No chute release-> lawn dart

july 5 2004, Launched at 120 psi, the rocket did not go straight up, but at an estimated angle of about 85 degrees. In addition there was a little side wind. Both forcing the rocket in a parabolic trajectory.
The minimal reached forward speed in the top of the parabolic trajectory was, above the threshold of the airflap release mechanism.
This caused the top to stay on and the rocket came down and crashed with about the same speed as it went up. Front bottle section is wrinkled, a new one needs to be put on.
Next time I will make the release to trigger at a higher speed, its no fun repairing after each flight.













But on the other side. I love the flap construction, see how the fins on impact shifted over the rockets body and are un-damaged. If they would have been fixed to the rocket the damage on the fins and the rocket would be a lot more!.









The total flight time was clocked at 12.2 seconds. With this we can calculate the apogee height using the fact that a ballistic frictionless flight with the same flight time, has the same apogee height as a non frictionless one. Or in other words, you do not need to know the CW of your rocket once you know the total flight time of a lawn dart style flight.
The formula for the height is Hap=G/8*time^2
G = constant of gravity.
time = is total flight time in sec.
Hap= apogee height in meters.
For a 12.2 second flight this gives an apogee height of 183 meter.

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