#1
|
|||
|
|||
Broken "Landing Gear"
I built a Custom Rockets Ion Pulsar. I liked it so much, I built another one upscaled ~1.5x to BT-60. On both rockets, at least one "Landing Gear" dowel breaks off on each flight. Sometimes two dowels break off, once an entire fin snapped off, it all depends on what hits the ground first.
Any ideas on how to build landing gear that won't break off so easily? |
#2
|
||||
|
||||
Quote:
How about a modified version of Yitah Wu's spring-loaded landing pads, or John Rolph's variation ? Something along these lines should work...
__________________
Craig McGraw BARCLONE Rocketry -- http://barclone.rocketshoppe.com BARCLONE Blogsite -- http://barclone.wordpress.com BARCLONE Forum -- BARCLONE Forum BARs helping BARs SAM 0044 AMA 352635 |
#3
|
|||
|
|||
Replace the dowels with styrene rod.
|
#4
|
|||
|
|||
Quote:
Or carbon fiber rods, and epoxy the fins and pod mounts. Failing that, go for a slightly larger parachute! Allen |
#5
|
|||
|
|||
Here's what I'm puzzling over: When the fin broke off, the glue joint didn't fail. The fin came off complete with glue joint, both fillets, and a layer of body tube. I believe the dowels snapping off is protecting the fins from snapping off. Gluing the dowels back on is easy, but I can only glue the fins back on so many times before I run out of layers of body tube. The dowel is apparently the strongest piece in the system, at least, it's the one part that has never broken.
It looks like I need to find a way for the landing leg to absorb the impact without breaking. The designs I've seen for sprung landing gear appear to absorb longitudinal forces, but not lateral forces. I'm thinking I need to replace the dowels with something flexible and springy. There's not much room for a larger chute in the upper tube—BT-55 in the upscale, BT-50 in the original. I usually fly at Bong with WOOSH. One thing I like about this rocket is that it doesn't weather**** or drift, but that means it usually lands on the gravel runway instead of in the soft, tall grass. (If I were building a new Ion Pulsar, I could use TTW construction to strengthen that joint, and it might break somewhere else.) |
#6
|
||||
|
||||
A quick solution may be to install a shock cord, externally mounted at the rear of the rocket. That way, it descends nose first.
__________________
__________________ Lawrence William SAM #0422 |
#7
|
||||
|
||||
Quote:
My Estes Super Vega has the same problem as your Ion Pulsar with dowels/landing pods breaking fins during landing. One way that I can think of to stop them from breaking is to catch the rocket before landing. Another method would be to rig the model so that body tube is horizontal during descent. Even TTW construction has its limits. The fins can still break during landing and then you will really have a hard time repairing it.
__________________
'Til next time, Mike Toelle NAR 31692 L1 SAM 0373 |
#8
|
||||
|
||||
Might build T - slots on the tube so the fins can be replaced easier.
________________ |
Thread Tools | Search this Thread |
Display Modes | |
|
|