waltr
Well-Known Member
And a 40 foot lineman's pole to retrieve it.I'm beginning to believe that if there's trees visible anywhere you look, you need a 140db beeper, as the rocket will end up there
And a 40 foot lineman's pole to retrieve it.I'm beginning to believe that if there's trees visible anywhere you look, you need a 140db beeper, as the rocket will end up there
I have okay luck, bout 50/50, lol. It's all LPR stuff when I launch at my house an anymore just stick a piece of piano wire in the ground over a dirt patch for a launcher. This new one that I'm developing is designed for small fields on 1/2A or 1/4A motors but it's also min diameter so it scoots. Just doing a lot of testing as I would like to turn it into a kit for grade-school projects.I'm beginning to believe that if there's trees visible anywhere you look, you need a 140db beeper, as the rocket will end up there
That is true, but after the shock cord breaks, you still want to find your rocket in the weeds.If you're flying a motor that is smokey during burn and coast... and you use a highly visible recovery device... the color of the rocket really isn't that much of an issue. Thoughts?
I purchased some bird-scare tape recently for my mini-rocket project. It is VERY thin and fairly tough so long as a tear doesn't start. I burned a hole in it to thread the little kevlar on seemed to hold on okay. Rocket caught a gust of wind and I still lost it in the woods though, hahaha. So I have to make a few more of those now.
That is a great looking rocket!Fluorescent Orange Arreaux
Thanks!That is a great looking rocket!
And I think it's the best combo for visibility: black is visible against the light sky and orange is highly visible on the ground. And so shiny to reflect sunlight and flash in the sky.
What kind of orange paint did you use?
I was thinking about doing a study to figure out the altitude when a rocket changes from colored to a silhouette.It seems to me that when tracking a rocket in the sky you never see what color it is, you basically see a shadow against the brighter sky. I have also occasionally seen bright reflections from glossy rockets. I don't know if this was because the rocket was silver or maybe it just had a shiny paint job.
That would be an interesting study. I can say that once it's past a couple hundred feet I'm no longer focused on the silhouette and I'm tracking the smoke trail. Of course I'm referring to LP stuff, and my eyes aren't as sharp as they used to be.I was thinking about doing a study to figure out the altitude when a rocket changes from colored to a silhouette.
If the topic being discussed includes anomalies, that changes the discussion quite a bit.That is true, but after the shock cord breaks, you still want to find your rocket in the weeds.
Now I'm toying with the idea of using something like what was called diffraction tape back when it was speed shop kitsch in the '70s and trying to figure out what it's called today. Something like sparkle, prism, or glitter tape. Maybe put a band around the top of the Persian Orange #2 body tube and a patch on each side of a fin so it could blink on the way down.
If you are talking about chrome paint or silver mylar, they reflect well in sunlight but on cloudy days they tend to blend in such they are hard to see.I'm wondering about the visibility of silver paint (and aluminum because that's what Allis-Chalmers* and Ace store brand calls theirs)? I remember that the G. Harry's handbook and the '70s Alpha Book of Rocketry had opposite opinions. This summer I came up with a nifty retro color scheme of a silver body tube with orange and black fins and nose cones. Then my silver Omega clone was lost in flight with several sets of eyes on it at NARAM. I'm thinking about going something more bland if practical of going with mostly orange rockets.
*As you may have heard, Grandpa Skow had the world's bestest little tractor dealership.
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