| Happy Ground Hog Day! The ground hog indicated it is time to get your rockets out of the closet, as it will be rocket flying season soon. This week, our Peak-of-Flight Newsletter contained the second part of an article by Professor Bennett on how to calculate the speed at which fins flutter and might rip off the sides of your rocket. This article in particular describes the process for custom shaped fins, which are not simple trapazoids or ellipses. NARCON happened last weekend, and it was very informative. I personally learned a lot of new things to help me make better rockets. The NAR recorded every presentation, so you can still watch them if you missed any of them. Check it out here. On Tuesday, we were pleased to announce a new 3" nose cone ebay kit allows you to mount electronic payloads within nose cones. This is great for allowing GPS trackers, altimeters, and electronic deployment to be added to short rockets or already completed rockets without having to cut the body tube. If your rocket is space limited, you can use the internal volume inside the nose cone for your electronics. Note: This kit is designed to fit nose cones for 3-inch diameter thin-wall tubes. It will not fit in nose cones that are for heavy-wall tubes. To round out the week, we'll be having our regularly scheduled RockSim Live Training session at 4 p.m. (EST) today. This is where you can ask your questions on how to make better rockets using the RockSim software.
What is Coming Up Next Week? Last week, we had a video on how to cut tubes at an angle using a wrap-around pattern. On Tuesday, I'll show you exactly how to make that pattern sheet that you wrap around the tube. What is cool, is that the method allows you to make any cut line, so it doesn't have to be a straight angled cut. Imagine it could be organic and swoopy too. Check your email inbox next Tuesday. | 