Hello Warren, Chips, JamesR, Adam, Tim, Steve, Joe .. Heck all my old friends, I hope you are all well. I really miss the big field and great folks out there. Cherish what you got brothers!

I'm trying to get going again in Rocketry after a year os so away and have started back on my 7x scale "Estes DragonShip 7". A bulky big finned beast and I'm wondering if there is a way to calc at what speed these big fins will start acting up. Certainly mach would be diasterous, and I want to go low and slow as usual for the theatric effect, but too slow could be bad as well. I have pics of the original as well as some of the scaled up version on my site at smashrocketry.com. My current SIM at an est 100 lbs (no motor) on a M2200 SS has a max velocity of 278 mph and altitude of 2700 ft. Those numbers seem safe to me.

The fins are 1/2" 7-ply with a layer of 7.5 oz glass (so far). I plan on another layer of 4 oz glass to make a better finish.

Now here's where I really wish I had the Delta II gang here, for the recovery design.

I want to blow the cockpit at apogee and eject the chute there, with cables connected fore and aft to hold it in a horizontal position for decent. It should look like it is flying .. very Buck Rogers. I need to:

1. Blow the cockpit .. ???
2. keep it from spinning. Multiple small chutes? a big cargo chute, like the Titan, and a small for directional?
3. have it travel nose downwind if possible for a better landing (more realistic) I've considered RC Aircraft electric motors but it's a lot to move around. Coming down fins forward I'm afraid they'll dig in if there is any forward movement. They are being built removable, for transport and in case they get trashed.

Any thoughts ??

Thanks,

Steve Mashburn
Woodstock, GA
steve@smashrocketry.com (the old wsrocketry is gone and so are those email addresses)
404-723-1477