- Joined
- Feb 8, 2022
- Messages
- 461
- Reaction score
- 325
Perhaps airspeed at the time of the event is a factor. Airspeed could be higher after staging, and it could be higher after a long delay and ballistic descent has already begun.Yes, very interesting - and your paint scheme looks very good, too. I've long thought about adding a booster to one of my HSR rockets, especially in the attempt to go over the one minute descent time mark. I have several boosters on hand. But I've hesitated because (#1) I've wanted to make the best possible sustainer first, and (#2) because the altitude attainable might easily get the model lost to sight and video. Accordingly, I've tried to get the diameter of my models up to the bigger tube sizes for improved visibility. Unfortunately, the bigger the tube size it seems some of the problems also get bigger, and experience teaches me BT-5 and BT-20 are the best sizes to experiment with and not get too carried away with expense and lost models. From the looks of your sustainer, it seems as though it may have come in ballistically. The 100% absolute reliability of the ejection event which starts the horizontal spin descent mode is probably not attainable. I have a model in which the event went perfectly 13 times in a row, but the 14th time the rocket went ballistic and the tube crumpled on impact. I'm still trying to wrap my mind around the physics and technology of this most crucial phase of the mission with the goal of near-perfect reliability. Sometimes I question the variability inherent in the Estes motors, in particular the consistency of the ejection event. Are some Estes motors statistically more reliable than others? I wonder about that. Keep up the good work!
I’m toying with a HPR dual deploy upscale of one of these and using a sideways 1/2A or 1/4A forward thruster to trigger the roll. This could be very reliable with the right igniter.