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Old 04-03-2019, 07:25 PM
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blackshire blackshire is offline
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Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: Fairbanks, Alaska
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mwtoelle
I agree with PaulK, slow off-the-rod rockets should only be flown in calm conditions, especially three stagers. There are even some two stage combos that I know of that fall into that category. Remember, that one important flying skill is "Know when not to fly."
Not only for launch stability reasons, but also to avoid weather-cocking. (I once lost a *single-stage* rocket, a late-production Estes Quasar, to weather-cocking on a windy day over thirty years ago; it didn't get more that forty or fifty feet above the ground, and vanished into the distance flying nearly horizontally.) Also:

In marginal conditions for good stability off the pad, it might help if multi-stage models were launched using a Kuhn-type, fixed-piston/movable "blow-off" tube piston launcher, as it would give such models a significant velocity boost off the launcher. If the flying field is large enough (and the wind velocity is low enough), weather-cocking can be beneficial. The model flies upwind, and the wind blows the spent lower stage(s) and the (nose-blow, break-apart, streamer, or parachute recovery) final stage back to--and perhaps a bit farther back than--the launch pad.
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