New EMRR Virtual Contest

[PunkRocketScience]

For those of you like me who hadn't noticed...

The official rules are now posted on EMRR....

 

[RaVen1357]

OK, thanks for the answers.

It probably has to do with the "dynamic stability" that Rocksim calculates. I'm sure Rocksim experts will chime in here. If you plot the graph of the flight you will probably see some wild oscillations. There are ways to reduce them by chaiging your design or your motor selection...

I'll check that.

One more question, The nosecone doesn't have to be approved as "realistic," right?

 

[afterburner]

Originally posted by RaVen1357

One more question, The nosecone doesn't have to be approved as "realistic," right?

You are not limited to the "commercial" nose cones, which means you can build your own with the materials in the Rocksim database.

I hope this answers your question. I am not quite sure what you mean by "not realistic". If you want to discuss a specific configuration and don't want to share your idea with everyone else you can always PM me and I will let you know what I think.


Good luck with your design.

 

[afterburner]

All,

During the final days of preparation for the current virtual contest I made a rule change relative to the shape of the cargo area. When I wrote the preliminary rules, the intent was to limit the construction of the cargo area to standard airframes (i.e. straight walls, standard thickness, and materials from the Rocksim database).

After I posted the rules here, I got a couple PMs asking if nose cones and transitions could be included as cargo area. At first I thought it was a good, creative way to add cargo space. I concluded it would help produce more creative and varied designs. So I changed the wording in order to allow for non-straight sections, such as transitions and nose cones to be used for cargo space.

Since then I realized (with the feedback of two ex contest judges) that this change would allow bypassing completely the use of standard airframe tubing in the design of the cargo area. One example brought to my attention involved a cargo area entirely made of a super long transition tapering from 4.001 inches to 4.000 inches. That component being a transition instead of a tube, it could be made of thin, lightweight material instead of the standard tubing material from the Rocksim database. Although that transition would meet the requirements set forth in the new rules, it bypasses the intent of the rule, and I perceive this as a big loophole that would provide an unfair advantage to some contestants.

Therefore, in order to keep the contest as simple and fair as possible, I have decided to change the wording of this rule to limit the construction of the cargo area to straight tubing from the Rocksim database. I feel it is still early enough in the contest that it will only have a minimal impact on the work already done by the contestants.

I sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may cause. Thinking of all the possibilities is not as easy as I first thought…. I will forward a revised paragraph to Nick tonight and hopefully he will be able to update the contest page by tomorrow.

By the way I have already received one entry for the contest. The entry I have received meets the new requirements, so no change is required on an already-submitted design.

Thank you for your understanding, and good luck to all.


Claude

 

[PunkRocketScience]

Hey AB-

Just a quickie design question... Does the cargo space all have to be one space? Can it be done as two different cargo areas that are standard tubing, but different diameters?

Thanks!

 

[afterburner]

Hi Todd,

You cannot use multiple cargo bays.

This is a good question since the rules do not expressly state that multiple cargo bays are forbidden. However, you will notice that it is always described in the singular form throughout the text.

Thanks for bringing this up, and best of luck with your design.


By the way, for those of you who have not visited the contest page in a while, the list of prizes has been growing....

 

[PunkRocketScience]

That was kinda how I was reading it, but I wanted to check and make sure... I started out slow on this contest, but have been rolling on a couple of designs over the last day or so! Hope everyone else is having as much fun with this as I am... The prize table looks great! Hopefully I'll place better this time than my usual...

 

[RaVen1357]

By the way, for those of you who have not visited the contest page in a while, the list of prizes has been growing....

I have noticed Now if only somebody would donate a RockSim license so I could stop using the demo...

 

[PunkRocketScience]

Whew! After many hours of testing and refining yesterday, I think I finally have a design that I'm happy with...now let's hope that it does well against the likes of the Evil Darth Cox and his arch nemisis Obi Chan Kenobi...

 

[afterburner]

...when you are having fun.

So don't get caught at the last minute. Better get those designs started right away.

Once again, let me remind you that we have a very nice list of prizes from our sponsors. Go check them out.

Originally posted by PunkRocketScience
...now let's hope that it does well against the likes of the Evil Darth Cox and his arch nemisis Obi Chan Kenobi...

...and that, of course could be the ultimate prize.

Who is it gonna be? Whose design will reign supreme ???


Five weeks left !

 

[RaVen1357]

Who is it gonna be? Whose design will reign supreme ???

Mine of course

 

[PunkRocketScience]

Originally posted by Afterburner


Who is it gonna be? Whose design will reign supreme ???


Oooh! Yeah! It's a good thing that I decided to pack my payload section with 400 pounds of truffles and goose liver...

 

[afterburner]

This thread is getting quiet...

Don't let that fool you. I know you are working on your entries. I have received another one today....

