Thanksgiving launch

[Klint]

Me had several launches thursday first starting small to introduce my new uncle to the hobbie the with my mean machine then mean machine agine but my uncle launched it then and it inded up on a power line....could have gotten it down but the slight wind tokk the parachute and twisted it on the lines. So I am like ooook there goes my best flyer and to make things worse my dad threw a rock at it and it went staight threw the body tube rite below the launch lug...so no big deal I aint gettin in back any way rite?... Then we went back to the feild that evneeing to launch my AT IQSY Tomohawk on an F40-7. Everbody was wowed at the noise compared to the A8-3 and D-12. It went up an up then poof out of sight. My cusin saw the ejection charge go then sighted it at about the church (right across the sreet) rooftop level then gone agine..... I went after it along with a a serch team of about 15 people all related. We found it half a mile past the curch over the houses after it and on the way other side of this feild. Ok. So everybody impressed I got it back well... the next days afternoon a nehboor found my mean machine in his drive way and figuerd it was ours... turens out it striped one fin but cant tell if that was on the landing on the powerlines or the flight. Question of this story..........................HOw can I tell the wind speed at higer altitued so my tomohawk wolnt go so far nextime?

 

[gothique_97]

Unless you've got a clear blue sky, or cirrus clouds [high, wispy clouds 10 miles up], observe which way and how fast the clouds move. Wind direction a few thousand feet up isn't always the same as on the ground. And, as you've observed, winds aloft are usually faster. Send up a small Estes kit with a streamer first to see what winds aloft are doing.

 

[Klint]

See I did that....the estes kits I sent up all went stright east but the tomahawk went south. Can wind direction change as altitude changes?

 

[MarkABrown]

Originally posted by Klint
See I did that....the estes kits I sent up all went stright east but the tomahawk went south. Can wind direction change as altitude changes?

Yes

 

[PGerringer]

Yessireeeeee. In fact the last Whitakers lauch we went to you could feel 5-7 mph winds and we would actually have to wait for the winds to die down before launching. Then each rocket went up and seemed to come down on the parachute in 0 mph winds. Only when they got 25 - 50 ft from the ground did they start to move in the 5 - 7 mph winds. Each rocket was recovered with practically no effort. Course, it sounds like you experienced the opposite effect.

 

[Klint]

I am stuck in that effeact