Royatl
08-27-2007, 03:54 PM
Flew my VF-261 at the SoAR launch on Saturday, and I have a couple of suggestions.
1. longer shock cord, or maybe no elastic at all. The rocket fell victim to a SHOTGUN-BLAST ejection charge on an A8-3. Since the nose has a lot of weight, it snapped back at 90 degrees into the body tube, which took a crescent chunk out of it. Nothing that wood filler won't fix, and I hadn't painted it yet. The body tube didn't seem hurt at all.
2. As I expected, upon landing, one of the launch lugs on the fin tips buckled. I'm going to put a length of 1/8" dowel in to straighten and strengthen it, and do the same for the other two fins to try to prevent this in the future.
Otherwise, it flew very nicely!
1. longer shock cord, or maybe no elastic at all. The rocket fell victim to a SHOTGUN-BLAST ejection charge on an A8-3. Since the nose has a lot of weight, it snapped back at 90 degrees into the body tube, which took a crescent chunk out of it. Nothing that wood filler won't fix, and I hadn't painted it yet. The body tube didn't seem hurt at all.
2. As I expected, upon landing, one of the launch lugs on the fin tips buckled. I'm going to put a length of 1/8" dowel in to straighten and strengthen it, and do the same for the other two fins to try to prevent this in the future.
Otherwise, it flew very nicely!