Another Dumb Australian question

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all.

No lift created by wind speed/direction, correct. A parachute can create lift due to it's horizontal glide, but it will be completely independant of wind effects.

Yep, theroetically. I think in real world though, this time frame is miniscule. A parachute will be at wind speed almost instantanioiusly, and with gusting affects, it will be very happhazard, coming from different vectors, including vertical. In fact in a gust, the rocket could accelerate up to wind speed, and then all of a sudden be moving faster than the wind, when the gust subsides. Hmmmm, consider a circular canopy that does in fact generate lift from all directions. In really gusty air, it's decent rate would in fact be less than in still air.

Yes, I agree. Decernable in a decension from 1000 feet? I'm not sure.

Most definitely! Well said. And to think, you speak a foreign launguage and everything!

:)

steve

affects, it will

in a gust,

Interesting, though I admit that's not what I was thinking about when I made my original post! To be honest, I'd never really thought about it before. I'd just heard that "parachutes can generate lift" and assumed that wind would exacerbate that.

Well, me neither

Does it show that badly? ;-)

A cross wind can generate huge amounts of uplift, but lets not confuse that with pure thermal uplift.

Alan

The door swings both ways.

Or a B ELD model (hey, we're flying that again at NARAM this year!).

Or a BG on a HAND LAUNCH while trimming the thing.

But probably the best story (other than the B ELDs) is my CRG from NARAM-36 that was found a month later 17 miles from where I launched it.

Bob Kaplow NAR # 18L TRA # "Impeach the TRA BoD" >>> To reply, remove the TRABoD!

Well, that is assuming a drift rate of the rocket equal to the wind velocity, and neglects to consider how much of that range is gained before the chute opens. For sure the winds were not at 20 mph on the ground, but as for what's going on two miles up, its hard to say. At Big Ears low flights were going one way, and high stuff the other due to different winds at altitude.

As for descent rate, I'm not sure, but what is certain is that without a radio tracker the rocket would have been well and truly lost.

-- Niall Oswald ========= UKRA 1345 L0 EARS 1151 MARS

"Gravity assisted pieces of the rocket raining from the sky should be avoided. It is also financially undesirable."

-Portland State Aerospace Society

My personal-best thermal story is thermaling away a

1/4A Streamer Duration model...back in the days of Apogee 10.5mm motors. At 70 seconds it was still going up as it went out of sight on the wind...

mj