Scioly.org

Well I launched once but the parachute didn't deploy because it was too big. Although, the nose cone did separate from the pressure vessel so I would have received the +3. It was in the air for like 4 seconds, so a 7 second score. I'm launching again Saturday and this time everything should work out.

What kind of times have you been getting?

I always close my parachutes while I practice launch now. The one time my partner left it open, he lost it due to the wind.

scienceolympiadist wrote:I always close my parachutes while I practice launch now. The one time my partner left it open, he lost it due to the wind.

That almost happened to us, we had to chase it down. My sister is my partner so she usually makes the parachutes. She is more concerned about losing it than I am because if we lose it, she has to make another one. Just like if a fin on the rocket breaks, I have to fix it. But what is really annoying is when the strings of the parachute get tangled up.

I hate it when the strings of the parachute get tangled. Does anyone know how to avoid that?

rocketchicka wrote:I hate it when the strings of the parachute get tangled. Does anyone know how to avoid that?

Try something like this: http://gallery.scioly.org/details.php?image_id=1312
It won't guarantee that they won't get tangled, but if the egg is attached to the long string it makes it harder far it to flip all the way over to tangle up.

Paradox21 wrote:

rocketchicka wrote:I hate it when the strings of the parachute get tangled. Does anyone know how to avoid that?

Try something like this: http://gallery.scioly.org/details.php?image_id=1312
It won't guarantee that they won't get tangled, but if the egg is attached to the long string it makes it harder far it to flip all the way over to tangle up.

thanks. that's a good idea.

What kind of times has everyone been getting on their rockets? Mine's been averaging about 20 seconds in the air, (even more if I include separation and survival bonuses) but I'm going to a meet in a couple of weeks and want to know what I'm up against.

Yesterday at BID my sister and I built a rocket that followed a design that we previously made but never tested, with limited materials we made a rocket that had a flight time of 6 seconds and got all the points. 24 points total.

Today we launched a rocket that we built about a week ago that was the same design but was better built and had a different nose cone design to make it more stable. We reached a flight time of 26.39 seconds before it got caught in a tree, and we got all the bonuses. 44.39 points total.

My partner and I have built a good rocket and parachute that gets 40 to 31 seconds of airtime (58 to 49 seconds with appropriate bonuses), however our parachute sways a lot while it is descending we tried putting a hole in the center of the parachute however this did not seem to work (any suggestions on how long to make the strings vs diameter of parachute or where to put a hole in the parachute?)

Hole should go in the dead center, otherwise you're going to throw it off balance.

For model rockets I've always used shroud lengths of 3x the diameter. Used that on Egg-O-Naut last year and it seemed to work pretty well too.