Originally posted by Micromister
Dyna:
Have you ever heard of a "Pop Lug"? Any lug carried aloft adds an awful amount of drag, two or three different types of drag. This is the reason most BTC's used a launch tower, or a pop-lug to eliminate the lags completely.
Thanks for the memories. I do remember pop lugs when they first got popular. If I recall correctly, the drawing you provided was one of the original instructions to come out.
I know pop lugs, or better, no lug, is the best design. That's why I'm planning on building a tower. The bird I tried this on was a test bird, using composite fins (styrene sheet folder over a balsa root) so I wasn't being to picky about design. If this design works out I'll replicate it without a lug and start working on the tower.
To be honest, this only occured to me because the local shop didn't have lugs for sale, so I bought a package of styrene tube for R/C aircraft cables. Very thick walls, and so obviously heavy. In the process of shaving it down, my brand new X-acto blade slipped and went way under my thumbnail. I said Golly Gee Whiz. Did you know you can't put stitches through a thumb nail?
Yes indeed, time to start on that tower.
Thanks to everyone for the tips.