Just a little more than three weeks left. If you plan to participate, and have not submitted your entry yet, please reply to this post.

I think everyone else want to know who you are and what you are working on (well, you do not have too divulge too much, just let us know you plan to participate).

So far not much noise from the VC veterans. Bob, Chan, Bruce, Dick, Jim, Jeff, Clive, Nick, Dave, Doc, Frank, Remi, David, What's cooking?

Heheheh. I know there is something cooking out there. I can almost feel the force (wait, did I really say that?).




Claude

 

[RaVen1357]

I'm in.

The Viceroy is coming, Entry's legacy will not be failed...


David.

 

[chanstevens]

I'm still sort of on the fence with this one. Looks like a cool concept, and I'll probably throw an hour or so into it once I get my taxes done. If I think I can cobble together something competitive with so little time, you'll get it.

With the weather starting to warm, though, I find my time drifting more towards real rocketry and away from virtual rocketry.

The Anti-Zeus

 

[PunkRocketScience]

Oh Baby! This one will definitely change the drag race for future contests!!!

https://www.rocketryforum.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=25913

Too bad it wasn't available for this contest! This motor would have been perfect for this contest!

 

[afterburner]

Just a reminder that the last day for submitting your entries is 4/30.

Still many opportunities for winning cool prizes (and still plenty of time to finish that entry you had started a couple weeks ago).

Send them in !!

 

[BobCox]

Originally posted by chanstevens
... Looks like a cool concept, and I'll probably throw an hour or so into it once I get my taxes done. If I think I can cobble together something competitive with so little time, you'll get it.
...
The Anti-Zeus

Ah, Chan, you're just trying to lull us all into a false sense of security. I suspect your computer has been running the optimizer 24 hours a day to tweak out the last few millimeters of altitude.

Seriously though, I have barely had a chance to work on any rockets, real or virtual, in the last 5 months. I changed to a different department at my paying job and I have been spending way too many weekends and all-nighters at work. I manged to put a few hours into my contest entry on Friday. I usually do several designs before I settle on one to optimize. I don't have time for that on this contest, so I'm just going to squeeze as much performance out of this design as I can.


Claude,
How many entries have you gotten so far? Is Nick entering this contest, putting his perfect record at risk?

 

[afterburner]

Originally posted by BobCox
Claude,
How many entries have you gotten so far? Is Nick entering this contest, putting his perfect record at risk?

Only four official entires at this time, with a couple more in the making as far as I can tell from the emails I have received in the past 1-2 weeks. Not sure how many will actually become official entries.

Which means we currently have more prizes than entries.

... and no entry from Nick yet.

 

[PunkRocketScience]

Take your time Bob and Chan... You don't really want to rush to get your entries in before say....June or July!

 

[BobCox]

Originally posted by PunkRocketScience
Take your time Bob and Chan... You don't really want to rush to get your entries in before say....June or July!

Very funny, Todd. Just for that, I will crush you last!

(Maybe I should probably get my entry submitted before I start talking trash.)

 

[chanstevens]

Originally posted by BobCox
Ah, Chan, you're just trying to lull us all into a false sense of security. I suspect your computer has been running the optimizer 24 hours a day to tweak out the last few millimeters of altitude.

This from the guy that ran 400+ sims for the last contest...

I figured I would skip this one, truly not anticipating a top performance, so as not to mess up my EMRR virtual amalgamated performance index score used on world rankings.

I'm in similar mode as you--I roughed out one design Sunday night, looked like it could do well on 2 events, will not fare well on another, and event #3 looks like it ought to be very hard to do well on, sort of like this years TARC, with it being too easy. Most entrants should be able to do extremely well, so the main differentiator will be random fluctuations in the feeble wind. No chance to evaluate alternates. Heck, I'm not even spending much time evaluating motor choices.

Looking forward to seeing a return to Zeus-fin design, and seeing how Dave the nearly-rookie fares.

By the way, Bob--I've given up on the drag race, especially since duration/proximity to pad are no longer factors. My design is hanging around 50 pounds, which is going to be a little slow off the rod and in the air. Once I get it moving, though, the momentum should blow your feeble little entry out of the sky. Pick on me, not Todd. He's due to slip past us for once.

 

[RaVen1357]

I'm in similar mode as you--I roughed out one design Sunday night, looked like it could do well on 2 events, will not fare well on another, and event #3 looks like it ought to be very hard to do well on, sort of like this years TARC, with it being too easy.

I found designing for this contest a bit harder than for the last one. For VC9, all your rocket needed to do was go really high, and stay there for a while in way or another.

This round actually has conflicting requirements. I.E., add weight to increase altitude for altitude efficiency, or leave it out and use that as extra cargo for cargo efficiency.

Anyway, I think I managed a good compromise between all the events.

 

[PunkRocketScience]

Originally posted by BobCox
Very funny, Todd. Just for that, I will crush you last!

