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Old 10-05-2008, 11:02 PM
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Mark II Mark II is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Jeff Walther
My experience this weekend strengthens my agreement with this philosophy, although in my case, I'd like to see 1/2A3-0T.

My son and I went out for a launch Saturday afternoon. We didn't lose any birds, but the little 13 mm powered rockets were invisible at the top of their trajectories. The smoke trail made them visible again. Still, if we were launching a two stage rocket, I don't know how we'd keep track of it between when the smoke ends and the rocket falls to a visible altitude.

We were flying with 1/2A3-4Ts. On the other hand, my son says he could still see a tiny speck at the top of the trajectory. Ah, for young eyes.

The invisible rockets were break apart recovery though. I suppose there's some advantage to streamer or parachute for successful recovery. On the one hand, the break apart doesn't drift as far. On the other hand, the ones with streamer or parachute are more visible immediately after the smoke trail ends (at ejection).

My Midget Mini-Brute clone stays visible on an A3-0T+1/2A3-4T combination. One trick for tracking small rockets: launch when the sun is in the lower part of the sky, such as late in the afternoon/early in the evening, and set up your pad so that the sun is behind you. As the rocket climbs, it will catch the sunlight and be brightly lit against the darker eastern half of the sky. (You could also launch early in the morning too, but at this time of year - for the next couple of weeks, anyway - you would still have to go out pretty early.) Just don't launch so late in the day that the ground is in deep shadow, or you will have a hard time finding your rocket after it comes down. (Launching early in the morning avoids this problem.)

Other ideas to aid in visibility: put some "radar chaff" (glitter) in with your recovery wadding. (I prefer using this instead of tracking powder for sport rockets, because it doesn't stain the paint job.) You could also switch to a metallic Mylar streamer or parachute that will give off reflections while it is aloft. Or you could even attach a few spinner blades to the bottom of the chute or streamer, or even spaced along your shock cord!

Mark .\\
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