Propaganda? Now I feel as though you don't believe me.

I have seen one gap stage model fail to stage. It was Pete Always Aerobee at a MIVARS contest. The gap was probably around 6" I'm guessing, but that happened in the early '90s and my memorie's fading. I do think I have the flight on video though.

I haven't had any gap stage failures and I've staged with gaps up to 8". Come to think of it. I did have a Quest Zenith fail to stage. There is a small gap, but I had punched "pass-port" holes in the coupler as a precaution. I blamed the failure on the narrow throat of the upper stage B6. I hate using B6's for upper stage motors and would much rather use a B4, but no one makes a B4 sustainer motor anymore. I add a little Centuri sure shot to B6 sustainers now. C6's seem to stage fine with a gap.

The major problem with long gap stages is the booster recovery. My slip-pod booster works well, but I haven't built anything past the research prototypes. I do have a BT-3N Terrier on the build queue that will either use a Perfect flight timer or a slip pod. Haven't made up my mind yet.

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