(Maybe I should probably get my entry submitted before I start talking trash.)

No, Bob...Talk all the trash you want!!! Of course this encouragment is based on my wife watching too many reality TV shows... Wherein the trash talker usually goes home with egg on his/her face....

Besides, logging on here to talk trash distracts you from running more sims!

Hopefully my design will do it this time... At least at this point I've got a good chance of placing in the top five!

 

[BobCox]

Originally posted by chanstevens
This from the guy that ran 400+ sims for the last contest...

It was only about 100 different sims. The first 80 or so were the same in all the .RKT files that I submitted. But yeah, even 100 sims is a bit obsessive.

I figured I would skip this one, truly not anticipating a top performance, so as not to mess up my EMRR virtual amalgamated performance index score used on world rankings.

Wimp! Nick still has the best career average, though.

Looking forward to seeing a return to Zeus-fin design...

It's probably not much of a surprise that my trademark lightning-bolt fins are back.

By the way, Bob--I've given up on the drag race, especially since duration/proximity to pad are no longer factors.

Me too. In the past I have always tried to win the drag race and do reasonably well in the other events. For this contest I am concentrating more on the cargo efficiency events and just hoping not to suck too bad in the drag race.

My design is hanging around 50 pounds, which is going to be a little slow off the rod and in the air. Once I get it moving, though, the momentum should blow your feeble little entry out of the sky.

Now I know you're just blowing smoke to confuse your competition. The truth shall be revealed in about a week.

Originally posted by RaVen1357
I found designing for this contest a bit harder than for the last one. For VC9, all your rocket needed to do was go really high, and stay there for a while in way or another.

This round actually has conflicting requirements. I.E., add weight to increase altitude for altitude efficiency, or leave it out and use that as extra cargo for cargo efficiency.

Anyway, I think I managed a good compromise between all the events.

Yes, the cargo aspects of this contest do add a lot of compelexity. In VC#8 I spent so much effort trying to squeeze out the last bit of altitude that I completely missed the cargo factor. As a result I finished 14th overall, my worst performance ever. I will not make that same mistake again.

I will make a new mistake instead.

 

[chanstevens]

Originally posted by BobCox

Now I know you're just blowing smoke to confuse your competition. The truth shall be revealed in about a week.

Yes, the cargo aspects of this contest do add a lot of compelexity. In VC#8 I spent so much effort trying to squeeze out the last bit of altitude that I completely missed the cargo factor. As a result I finished 12th overall, my worst performance ever. I will not make that same mistake again.

I will make a new mistake instead.

My entry's submitted. All I'm going to say is I'll bet mine's bigger than yours...

 

[EMRR]

I can't update right now to the site. 4 Days left.

No, I'm so blasted busy I could not enter.

My big rocketry goal this year is to get to NY Power at end of July and fly! (the real stuff). If this does not occur, then I will participate in all future Virtual Rocket Contests since that will be the only way I can fly.

I did help two TARC teams this year. That was cool (neither qualified, which has nothing to do with me... I was just he NAR Rep to verify the entries)



Regards,
Nick

 

[afterburner]

Things are heating up in the kitchen!

We now have 6 entries, with just a couple more days to go...

Of course Bob will wait a little more before submitting his entry, just to stress me out.

On the other hand, his entry will probably be so complex that it might take me a couple days just to review it. Who knows if I will be able to achieve that before the deadline.

 

[BobCox]

Originally posted by Afterburner
Of course Bob will wait a little more before submitting his entry, just to stress me out.

I am being visited by "executives" this week, so I am spending extra time at work. I should be able to work on my entry after they leave.

BTW, when is the deadline (day and time)?

On the other hand, his entry will probably be so complex that it might take me a couple days just to review it. Who knows if I will be able to achieve that before the deadline.

Nope. Big and simple. Since Chan's design is 50 pounds, I may have to add a little more weight to get mine to 51 pounds.

It's a good thing there is no limit on landing distance. A huge chute is required for the cargo event, but that same chute becomes a liability in spot landing.

 

[chanstevens]

My chute's 13 feet, so you'd better go 14 to play it safe.

Without tipping off any gory details, how many digits are in your estimated score for event 2? My entry's already in, and I have a bunch of digits, but now think I should have gone for something more in the 30 or 40-foot chute range. It only really penalizes in event 3, and to some degree 1, but is a huge advantage in 2.

Oh, and the dealine for submission isn't until May 15th--take your time...:kill:

[side note--just a few days prior to the hotly contested 2004 presidential election, a postcard mailing went out to all registered democrats in Hamilton county OH reminding them to get out and vote for their candidate on November 3rd. Turns out, election day was November 2nd. No one has figured out who really mailed the cards, but the DNC was pretty smoked and tried to find someone to pin the mail fraud to.]