NARCON 2011

Tim Van Milligan gave an excellent presentation at NARCON on Rocksim from beginner to advanced in which I learned few things. I personally could have spent most of the day asking Tim question but had to settle for the 1-hour presentation.

I personally never knew that in the flight sims screen that the parachute symbols has a black arrow on it. If the arrow is pointing up then chute deployment occurs before apogee and the opposite if the arrow is down. Something I never really noticed.

Tim is also suggesting the Velocity at Deployment is best under 50 mph which seems to be a much higher than the 20 mph that most rocketeers use as a standard.

Also Tim stated that the Velocity at Launch Rod Departure should be at least 30 mph to make the fins effective for stability.

A little about decal simulations was given. Decals work best if the decal is made more like a complete BT wrap in size and completely covering the BT desired with decal and background colors. Also change the BT’s color in Rocksim to a white and diffused for the decal wrap for best results.

I later had a chance to meet Tim and had a chance to ask him a few other questions. Yes I had the courage to ask about the Tube Fin/ Ring Tail drag calculation problem! Tim knows it is a problem and I am assuming it is on his list of thing to be improved at a later date.

Respectfully submitted,

James Pierson
NAR# 77907

PS. How that for reportin' Jay-o