legs on launchpad

[rocketsonly]

Hi all. I was wondering if anyone had any preference, or if you all knew any benefits of the legs on a launch pad being set at a certain angle. You would think legs that are set straight out at 180 degrees do not perform well on bumpy surfaces? Am I correct? Just wondering.
Thanks.

 

[rabidsheeep]

i dont think any angle would matter other than flat... i think the sturdiest would be a tripod, with the legs connected to one another...

a flat one would be bad on bumpy surfaces because so much is touching, so its going to be very wobbly... with only a few points hitting the ground you could move it so it would be inbetween the bumps

im guessing under 45 would be most stable...

 

[phaar]

You can also put on leg levelers so that you can adjust your pad to any terrain. This may be a little more complicated.

 

[sandman]

For a low and midpower launch pad, I prefer my cheap $20 camera tripod.

Nice wide stable base (about 4' across) and it's about 5' up so very little bending required.

Infinitally adjustable to any angle or even quickly adjusting to horizontal for rocket loading with a quick turn of the adjustment handle and just as quick back to the vertical launch position.

sandman

 

[Ray Dunakin]

My launch pad has short legs that stick out horizontally. It's usually very easy to level (or angle) it just by shoving some small pebbles or sticks of wood under the legs as needed. I also pile 3-4 larger rocks on top of the legs for stability -- works even with an 8' tall K powered rocket. Of course, I fly mostly in desert areas where there's almost always an abundance of rocks, sticks etc handy. If you fly on a sod farm, or a dry lake bed, you'd need to bring something with you to weight the legs.

Here's my design and instructions for building this super simple, super cheap launch pad:

https://albums.photo.epson.com/j/AlbumIndex?u=3009006&a=30071618&f=0

 

[phaar]

Wow, that pad is really nice.