Venting of internal air pressure

[JoePfeiffer]

Joe,
In the case of the laundry shift - is this shifting acting like a piston ejection setup? The air volume on the upper (nose) side
of the laundry is "pressurizing" when it slides forward from a quick deceleration. Or is it just the physical mass of the laundry
sliding forward, hitting the nose cone, and popping it off.

Assuming my hunch has any validity at all, I wouldn't expect it to work like a piston -- I can't imagine it sealing the tube like a piston does.

 

[Lamp]

As others have suggested, a small hole is all that is needed, I typically use a 1/8" hole on rockets on rockets up to 4" diameter. The reason you only need a small hole is because you are relieving pressure buildup, which is typically not a large volume, and it occurs over the flight time. A small hole will not really affect your ejection charge because that happens much more quickly.