhaps someone could check my findings.



A few notes about the sim/image: The dark grey and black regions are painted balsa and body tube, light grey represents the "High Heat Aluminum Paint" (though I'd use 2" aluminum tape), and the red is the "self-adhesive reinforcing paper material" hinge.

I am simming up the Estes Raven (Estes Industries Rocket Plans No. 23). According to the instructions the wing is supposed to be mounted 2.9" behind the front of the fuselage (presuming the fuselage is the "T" assembly. There are "Flap Tabs" that are supposed to hold the flaps down while the rocket is in boost, upon ejection they would then allow the flap to flip up and the rocket then glides to the ground. However, with the wing mounted at 2.9" the flap tabs are not in contact with the motor during the boost as they are too far back.



Moving the wing up to 2.5" behind the front of the fuselage, the flap tabs are in contact with the motor upon boost. Thus everything should work as I'd suspect they are supposed to.

Why do I think that when the instructions were written someone mistook a handwritten "5" as a "9"?

The instructions (as I found them) are found on JimZ's site. And here are the instructions with my notes and clarifications on the numbers (the numbers in the illustrations can be hard to read).

[EDIT] The instructions below are grabs from a new .pdf file that JimZ found



Compare that to the old files I was working with... (my errors have been removed)



Note: I didn't model the elastic string as it is would be extremely difficult to model without a lot of time, trial and error.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Current .ork file has been corrected.

 

[BEC]

This is no help, but I vaguely remember building this as a kid....I had completely forgotten about it.

 

[K'Tesh]

I figured the error out... I misread the template for the wing fins... I thought the arrows were pointing to the line I was supposed to "cut" at... When I looked at the template again, I realize they point to the flaps. The instructions and .ork file in the original post have been corrected.