On the old TRF I posted the results of a few multi-degree of freedom simulations I did in Matlab for weathercocking prediction based upon wind conditions and rocket caliber. The fact of the matter is that lower F/M flights can be done safely in very still conditions. I wish I still had the figure to show this (I don't have the time to redo it right now), but if anyone has Matlab and would like to run the code, it is posted below:
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function void = weatherCock(Vw,F,B,M,Xcg,L,D,c)
N=5000;
T=.01;
rho=1.2; %air density kg/m^3
D=.01; %rocket diameter
I = M*Xcg^3/(3*L)+M*(L-Xcg)^3/(3*L); % moment of inertia
As=L*D;
Ac=pi*(D/2)^2;
theta=zeros(N,1);
Vx=zeros(N,1);
Vy=zeros(N,1);
Sx=zeros(N,1);
Sy=zeros(N,1);
a=zeros(N,1);
a(1:B/T)=F/M;
clf
Vy(1)=10; %velocity when leaves rail (m/s)
n=N;
for i=2:N
Vy(i)=Vy(i-1)+a(i)*T*cos(theta(i-1))-9.8*T-T*(As*sin(theta(i-1))+Ac*cos(theta(i-1)))*(Vy(i-1)^2+Vx(i-1)^2)*rho*.75/(2*M);
Vx(i)=Vx(i-1)+a(i)*T*sin(theta(i-1));
dthetadt = .75*rho*As*c*D*((Vw+Vx(i)*cos(theta(i-1)))^2-(Vy(i)*sin(theta(i-1)))^2)/(2*I);
theta(i)=theta(i-1)+dthetadt*T;
Sx(i)=Sx(i-1)+Vx(i)*T;
Sy(i)=Sy(i-1)+Vy(i)*T;
if Vy(i)<0
n=i;
break
end
end
subplot(2,1,1)
plot(0:T:T*(n-1),180/pi*theta(1:n))
subplot(2,1,2)
plot(Sx(1:n),Sy(1:n))