terryg
Well-Known Member
One other method you use for variable nose weight, is to use a heavy quick link attached to the nose.
How many of these were with short stubby rockets where the base cone hack would be a significant aid to stability? I'm working on a FatBoy right now. I've read about stability issues with it so I created a sim and upsized the fins a little bit to try to gain some stability. I only got 0.25 caliber stability without the base hack. I've found that with longer rockets, the larger the rocket the easier it is to make it stable. A small Estes rocket with 18mm motor has a big percentage of its weight in the back and needs big fins. As the rocket gets bigger the tubes and nose cone get heavier and the CG seems to move forward. I've seen small rockets with stability problems but typically never a mid power or high power rocket.I really don't understand those that brag that they didn't follow the caliber rule of thumb, but were successful (I only had 0.25 caliber but mine flew great!). This, especially for heavy rockets, is not a rule I tend to tempt.
How many of these were with short stubby rockets where the base cone hack would be a significant aid to stability? I'm working on a FatBoy right now. I've read about stability issues with it so I created a sim and upsized the fins a little bit to try to gain some stability. I only got 0.25 caliber stability without the base hack. I've found that with longer rockets, the larger the rocket the easier it is to make it stable. A small Estes rocket with 18mm motor has a big percentage of its weight in the back and needs big fins. As the rocket gets bigger the tubes and nose cone get heavier and the CG seems to move forward. I've seen small rockets with stability problems but typically never a mid power or high power rocket.
I've only added nose weight to one rocket and it is a 4" diameter but short and stubby rocket with 29mm mount. I drilled 3 holes in the nose cone near the top, stuck in 3 normal nails with round flat heads, and put in the lead weight and epoxy. It's a 4" diameter cone but you can still see the 3 little flat circles at the end of the nose cone. I worried that if I did this and cut the heads of the nails off then the little nubs could pull out of the plastic if there was enough force on them. I may add a bit of weight to the FatBoy nose cone, I'm still considering an easy way to do that.
I like it.I saw someone else (this is not my idea, but I thought it was pretty slick); glue in a wooden bulkhead into the nosecone. He then cut a hole and glued in a prescription drug plastic bottle. He could then vary the inserted weight, and then seal it up with the bottle's cap. I think this was for a Big Daddy, but for your purposes, you might have to scale it up. Although I think even the biggest fishing weights might fit in the larger prescription drug bottles.
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