Rockets that do better on windy days?

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Anyway, I think you are misunderstanding what acceleration means. If the acceleration is the same, the descent rate will be the same. A falling object is subjected to the force of gravity and the force of the air resistance. So, the acceleration is not always the same for any two falling masses in air. In a vacuum it is, but not in air.
Isn't that what I said in post #26?
 
Two rockets walked into a bar...
Rockets can't walk...
It's a joke... stick with me...
No, rockets can't walk...
:(
Ok... one rocket says to the other, how did you get here?
Rockets can't talk either...
Mine can...
No they can't...
Can too...
Nuh uh...
:facepalm:
I just dropped in...
Must've had a chute release...
:cool:
Never mind...
 
Two rockets walked into a bar...
Rockets can't walk...
It's a joke... stick with me...
No, rockets can't walk...
:(
Ok... one rocket says to the other, how did you get here?
Rockets can't talk either...
Mine can...
No they can't...
Can too...
Nuh uh...
:facepalm:
I just dropped in...
Must've had a chute release...
:cool:
Never mind...

Thank you for a TLDR summary of the topic responses so far! 👍
 
3) Probably, heavier rockets will be less buffeted by the wind.

On the ascent portion of the flight, is it safe to assume that a heavier rocket would fly straighter up through crosswinds than a similar lighter rocket?

high speed and close to nominal stability. No over-stable rockets

That sounds right to me as I've certainly seen over stable rockets tilt into the wind. And high speed seems like it would be good too.

What other factors might help in keeping rockets going closer to vertical during a windy ascent?

Assuming the same amount of stability, would a long skinny rocket do better ascending in the wind than a short fat rocket? Or vice versa?
 
More motor to punch through the winds going up. Streamer for recovery.

If you are landing in soft, thick, tall grass or field you can use a streamer in some heavier rockets. The first time I flew my big daddy on a F motor It had a 4"x48" streamer on board. Landed in the thick grass field with no damage.
 
Rank amateur here... without actually doing the math here...
1) Faster rockets won’t weathercock as much. The rocket is designed to travel directly against the combined vector of the air resistance against it; I.e if you have a 10mph cross wind and you have the choice between going 200 and 400mph, the combined vector of the resistance is going to be much closer to vertical when going faster.
2) Rockets that are less stable(to a point) won’t weathercock as much. The aforementioned wind resistance acts on the cross section of the rocket. Drag forces act on the “top down” cross section, while cross winds act on the side cross section. When the CofP is farther away from the CofG, you effectively have a longer lever for the cross wind to act on and leverage the rocket.
3) mass affects trajectory thusly: if you increase the mass, say, by double (while NOT increasing cross sectional area in either direction) you slow the rocket down, decreasing the vector force of drag, but have not decreased the vector force of the cross wind; meaning you will have more drift RELATIVE TO the altitude gained, but perhaps less overall since you didn’t travel as high.
4) bigger parachute on The same rocket = slower descent. Bigger rocket on the same parachute = faster descent.
Feel free to tell me how wrong I am, if I am.
 
My Estes Black Brandt III did an outstanding job of flying on a windy day a few weeks ago. I, on the other hand, did a lousy job of recovering it due to it going out of site and, I assume, landing outside of the 700' radius of my property that I launched from. In fact... I don't know where it landed. But it sure was pretty rising into the beautiful blue (and white because of some clouds) skies of Texas :D
 
My Estes Black Brandt III did an outstanding job of flying on a windy day a few weeks ago. I, on the other hand, did a lousy job of recovering it due to it going out of site and, I assume, landing outside of the 700' radius of my property that I launched from. In fact... I don't know where it landed. But it sure was pretty rising into the beautiful blue (and white because of some clouds) skies of Texas :D
I rest my case.

Sort of like having a non functioning parachute.

The fall doesn’t hurt much.

The landing, on the other hand......
 
Oliver and I did some test flights yesterday. (only 1 each it was only 28F, and our hands got cold) breeze was fairly steady in the 8-10mph range. 3 rockets LOC Series-1 Hi-Tech, LOC Series-1 IRIS, and a scratch built Tubefin from LOC parts. All flew on Estes B6-4 motors from the same pack. Launch rod was slighly angled to send them into the recovery area to the right in the images, and not adjusted during the test.

Here they have cleared the launch rod by about 18". L=Tubefin, C=IRIS, R=Hi-Tech. (IRIS lots of turn into wind)
20210110_092156.jpg

Here they are about 20 feet AGL. Hi-Tech straight up, IRIS pointing into wind significantly, Tubefin pointing up, but "crabbing" into wind.
20210110_093808.jpg

This is at motor burn-out. Amazingly similar angle at this point.
20210110_100149.jpg

Now it got interesting ... during cost the Hi-Tech pointed into wind only at apogee then parachute deployed (bottom image tracking smoke lost in background clouds). The IRIS turned into wind and was going horizontal with some speed at deployment. (Middle image). The Tubefin drifted into the wind as it slowed. At deployment it did a very quick "zigzag" you can see in the video. (Top image)
20210110_100600.jpg

As for landing...The Hi-Tech landed 60yards Downwind. The IRIS 30 yards Upwind. Tubefin parachute didn't open (somehow I left a rubber band on it ... oops) it landed at the edge of the mowed area in a flat spin about 5 yards Upwind. Had the chute opened, my guess is it would have been only a few yards down wind.

I will post videos later, and link to them. But as others have noted the Tubefin Rocket did well in breezy conditions. I would like to test again, with same motor, and bigger, to see how repeatable the flights are...

Mike
(1 test is worth a 1000 expert opinions. Werner Von Braun)
 
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